Tsung-Mi and the single word awareness(chih)

·期刊原文
Tsung-Mi and the single word "awareness"(chih)

by Peter N. Gregory
Philosophy East and West
Volume 35, no. 3
July(1985)
p.249-269

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.249

One of the points of contention between Hu Shih
and D. T. Suzuki in their famous exchang of views
on Zen Buddhism that appeared in the pages of the
April 1958 issue of this journal had to do with the
interpretation of the meaning of the Chinese word
chih(a) (first tone, Mathews #932). Hu cites the
Ch'an historian Tsung-mi(780-841), who he said "was
very fond of quoting Shen-hui's dictum: 'The one
word "Knowledge" is the gateway to all mysteries'
(chih chih i tzu chung miao chih men(b))."(1) He then
goes on to claim: "That sentence best characterizes
Shen-hui's intellectualistic approach" (p. 15). In
his reply to Hu, Suzuki rightly criticizes him for
taking chih to mean intellectual knowledge. Suzuki
argues, instead, that chih is what he calls
"praj~naa-intuition," and that it is Hu's failure to
understand the true character of praj~naa-intuition
that inevitably dooms his account of Zen, despite
its undeniable historical value, to missing the most
important point.(2) Although Suzuki, in his
impatience to correct Hu's misunderstanding of Zen,
never addresses the substantive historical issues
raised by him, he is certainly justified in taking
him to task for his explanation of Zen experience.

While Hu only mentions chih in a brief
paragraph characterizing Shen-hui's teaching as one
of seven types of Ch'an enumerated by Tsung-mi, (3)
Suzuki makes it the focal point of his reply. The
context of the discussion, however, goes back to
Tsung-mi's claim that the single word chih sums up
the essence of Shen-hui's message. Whether Tsung-mi
is correct in the claim and whether his
explanation of the meaning of this term accords
with how it was used by Shen-hui are questions which
I plan to treat elsewhere.(4) But, whatever their
answer, Suzuki's explanation of this term clearly
does not accord with how it was used by Tsung- mi.
Rather, chih, for Tsung-mi, refers to the ever-
present ground of awareness that underlies all
sentient experience, whether deluded or enlightened.
It is thus a far more comprehensive term than
praj~naa, which would be subsumed within it, as would
also Hu's intellectual knowledge. As we shall see,
Tsung-mi is explicit in insisting that chih means
neither wisdom (chih(c), fourth tone, Mathews #933,
a word which sometimes translates as the Sanskrit
praj~naa) nor discrimination (fen-pieh(d)). I will,
accordingly, translate it as "Awareness" throughout
this article.

Whatever its place in Shen-hui's thought, chih
surely is the gateway through which we can enter
that of Tsung-mi. What I intend to do in the present
article, then, is to set out Tsung-mi's
understanding of chih and, in so doing, show how it
is integrally woven into the whole fabric of his
thought. While I make no pretense of challenging
Suzuki's understanding of "Zen in itself," I do call
into question the reliability of his representation
of the tradition as a historical phenomenon.
--------------------------
Peter N. Gregory is Assistant Professor of Religious
Studies and Asian Studies at the University of
Illinois at Urbana and Director of the Kuroda
Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values
in Los Angeles.
Author's Note: Work on this article was supported by
a research grant from the Joint Committee on Chinese
Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies
and the Social Science Research Council, with funds
provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

P.250

Suzuki's account of chih as "praj~naa-intution" may
be insightful as a disscussion of praj~naa or the
phenomenology of Zen experience, but it is off the
mark as an account of the meaning of chih in the
context in which it was broached by Hu. What
Shen-hui or Tsung-mi meant by chih can only be
answered after we have first examined how the term
is actually used by them, and this can only he done
by looking at the available texts. An appeal to the
authority of insight beyond the written word is
simply beside the point. While Hu's efforts to
explain Zen experience may seem naive, Suzuki's
efforts to deal with Zen as history fare no better.
A discussion of what Tsung-mi meant by chih should
reveal a dimension of the Ch'an tradition that was
not only enormously important historically, but that
was also largely neglected by Suzuki throughout the
bulk of his English language writings on Zen, with
the exception, perhaps, of his Studies in the
Lankavatara Sutra. Since this side of Ch'an has still
to be fully appreciated, it is worth opening, once
again, the discussion of "the single word 'chih'."
In doing so, my primary purpose is not to criticize
either D.T. Suzuki or Hu Shih, to whom the modern
historical study of Ch'an is so deeply indebted.
Rather, I have introduced this article by referring
to their debate as a way of bringing into focus what
Tsung-mi meant by chih and thereby illuminating the
importance of a teaching central to Ch'an in the
eighth and early ninth centuries. This teaching is
that of Buddha-nature or, as it is known in its more
technical expression, the tathaagatagarbha.

1. TSUNG-MI'S HISTORICAL EXPLANATION

"Chih" is one of a series of synonyms that Tsung-mi
uses for the key term within his system of thought.
Sometimes he uses it singly, and at other times it
is in collocation with other words, such as
"numinous Awareness" (ling-chih(e) ) . "numinous
Awareness unobscured" (ling-chih pu-mei(f) ) ,
"ever-present Awareness" (ch'ang-chih(g) ) , and
"empty tranquil Awareness" (k'ung-chi[chih]
chih(h) ) . It is at once the ultimate source
(yuan(i) ) of both phenomenal reality and
enlightenment and therefore also the fundamental
basis and "object" of Ch'an. Tsung-mi identifies it
with True Nature (chen-hsing(j) ) , Mind Ground
(hsin-ti(k)), and tathaagatagarbha (ju-lai-tsang(l)).
It is the axial principle of the highest level of
Buddhist teaching, that which he refers to as the
Teaching which Directly Reveals that the True Mind
is the Nature (hsien-shih chen-hsin chi hsing
chiao(m)) within the doctrinal framework that he
articulates in the Ch'an Preface, and, in his
analysis of the various Ch'an teachings within that
work, it corresponds to that of Ho-tse Shen-hui, the
champion of the cause of Hui-neng as the true Sixth
Patriarch against the claims of the Northern Ch'an
master Shen-hsiu. As he writes in the Ch'an Chart:

All dharmas are like a dream, as the various sages
alike have explained. Thus deluded thoughts are
intrinsically tranquil (chi) and sense objects are
intrinsically empty (k'ung). The Mind which is empty
and tranquil is numinously aware (ling-chih) and
unobscured (pu-mei). This very Awareness which is
empty and

