THE PROBLEM OF THE 'DHARMAKAYA' AS SEEN BY HUI-YUAN AND KUMARAJIVA (BUDDHISM)

This study examines the communication of the concept of the dharma-body (dharmakaya/fa-shen) of the Buddha from an Indian and Central Asian context to a Chinese context. It focuses on the correspondence between Kumaraj(')iva (344-413), the Kuchean monk who introduced Madhyamika treatises into China, and Hui-yuan (334-416), the leader of the Buddhist community in South China.;The second part of this thesis is an English translation of the nine pairs of letters by Hui-yuan and Kumaraj(')iva which explicitly discuss the dharmakaya. It is based on the critical edition of Ta-ch'eng ta-i chang in Eon kenkyu (Studies on Hui-yuan, Texts and Translations) edited by Kimura Eiichi (Kyoto: Kyoto University, 1960).;The first part of this thesis is a study of the problem of the dharmakaya concept. Chapter I examines the development of the concept of the dharmakaya within the H(')inayana and Mahayana traditions. Chapter II examines the basic problems involved in the letters between Kumaraj(')iva and Hui-yuan--both the problems of the extant versions of the text and the problems which faced Kumaraj(')iva and Hui-yuan in their attempt to communicate. Chapter III describes Hui-yuan's quest for the dharmakaya as absolute reality. It shows that his questions to Kumaraj(')iva arose from his desire to reconcile the contradictory statements about the Buddha found in sutras and Abhidharma literature, and to justify his own devotion to the Buddha body. Chapter IV describes Kumaraj(')iva's Madhyamika understanding of the dharmakaya and analyzes the conventional truth about the dharmakaya. This study concludes that although Hui-yuan received much information about the dharmakaya from Kumaraj(')iva, a combination of factors mostly reflecting different cultural and philosophical backgrounds inhibited an accurate transmitting of the information from the Indian to the Chinese landscape. Something was communicated and something was perceived, but as was often the case this Buddhist concept entered China in altered form.