P.251

tranquil is the empty tranquil Mind transmitted
previously by Bodhidharma. Whether deluded or
enlightened, the Mind is intrinsically aware in and
of itself. It does not come into existence dependent
upon conditions nor does it arise because of sense
objects. When it is deluded, it is subject to
defilements, but Awareness is not [these]
defilements. When it is enlightened, it displays
supernormal powers, but Awareness is not [these]
supernormal powers. The single word "Awareness" is
the source (yuan) of all mysteries. (ZZ 2/15/5.
436b14-18 K 317-318)(5)

Tsung-mi's claim that the single word "chih"
embodied the essence of Shen-hui's teaching meant,
for him, that it represented the animating insight
of Buddhism itself, since, according to Ch'an myth,
the teaching to which Shen-hui was heir stretched
all the way back through an unbroken line of
succession to the historical Buddha himself. As both
a Ch'an Master committed to transmitting that
tradition and a historian engaged in documenting its
claims, Tsung-mi thus had to provide a historically
plausible explanation for why the workd "chih" had
not been so used before Shen-hui. Such an
explanation was essential precisely because Ch'an
claimed to be a teaching whose authority lay outside
the scriptures; consequently, its only recourse for
asserting its legitimacy was historical. Thus,
before examining what tsung-mi meant by chih, we
must first discuss its position within his vision
of Ch'an history.

Tsung-mi himself noted that many Ch'an students
of his day questioned the authenticity of Shen-hui's
teaching that the single word "chih" is the gate of
all mysteries by pointing out that the term "chih"
was never used by Bodhidharma, who, instead, used
the term "Mind" (hsin(n)) to designate the cardinal
principle of Buddhism (T 48.406c22-23; K 170). That
Bodhidharma did not use the word chih, and that
Shen-hui did, was due, Tsung-mi argues, not to any
difference in their message, but to their insightful
ability to employ the means of teaching appropriate
to the different historical situations in which they
taught. As he writes in the Ch'an Preface:

It was only because [people] in China, being deluded
about the Mind and attached to the written word,
mistook the name for the essence that Bodhidharma
skillfully distinguished between the written word
and the transmission of Mind and, in making the name
known (Mind is the name), silently pointed to the
essence (Awareness is the essence). He illustrated
it by using willl-gazing to have [his disciple
Hui-k'o] cut off all conditioning (yuan(0)). When he
had cut off all conditioning, [Bodhidharma] asked,
"Have you gotten rid of it or not?" He answered,
"Even though I have cut off all thought, I have
still not gotten rid of it." [Bodhidharma then]
asked, ''What proof do you have to say that you
haven't gotten rid of it?" [Hui-K'o] answered, "It
is utterly self-evident (liao-liao tzuchih(p)) ;
words could never get at it." The Master thereupon
sanctioned (yin(q)) him, saying, "Just this is the
intrinsically pure Mind. Have no further doubts."
Had his response not been fitting, he then would
have pointed out his error and had him meditate
further. He never spoke the word "Awareness" before
him, but simply waited for him to realize it for
himself. Only after he had truly experienced it and
intimately realized its essence did he sanction
(yin) him, causing his remaining doubts to be cut
off. He was thus said to transmit the Mind Seal
(hsin-yin(r) ) silently. The word "silently" merely
means that he was silent about the word "Awareness,"
it does not mean that he did not say anything at
all. Such was the

P.252

transmission throughout the [first] six generations.
When it came to the time of Ho-tse [Shen-hui.
however,] other lineages were spreading contention.
Even thought he wanted to reach a silent
understanding the situation would not allow it.
Moreover. reflecting on Bodhidharma's prediction of
the dangling thread (Bodhidharma had said, "The fate
of my teaching will, after the sixth generation, be
like a dangling thread.") and fearing that the
cardinal principle would perish, he thus said that
the single word "Awareness" is the gate(men) of all
mysteries. (T 48.405b3-15;K 141)

As this passage makes clear, Tsung-mi uses the
common Buddhist hermeneutical rubric of expedient
means (fang-pien(s), upaaya) to account for the fact
that the differences between the teachings of
Bodhidharma and Shen-hui were merely apparent. When
Bodhidharma arrived in China he had the perspicacity
to realize that his Chinese students, being attached
to the written word, would only misunderstand him if
he taught them the single word "Awareness" (chih),
which directly revealed the Mind itself. Recognizing
the character of their attachments, he merely taught
them its name, allowing them to realize its essence
for themselves. In the time of Shen-hui, however,
Ch'an had reached a state of crisis of such
proportions that there was a very real danger that
the essence of its teaching would be lost. Thus, in
a desperate effort to put the tradition back on
course, Shen-hui spoke, for the first time, the
single word "Awareness." Such, at least, is the
historical context that Tsung-mi introduces to
account for the apparently novel character of
Shen-hui's teaching that the single word "Awareness"
is the gate of all mysteries.

II THE NATURE AND FUNCTION OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE

While Tsung-mi's account, as history, is patently
contrived, it is, nevertheless, typical of the kind
of explanation found so frequently throughout the
"Ch'an histories" of the eighth and ninth centuries.
The very fact that Tsung-mi felt compelled, by the
nature of Ch'an claims to legitimacy, to contrive
such an explanation tells us something very
important historically about the Ch'an of that
period, even if its historical claims cannot be
accepted at face value. Moreover, Tsung-mi's account
takes on added significance when looked at within
the context of his doctrinal agenda. Not only does
it legitimate his particular interpretation of
Ch'an, it also intimates how that interpretation is
an integral facet of his understanding of Buddhism
as a totality. That this is the case can be seen by
considering the crucial philosophical distinction
that he introduce in the passage just quoted-- that
between name(ming(t)) and essence(t'i(u)).

Tsung-mi emphasizes this distinction in another
passage from the Chan Preface. He begins with an
analogy, remarking that "water" is the name for that
which has a certain set of properties: "when it
settles, it becomes clear; when it is stirred up, it
becomes turbid; when it is dammed up, it becomes
still; when it is released, it flows; it is able to
inundate all things and wash away all dirt." The
ignorant are satisfied with knowing its name, but
the wise want to know its essence, which, Tsung-mi
then goes on to tell us, is wetness(shih(v). "Mind,"
likewise, is merely the name for something with a
certain set of properties: "when

P.253

it is deluded, it is defiled; when it is
enlightened, it is pure; when it is neglected, it is
ordinary(fan(w)); when it is cultivated, it is
sagely(sheng(x)); it is able to produce all mundance
and supermundane dharmas." As in the analogy of
water, the ignorant are satisfied with knowing its
name, but the wise want to know its essence, and the
essence of the Mind, of course, is Awareness(chih).
As Tsung-mi comments, "[ 'Awareness'] points to its
essence. This word is right on the mark, no other
would do." Just as "'water' is [merely] a name, not
water [itself], and wetness is water [itself], not a
[mere] name," so "'Mind' is [merely] a name, not the
Mind [itself], and Awareness is the Mind [itself],
not a [mere] name." Moreover, just as one who
understands the wet nature of water thereby also
understands all of its various conditioned forms,
so, too, one who understands Awareness thereby also
understands all of the various conditioned forms
that the Mind can assume (406c5-22; K 169-170).(6)

Tsung-mi's distinction between name and essence
emphasizes the fundamental qualitative difference
between abstract and experiential understanding.
Chih directly points to the Mind itself, rather than
being a mere name representing it. The word that I
have translated as "essence," "t'i," also has the
sense of "the thing-in-itself" and, in the present
case, connotes the direct experience of the Mind
itself in contrast to the more abstract knowledge of
its symbolic representtation. "Chih" is thus a very
special kind of word, and this point calls for a
discussion of Tsung-mi's interpretation of the
nature and function of religious language within the
context of his systematic classification of
Bduddhist doctrine.

As has already been mentioned, Tsung-mi
maintains that the single word "chih" not only
embodies the essence of Shen-hui's teaching, but
also that of the highest level of Buddhist teaching.
The major characteristic of this teaching, as far as
Tsung-mi is concerned, is that it is able to
"manifest" (hsien(y) ) , "reveal" (shih(z)) , or
"directly point to "(chih-chih(aa)) the essence.
Tsung-mi accordingly refers to it in the Ch'an
Preface as "the Teaching which Directly Reveals
(hsien-shih(ab)) that the True Mind is the Nature,"
and his gloss on why he does so is illuminating.

Because [this category of teaching] directly points
(chih-chih) to the fact that one's very own Mind is
the True Nature, revealing (shih) it neither in
terms of the appearances of phenomena
(shih-hsiang(ac)) nor in terms of the negation of
phenomenal appearances (p'o-hsiang(ad), it has "
is the Nature" [in its name]. Because its intent is
not hidden (yin-mi(ae) by expedients, it is said to
"reveal it directly," (404b26-27; K 131)

In order to appreciate the scope of Tsung-mi's
comment, we must cast it within the doctrinal
context within which it is set. Tsung-mi discusses
three general types of Mahaayaana Buddhist teachings
in the Ch'an Preface, each of which he also
identifies with a particular brand of Ch'an
teaching. The first and least profound corresponds
to the type of Yogaacaara represented by the
Fa-hsiang tradition in China,that which, in Tsung-mi's
terminology, discusses phenomenal appearances
(shuo-hsiang (af); Tsung-mi further identifies it as
the teaching embodied in

P254

the Northern Ch'an Lineage. It is superseded by the
that of Maadhyamika, which uses emptiness to deny the
reality of phenomenal appearances (p'o-hsiang) ;
Tsung-mi sees this teaching as providing the
doctrinal basis of the Ox-Head Lineage. Both of
these teachings are characterized as being of
"hidden intent" (mi'i(ag)), because in neither is
the Buddha's ultimate intent revealed. This is one
way for Tsung-mi to claim that the first two levels
of teaching are neyaartha (pu-liao(ah)),that is, not
those of ultimate meaning. The second, however, is
the more profound of the two because it does
"intimate" (mi-hsien(ai)) it.

According to the true ultimate meaning, since
deluded thoughts are intrinsically empty, there is
nothing that can be negated. All things, being
without defilement, are intrinsically the True
Nature, and its Marvelous Functioning-in-accprdwith-
conditions is not only never interrupted, but also
cannot be negated. It is only because a class of
sentient beings clings to unreal phenomenal
appearances, obscures their True Nature, and has
difficulty attaining profound enlightenment that the
Buddha provisionally negated everything without
distinguishing between good and bad, tainted and
pure, or the Nature and its phenomenal appearances.
Although he regarded the True Nature and its
Marvelous Functioning not to be nonexistent, because
he provisionally said they were nonexistent, [these
teachings] are designated as being of "hidden
intent." Furthermore, though his intention lay in
revealing the Nature, because his words thus negated
phenomenal appearances and his intent was not
expressed in words, they are referred to as
"hidden." (407a7--9; K 121)

The third teaching is ultimate because, in
contrast to the previous two, it does "directly
reveal" (hsien-shih) the essence. It is therefore
also "sudden" (tun(aj) ) because it reveals the
essence in its immediate reality, whereas the other
two are "gradual" (chien(ak)) because they only
offer a mediated access to the essence through a
variety of expedients (fang-pien, upaaya). It is
also "sudden" in that it is the only teaching which
makes it possible for one to realize the essence of
the Mind directly, and such an experience by its
very nature must be "sudden" because the Mind itself
cannot be grasped through any symbolic mediation.(7)

Unlike those forms of Buddhism, particularly
vocal within Ch'an, which held that only negative
statements such as "there is nothing whatsoever to
be attained" or "neither Mind nor Buddha" were
ultimately true, Tsung-mi mounts a forceful argument
for the ultimate value of positive religious
assertions. Indeed, his contention that the exclusive
use of apophatic discourse (che-ch'uan(al)) is
not the final word in Ch'an is one of the major
themes running through the Ch'an Preface. "Negation
(che(am))," he writes, "means denying what is not
the case. Affirmation (piao(an) ) means revealing
(hsien) what is the case.... Affirmation directly
reveals (chih-shih) the very essence
itself(tang-t'i(ao) .... The terminology of the
teaching tradition which [reveals] the Nature
(hsing-tsung(ap)) makes use of both negation and
affirmation. Exclusive negation is not yet complete
(wei-liao (aq), i.e., neyaartha) and only hits the
mark when it is combined with affirmation"
(406b18-cl; K 167).(8)

The passage discussed earlier on the
distinction between name and essence concludes on a
similar note. Tsung-mi remarks that the first two
types of teaching

P255

use negative modes of expression because they fear
that words will only become a source of further
attachment. As such, they are suited for beginners
and those of shallow capacity. The teaching which
reveals the Nature, by contrast, is geared to
advanced students and those of superior ability:
"Becuase it causes them to forget words and
apprehend the essence, a single word directly
reveals [the essence]." Tsung-mi then quotes, in his
appended note, Bodhidharma as having said: "I
directly reveal [the essence ] by pointing to a
single word" (406c29-407a3; K 170).

The third teaching, in which the essence is
directly revealed, thus supersedes the previous two.
On the one hand, the first two prepare the way for
its apprehension. Since each teaching generically
represents a certain level of understanding of the
essence, Tsung-mi's hierarchical arrangement of the
teachings at the same time also describes the course
of Buddhist piactice by delineating the process of
advancement through a graduated series of
provisional levels of understanding until the
ultimate one is finally reached. This is the
gradual perspective. On the other hand, the third
teaching is also sudden, and by this Tsung-mi means
that it makes it possible for those of superior
spiritual capacity to realize the essence directly
as it is without having to progress through a
succession of provisional stages. A person of
superior spiritual capacity, moreover, is one who is
able "to forget words and apprehend the essence,"
and thus for such a person only a single word is
necessary to reveal the essence in all of its
immediacy.

Tsung-mi thus envisions a "two-track" path of
spiritual progress: the first, the gradual, is
suited for those of average or lesser capacity while
the second, the sudden, is only for those of the
highest. The third teaching, as the culmination of
the gradual path, thus also has a gradual component,
although it is its "sudden" character that Tsung-mi
emphasizes. And it is its sudden character that
enables the adept to circumvent the gradual path
entirely and directly apprehend the Mind itself.

Tsung-mi's arrangement of the teachings,
insofar as it recapitulates the course of spiritual
progress, is predicated upon his understanding of
the nature and function of religious language. While
he does not explicitly articulate a theory of
religious language as such, one can, nevertheless,
be extrapolated into the following general form. For
the teachings which still only approximate the
ultimate, the function of language is primarily to
overcome the disasterous effects arising out of the
confusion of names (ming) and essences (t'i), that
is, language is turned against itself as the
principal vehicle of reification. Such a
misconception of language is inextricably a part of
the basic dichotomizing mode of awareness which
divides beings from their True nature. Apophatic
language, by calling attention to the unconscious
hold that the fundamental structures of language
have in determining the forms of experience, thus
plays a necessarily therapeutic role in dismantling
the false premises upon which deluded thinking is
based. Tsung-mi's ranking of the provisional levels
of teaching is accordingly done on a scale of their
increasing use of negative modes of discourse,
culminating with the

P256

thoroughgoing apophasis of emptiness. Only after one
has recognized the emptiness of words, their
provisional and arbitrary character as dependent
upon convention, can religious language take on a
new and potent function. When names are no longer
mistaken for essences, then they no longer provide a
basis upon which an imaginary reality can be
constructed and they are thus free to reveal the
essence directly. Such positive use of language
could be called. playing on Tsung-mi's own
terminology, "revelatory" (hsien-shih) ---not, of
course, meaning by such a term a special kind of
language that is sacred because revealed by a more
exalted spiritual authority, but language which is
able to reveal the essence directly (hisen-shih); in
other words, language that is so efficacious that it
is able, with only a single word, to bring about a
direct insight into the very essence itself, at
least in the case of persons of the highest
spiritual caliber. The primary distinguishing
characteristic of the Teaching which Reveals the
Nature is that it makes use of such revelatory
language. And the paradigm of such language, for
Tsung-mi, is the single word "chih."

The problem with such a general formulation is
that, in several places, Tsung-mi seems to be
saying that "chih" and only chih can function as
such a revelatory word, and. if that it his
position, it raises serious philosophical
difficulties for him. On the one hand, he would have
to admit that "chih" could be mistaken for an
ordinary word (or else why did Bodhidharma not utter
it?) and so, like all words, must also be empty.
Yet. on the other hand, he is stuck with Shen-hui's
dictum about "the single word." Although he does not
anticipate this problem,I think that, in order to
maintain the overall consistency of his thought, he
would, if confronted with it, have to acknowledge
that such "revelatory" language could not be tied to
a specific term. if Tsung-mi's understanding of
religious language can be construed in this way,
then he is saying something that should be relevant
for those interested in the philosophical analysis
of mysticism.

III THE MEANING OF CHIH

So far our discussion of the single word "chih" has
shown that it is predicated upon Tsung-mi's
understanding of the nature and function of
religious language and that this understanding
provides one of the primary rubrics in terms of
which he evaluates the various Buddhist teachings
and Ch'an traditions. It is thus no accident that
Tsung-mi doctrinally identifies chih with the
tathaagatagarbha, and it is worth noting in passing.
as I have argued elsewhere, (9) that the
tathaagatagarbha doctrine was important for
Tsung-mi precisely because it provided an onto-
logical basis for the use of kataphatic language.

In the Ch'an Preface Tsung-mi gives the
following characterization of the Teaching which
Directly Reveals that the True Mind is the Nature:

This teaching propounds that all sentient beings
without exception have the empty, tranquil True
Mind. From time without beginning it is the
intrinsically pure, effulgent, unobscured, clear and
bright ever-present Awareness (ch'ang-

P257

chih). It will abide forever and never perish on
into the infinite future. It is named Buddha-nature;
it is also named tathaagatagarbha and Mind-Ground.
(404b27-c3; K 131)(10)

Tsung-mi goes on to gloss what he means by
"ever-present awareness" in a later part of this
section (404c28-a12; K 131-132). After stating that
it is not the awareness of realization
(cheng-chih(ar), he says that the True Nature is
nevertheless spoken of as aware to indicate that it
is different from insentient nature.(11) However,
Awareness is neither the mental activity of
discrimination (fen-pieh chih shih(as)) nor wisdom
(chih(c),Mathews # 933). For canonical authority he
then refers to the Wen-ming ("The Bodhisattvas Ask
for Clarification") chapter of the Avata.mska (see T
10.69a), (12) which he claims differentiates between
Awareness (chih, Mathews #932) and wisdom (chih,
Mathews #933), pointing out that "wisdom is not
shared by the ordinary person (fan), " whereas
"Awareness is possessed by both the sage (sheng) and
the ordinary person."(13) He first quotes
Ma~nju`srii's answer to the bodhisattvas' question,
"What is the Wisdom of the realm of Buddhas?"

"The Wisdom of all Buddhas freely [penetrates] the
three times without obstruction." (Since there is
nothing within the past, present, and future that is
not utterly penetrated, [it is said to be] free and
unobstructed.)

He then quotes Ma~nju`srii's answer to the question,
"What is the Awareness of the realm of Buddhas?"

"It is not something that can be known by
consciousness (fei shih so neng shih(at))" (It
cannot be known by consciousness. Consciousness
falls within the category of discrimination. "Were
it discriminated, it would not be True Awareness."
"True Awareness is only seen in no-thought.") "nor
is it an object of the mind (i fei hsin ching
chieh(au))." (It cannot be known by wisdom. That is
to say, if one were to realize it by means of
wisdom, then it would fall within the category of an
object which is realized, but since True Awareness
is not an object, it cannot be realized by wisdom
.... )(14)

What Tsung-mi thus means by "Awareness" is not
a specific cognitive faculty, but the underlying
ground of sentience which is always present in all
sentient life. It is not some special kind of state
of mind or spiritual insight, but the ground of both
delusion and enlightenment, ignorance and wisdom,
or, as he aptly terms it, the Mind Ground.

Tsung-mi's use of "chih" to designate the
tathaagatagarbha, and the specific meaning that it
has for him in terms of "revelatory" language, gives
a decided Ch'an twist to tathaagatagarbha doctrine.
At the same time, it also brings a scholastic
dimension back into Ch'an, which the iconoclasm of
Shen-hui's attack on the Northern line of Ch'an had
eclipsed. The reconciliation of Ch'an and the more
scholastic teachings (ch'an-chiao i-chih(av)) was,
of course, one of the major objectives to which
Tsung-mi devoted the ch'an Preface.

P258

IV. METAPHOR OF THE MIRROR

Tsung-mi's analysis of the True Mind in the Ch'an
Chart sheds further light on what he means by
ever-present Awareness.

The intrinsic essence of the True Mind (chen-hsin
tzu-t'i(aw)) has two kinds of functioning: the first
is the intrinsic functioning of the self-Nature
(tzu-hsing pen-yung(ax) ) and the second is its
responsive functioning-in-accord-with-conditions
(sui-yuan ying-yung(ay)). (437d4-5; K 336)(15)

Tsung-mi then proceeds to illustrate this statement
with an analogy of a bronze mirror.(16)

The material substance of the bronze is the essence
of the self-Nature (tzu-hsinh t'i(az)); the luminous
reflectivity (ming(ba) ) of the bronze is the
functioning of the self-Nature (tzu-hsing yung(bb));
and the images reflected by its luminous reflectivity
are its functioning-in-accord-with-conditions (sui-yuan
yung(bc)). The images are reflected in direct response
to conditions. While the reflections may have thousands
of variations, the luminous reflectivity is the ever-
present luminous reflectivity of the self-nature.
(437d5-7; K 336)

Tsung-mi goes on to explain this analogy: "The
ever-present tranquility of the Mind is the essence
of the self-Nature, and the ever-present Awareness
of the Mind is the functioning of the self-Nature."
The psychophysical functions of "speech, discrimination,
bodily movement, and so forth are [examples of] its
functioning-in-accord-with-conditions".(437d7-8; K336) .
The metaphor could be represented diagrammatically as
follows:

MIRROR ONTOLOGY MIND

bronze essence of ever-present tranquility
self-Nature

luminous functioning of ever-present Awarencess
reflectivity self-Nature

reflected functioning-in- psycho-physical functions
images accord-with-
conditions

This metaphor is worth analyzing in detail. Not
only is it based on a more complex understanding of
chih than that seen earlier in Tsung-mi's discussion
of name and essence (wherein chih revealed the
essence of the Mind rather than merely designating
it), but it is also connected with the fundamental
structuring ideas of his thought.

The analysis of the structure of the Mind upon
which Tsung-mi's use of this metaphor is based
derives from the Awakening of Faith, which discusses
the Mind in terms of two aspects: the Mind as
Suchness (hsin chen-ju(bd)) and the Mind which is
Subject to Birth-and-Death (hsin sheng-mieh(be)).
Following Fa-tsang, Tsung-mi characterizes these two
aspects of the Mind as absolute (pu-pien(bf)),

P259

literally, "unchanging") and conditioned
(sui-yuan(bg).These two aspects of the Mind, in turn,
trace back to the two different perspectives in
terms of which the tathaagatagarbha was
traditionally discussed: seen in its true form the
tathaagatagarbha is none other than the Dharmakaaya,
which is intrinsically pure and devoid of all
defilements; seen, however, through the deluded
perception of sentient beings it appears to be
defiled.

The absolute and conditioned aspects of the
Mind, as Tsung-mi understands them, conform to the
conceptual paradigm of essence (t'i(u) ) and
function (yung(bh)). What is interesting and unique
about Tsung-mi's analysis, however, is that he also
views the absolute aspect of the Mind in terms of
its essence and function. Accordingly, tranquility
(chi) refers to the essence of the self-Nature of
the Mind, and Awareness, to its functioning. As
Tsung-mi writes, "'tranquil' refers to the
invariable steadfastness of the real essence, the
principle of immovability and immutability.... Were
there no essence of the True Mind, what could be
said to be tranquil and what could be said to be
immovable and immutable?" (Yuan-chueh ching lueh-shu
ch'ao, at ZZ 1/15/2.97b8-10). Awareness is a "direct
manifestation of the very essence itself'" (tang-t'i
piao-hsien(bi) ) (97b11) . "Tranquility is the
Awareness which is tranquil, and Awareness is the
tranquility whicch is aware. Tranquility is the
essence of the self-Nature which is aware, and
Awareness is the functioning of the self-Nature
which is tranquil (97b12-14). Tsung-mi then calls
upon the authority of Shen-hui to clinch the point
that the essence of the Mind and its functioning are
only different modes of one another: "Ho-tse said,
'The functioning of the essence is aware in and of
itself and the essence of this Awareness is tranquil
in and of itself. Although the terms are different,
essence and function form a unity'" (97b18-cl).(17)

The importance of Tsung-mi's application of the
essence/function (t'i-yung) paradigm to the absolute
aspect of the Mind is that it allows him to
distinguish between two different orders of
functioning: the intrinsic functioning of the
self-Nature and its responsive functioning-in-accord-
with-conditions. The functioning of the self-Nature,
like the luminous reflectivity of a mirror, is
absolute in that it is ever-present and not
contingent upon conditions: it exists in and of
itself. It is in this sense that it is characterized
as pen(bj) , "intrinsic, " in contrast to the
functioning-in-accord-with-conditions, which is
causally contingent and hence characterized as
ying(bk) , "responsive." Moreover, just as the
luminous reflectivity of the mirror is able to
reflect both pure: and impure images without its
intrinsically pure and luminous nature being
affected, so too the Mind is able to respond to pure
and impure conditioning without its intrinsically
pure and enlightened nature being affected. The
functioning-in-accord-with-conditions, on the other
hand, is what could be called a second order
functioning. It involves two levels of contingency.
Not only do the pyschophysical functions, like the
reflected images in a mirror, only become activated
in response to stimuli, they are also dependent
upon the Mind as their ontological ground,just as
images could not be reflected in the absence of a
mirror. The psychophysical functions are thus, in an
impor-

P260

tant sense, epiphenomena (mo(bl)) of ever-present
Awareness. The difference between these two kinds of
functioning could thus be represented as follows:

FUNCTIONING OF FUNCTIONING-IN-ACCORD-
SELF-NATURE WITH-CONDITIONS

eternal transient
unchanging variable
unconditioned conditioned
absolute relative
primary(pen) derivative(mo)

These two different orders of functioning also
reflect two different levels of "causality." The
first has to do with the sequence of causes and
conditions whereby each thing or event arises or
occurs contingent upon a series of other things or
events, which, in turn, are contingent upon yet
other things or events. In terms of Tsung-mi's
metaphor, the various images that are reflected in
the mirror are contingent upon the different objects
that appear before it, those objects themselves
ultimately being contingent upon an infinite series
of causes and conditions. It is just this order of
contingency that is accounted for in the well-known
Buddhist doctrine of conditioned origination
(yuan-ch'i(bm); pratiityasamutpaada). However, as
the metaphor has already suggested, there is another
kind of causality, one which makes the first
possible. This is what, in the Hua-yen tradition
that Tsung-mi inherited, is referred to as "Nature
Origination" (hsingch'i(bn)). Quoting Fa-tsang (see
T45.639b20-21), Tsung-mi defines Nature Origination
as "the arising of functioning based on the essence"
(Hua-yen ching hsing-yuan p'in shu ch'ao, at ZZ
1/7/4.399c16-17). "Nature," he explains, refers to
the One Mind of the Awakening of Faith, "the pure
Mind that is the ultimate source of Buddhas and
sentient beings" (399b6 and c5) . "Origination"
refers to the manifestation of the manifold
phenomena of the universe from the Nature, the
process of phenomenal appearance (399c5-6). "Nature"
means "the Nature of the essence" (t'i-hsiang(bo)),
and "origination," "the phenomenal appearance of the
essence" (t'i-hsiang(bp)) (399b16-17). In addition
to the essence/function paradigm, Tsung-mi defines
Nature origination in terms of yet another polarity,
that of Nature (hsing(bq)) and its phenomenal
appearances (hsiang(br)), which is basic to the
structure of his thought. Nature origination thus
means that all phenomenal appearances are ultimately
based upon the Nature, whereas conditioned
origination connotes the relative interdependency of
all phenomenal appearances. While each and every
phenomenal appearance is conditioned by every other
phenomenal appearance, it is simultaneously also
grounded upon the Nature, which is its ultimate
source.

The two different levels of causality could be
visualized as a cone. The circular surface of the
cone (the directrix) would represent the dimension
of conditioned origination (yuan-ch'i), in which
every point is connected with every other point in a
causal series. Since the position of each point is
conditioned by that of every

P261

other point, each point could be said to be
infinitely contingent. The individual points,
moreover, represent the infinite variety of
phenomenal appearances (hsiang). Each phenomenal
appearance, however, in addition to being
conditioned by all others, is also a manifestation
of the Nature (hsing), which, in the image of the
cone, would be represented by the vertex. Not only
is each point on the directrix serially linked with
every other point on the directrix, it is at the
same time also linked with the vertex, just as all
phenomenal appearances are simultaneously
interdependent and a manifestation of the Nature,
which is their ultimate ground. The direct and
simultaneous linkage of each point of the directrix
with the vertex represents the dimension of Nature
origination (hsing-ch'i)-what, in the geometrical
terminology of this image, is aptly termed the
generatrix. (See drawing on page 269.)

The significance of Nature origination as a
causal model is that phenomenal appearances only
have reality insofar as they are manifestations of
the Nature. When they are taken as real in
themselves, they become the basis for deluded
attachment. Only when they are seen as empty, as
lacking any intrinsic reality, can they be seen as
manifestations of the Nature and their ultimate
reality be understood. The import of Nature
origination is thus both ontological and
soteriological: the ontological structure of reality
that it describes is at once a soteriological map.
And Awareness, as the functioning of self-Nature,
occupies the nodal point in this model. Awareness is
the ontological ground of phenomenal appearances,
which only have reality as manifestations of the
Nature. It is the underlying basis of all mental
states. In this way enlightenment and delusion are
only changing reflections on the surface of
Awareness, praj~naa and discrimination being only
different phenomenal appearances. Suzuki's
praj~aa-intuition and Hu's intellectual knowledge
thus belong to an entirely different order of
reality than Awareness; they are modes of its
responsive functioning-in-accord-with-conditions
rather than the functioning of the self-Nature (see
Yuan-chueh ching ta-shu ch'ao, at ZZ
1/14/3.213b6-7). In the terms of the Awakening of
Faith, from which Tsung-mi's interpretation of
Nature origination derives, Awareness would
correspond to intrinsic enlightenment (pen-chueh(bs)
). The "luminous reflectivity" in Tsung-mi's use of
the metaphor of the mirror translates "ming," a word
that doctrinally plays on wu-ming(bt), ignorance
(Sanskrit, avidyaa) , and hence serves as an
appropriate metaphorical term for intrinsic
enlightenment.

Awareness, as the functioning of the
self-Nature, thus represents the dynamic, creative
aspect of the Nature. It is therefore important to
note that the word "chih" is primarily verbal,
meaning "to know." Even when it is used nominally,
as it is by Tsung-mi, its verbal force is still
retained. That which "chih" refers to, then, is an
activity rather than a thing. For this reason it is
preferable to the word "Mind" (hsin), which, as a
noun, is more apt to be reified. The English word
"knowing," accordingly , might seem to be a better
translation of' "chih, " as it more faithfully
represents both the literal meaning and verbal
character of the Chinese word. The problem with
"knowing," as a translation, however, is that,

P262

in English, the verb "to know" is transitive and
demands an object. But Tsung-mi emphasizes the fact
that ''chih" is intransitive and does not demand an
object. And "Awareness." insofar as it is possible
to be aware without necessarily being aware of
anything, better expresses the intransitive
character of "chih."

V. HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Tsung-mi introduced the metaphor of the mirror in
the Ch'an Chart to make explicit the differences
between the Ho-tse and Hung-chou lines of Southern
Ch'an and to demonstrate the superiority of the
former. This work was written at the behest of
Tsung-mi's influential lay disciple P'ei Hsiu
(?787-860) to clarify the historical filiations and
essential teachings of four of the major Ch'an
traditions of the day. While Tsung-mi accordingly
deals with the Northern and Ox-Head lines of Ch'an
in that work, he is most concerned with that of
Hung-chou as representing the most serious challenge
to the tradition with which he identified himself,
that of Ho-tse Shen-hui. Since both the Northern and
Ox-Head lineages claimed descent from the fifth and
fourth patriarchs, respectively, and, by the 830s
when he composed the Ch'an Chart, it had been
generally accepted that Hui-neng had scceeded to the
title of Sixth Patriarch, they represented
collateral lines and thus, in terms of their
historical filiation, did not pose a threat to the
orthodoxy of the Southern Ch'an to which the Ho-tse
lineage belonged. Hung-chou, however, also claimed
descent from Hui-neng and thus boasted better
credentials. Moreover, by the fourth decade of the
ninth century the Northern and Ox-Head lines were no
longer vital traditions within Ch'an. The Hung-chou
line, however, inspired by the dynamic personality
and teaching style of Ma-tsu 'Tao-i (709-788), had
come to represent a new and ascendent force within
Ch'an. Nor, in terms of their teachings, did the
Northern and Ox-Head lines pose the same danger for
Tsung-mi as did Hung-chou. Within the doctrinal
analysis that he elaborated in his Ch'an Preface,
the teaching of the Northern line of Ch'an was
identified with the Fa-hsiang brand of Yogaacaara
and that of the Ox-Head line with Maadhyamika. The
criticism that Tsung-mi had leveled against the
first and second categories of Mahaayaana teachings
in that work consequently applied to them as well.
He had, however, placed the Hung-chou line together
with that of Ho-tse under the rubric of the third
and highest category of teaching.

Tsung-mi's emphasis on the single word
"Awareness" as hallmark of Shenhui's teaching
singled out precisely that which for him most
clearly distinguished the teaching of the Ho-tse
line from the teachings of the contending Ch'an
lines, which he considers in the Ch'an Chart.
Moreover, the fact that his most detailed analysis
of this crucial term occurs within a metaphor whose
explicit purpose is to contrast the Ho-tse and the
Hung-chou understanding of Ch'an suggests that one
of the reasons that Tsung-mi fixed on this term was
that it served not only to differentiate his brand
of Ch'an from that of Hung-chou. but also to clarify
exactly wherein it was superior.

To understand what was at stake for Tsung-mi,
we must first examine his

P.263

perception of the import of the Hung-chou teaching.
He presents the following characterization of it in
the Ch'an Chart:

The arising of mental activity, the movement of
thought, snapping the fingers, or moving the eyes,
all actions and activities are the functioning of
the entire essence of the Buddha-nature. Since there
is no other kind of functioning, greed, anger, and
folly, the performance of good and bad actions, and
the experiencing of their pleasurable and painful
consequences are all, in their entirety,
Buddhanature.... If one examines the nature of its
essence thoroughly, he will see that ultimately it
can neither be perceived nor realized just as the
eye cannot see itself, etc. If one considers its
responsive functioning, he will see that everything
that he does is [the functioning of the
Buddha-nature] and that there is nothing else that
can either realize it or be realized.... One should
not rouse the mind either to cut off evil or to
cultivate the Way. Since the Way itself is the Mind.
one cannot use the Mind to cultivate the Mind. Since
evil is also the Mind, one cannot use the Mind to
cut off the Mind. One who neither cuts off [evil]
nor does [good] but freely accepts things as they
come is called a liberated person. There is no
dharma that can be clung to nor any Buddhahood that
can be attained.... Simply allowing the mind to act
spontaneously is cultivation. (435d4-6, 16-8,
436a4-7, 8-9; K 307)

In terms of the analysis of empty tranquil
Awareness that Tsung-mi develops in his use of the
metaphor of the mirror, the fault of the Hung-chou
line is that it does not apprehend the functioning
of the self-Nature, but merely that of its
responsive functioning-in-accord-with-conditions
(437dl0-1; K 136). This is tantamount to saying that
the Hung-chou teaching mistakes the reflections in
the mirror for its luminous reflectivity. To put it
in other terms, it mistakes the variegated and ever
changing phenomenal appearances of the Nature for
the Nature itself. As far as Tsung-mi is concerned,
this is a dangerously antinomian view, for it does
away with any basis for drawing moral distinctions
between good and bad courses of action. Since it
validates all the different activities that one
engages in every day (436all; K 308), it can be seen
as undermining the purpose of religious practice. If
the three posions of greed, anger, and folly are
nothing but the expression of Buddha-nature, what
need is there to uproot them?

The force of this criticism is brought out in
Tsung-mi's use of a variation of the metaphor of the
mirror that he also employs in the Ch'an Chart. Here
he uses a ma.ni jewel(18) to represent the One
Numinous Mind (i-ling-hsin(bu)); its perfectly pure,
luminous reflectivity, empty tranquil Awareness; and
its complete lack of coloration, the fact that this
Awareness is intrinscially without any
differentiated manifestations. "Because the essence
[of the jewel] is luminously reflective, whenever it
comes into contact with external objects, it is
able to reflect all of their different colors."
Likewise, "because the essence [of the Mind] is
aware, whenever it comes into contact with
conditions, it is able to differentiate them all
into good and bad, pleasurable and unpleasurable, as
well as produce the manifold variety of mundane and
supermundane phenomena. This is its conditioned
aspect (sui-yuan-i(bv))." Tsung-mi continues, "Even
though the [reflected] colors are themselves
distinct, the luminously reflective jewel never
changes." And he

P264

comments, in his interpolated note, "Even though
ignorance and wisdom, good and bad, are themselves
distinct, and anguish and joy, love and hate arise
and perish of themselves, the Mind which is capable
of Awareness is never interrupted. This its absolute
aspect (pu-pien-i(bw))" (436c17-d3; K 322).

Tsung-mi then considers the case of when the
mani jewel comes into contact with something black:
its entire surface appears black, just as the
intrinsically enlightened nature of the Mind appears
totally obscured by the presence of ignorance
(436d3-7; K 322). Tsung-mi claims that proponents of
the Hung-chou line would maintain that the very
blackness itself is the jewel and that its essence
can never be seen. Because such people do not
apprehend the luminously reflective jewel, when they
see something black of similar size and shape, they
misidentify it as the mani jewel. If, however, they
were to see the mani jewel as it is in itself when
it is not reflecting any colors at all, they would
not be able to recognize it. Tsung-mi goes on to
explain that the state in which the jewel is not
reflecting any colors means "being without thoughts"
(wu so-nien(bx) ) . When only its luminous
reflectivity is in evidence, furthermore, this
refers to "the absence of thought which is
thoroughly aware in and of itself" (liao-liao
tzu-chih wu-nien(by)) (436d13-337a4; K 326).(19)

Tsung-mi's case rests upon his claim that the
luminously reflective jewel can be seen in itself
when it is not reflecting any colors. While it is
unclear in phenomenological terms precisely in what
such a direct perception of the Nature might
consist, it is important to note that Tsung-mi
connects such a perception with No-thought
(wu-nien(bz)). We have already seen that earlier, in
his quotation from the Wen-ming chapter of the
Avata.mraka, he had quoted Ch'eng-kuan's comment
that "true Awareness can only be seen in
no-thought" (chen-chih wei wu-nien fang chien(ca)).
In addition to representing the method by which the
Nature is directly apprehended, No-thought also
represents the intrinsic condition of the Nature,
which is devoid (k'ung) of all phenomenal
appearances (hsiang), just as the Awakening of Faith
characterizes the intrinsically enlightened Mind as
being without thoughts. It is this ontological
dimension of No-thought that is behind Tsung-mi's
characterization of Awareness as being "empty" in
the phrase "empty tranquil Awareness." Although
Tsung-mi does not clarify further what he means by
the practice of No-thought, what is important to
note here is that it is his claim, that a direct
perception of the Nature is not only possible but
necessary, that distinguishes the Ho-tse line from
that of Hung-chou--and such a direct perception of
the Nature is what, for Tsung-mi, Sudden
Enlightenment (tunwn(cb)) is all about. Elsewhere he
claims that the Hung-chou line, in contradistinction
to that of Ho-tse, only has inferential knowledge
(pi-liang(cc); anumaana) but not direct preception
(hsien-liang(cd) ; pratyak.sa) of the Nature
(437d11-2; K 336). And it is because it does not
have a direct perception of it that it can mistake
something else for the Nature. This means, for
Tsung-mi, that followers of the Hung-chou line have
no clear assurance that their insight is true and,
accordingly, their practice of "simply allowing the
mind to act spontaneously" can

P265

become a rationalization for deluded activity.
Tsung-mi thus not only charges them with failing to
understand the meaning of Sudden Enlightenment. but
also with not recognizing the necessity of the
subsequent gradual cultivation, in which the deeply
rooted habitual conditioning that keeps one from
integrating his insight into the Nature throughout
all dimensions of his personality and behavior is
progressively extirpated (see 438a18-b3; K 341).

If Tsung-mi's emphasis on Awareness can be
seen, at least in part, as a reaction against what
he perceived as the overly radical character of
other forms of Ch'an, then, given the centrality of
Awareness within his thought as a whole, it further
suggests that his revaluation of some of the basic
tenets of Hua-yen thought also had its impetus in
his response to developments within the Ch'an of his
day.(20) While Tsung-mi is noted for his infusion of
Ch'an into Hua-yen, it might perhaps be more
accurate to characterize him as a conservative Ch'an
figure who adapted Hua-yen thought as a hedge
against more extreme Ch'an movements of the late
eight and early ninth centuries.(21) Certainly one
of the reasons that Hua-yen appealed to Tsung-mi was
that it provided an ontological rationale for Ch'an
practice, and that was precisely wherein the
Hung-chou teaching was lacking.

Despite Tsung-mi's efforts to uphold the
orthodoxy of Shen-hui's line of Ch'an, it was the
teaching and style of the Hung-chou line that
triumphed historically. Tsung-mi was the fifth and
last "patriarch" within the Ho-tse tradition.
Shortly after his death in 841, the Hui-ch'ang
Persecution sealed the demise of the Ho-tse line of
Ch'an once and for all. After the persecution, his
devoted disciple P'ei-hsiu became Prime Minister and
labored to resurrect the fortunes of Buddhism. He
also became a disciple of Huang-po Hsi-yun (d.
850?), a forceful master in the Hung-chou line and
teacher of Lin-chi I-hsuan (d. 866). Huang-po's
collected sermons and dialogues were recorded by
none other than Tsung-mi's former disciple, P'ei
Hsiu, a fact that can be taken as symbolizing the
failure of the Ho-tse line to perpetuate itself as a
living Ch'an tradition and the attendant shift
towards a more radical form of Ch'an teaching.

The Rinzai (Chinese, Lin-chi) tradition of
Japanese Zen developed out of the Hung-chou line of
Chinese Ch'an. Thus it should perhaps be no surprise
that the account that D. T. Suzuki, as a modern
interpreter of that tradition, gives of "chih" does
not reflect Tsung-mi's understanding of the term.
Suzuki's position, however, represents only one of
the possibilities that could have developed out of
the various alternatives that were available in
eighth- and ninth-century China. Even though
Tsung-mi's portrayal of the Ch'an of that time is
colored by his own sectarian filiation, it is
valuable insofar as it gives us a far more textured
understanding of the range of possibilities still
open to the Ch'an of the latter T'ang than does the
more doctrinaire account of Suzuki. While Tsung-mi's
more ontological point of view did not prevail
within Ch'an, it did, ironically, survive within
Neo-Confucianism. Chu Hsi's criticism of the
Buddhist understanding of "Nature" (hsing), for
instance, merely recapitulates Tsung-mi's criticsm
of the Hung-chou line--but that is a topic for
another paper.

P266

NOTES

The two texts of Tsung-mi from which I have drawn
most heavily in writing this article are his Preface
to the Collected Writings on the Source of Ch'an
(Ch'an-yuan chu-ch'uan-chi tu-hsu) and Chart of the
Master-Disciple Succession of the Ch'an Gate Which
Has Transmitted the Mind Ground In China (Chung-hua
ch'uan-hsin-ti Ch'an-men shih-tzu ch'eng-hsi t'u),
which I refer to respectively throughout as the
Ch'an Preface and Ch'an Chart. Both texts have been
edited, annotated, and translated into modern
Japanese by Kamata Shigeo in vol.9 of the Zen no
goroku series under the general editorship of Iriye
Yoshitaka (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1971). In addition
to the Taisho and Zokuzokyo editions of the texts, I
will refer to Kamata's edition as "K" in my
citations from them. Tsung-mi's interpolated
comments appear in parenthesis. In preparing my
translation of the various passages that I quote
from Tsung-mi I have consulted those previously done
by other scholars. Jeffrey L. Broughton's 1975
Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation, "Kuei-feng
Tsung-mi: The Convergence of Ch'an and the
Teachings," includes a complete translation of the
Ch'an Preface. Jan Yun-hua's ''Tsung-mi: His
Analysis of Ch'an Buddhism" (T'oung Pao 58 (1972):
1-53) also contains translations of some of the
passages to which I refer. The best of the
translations I have consulted are those done by
Robert E. Busewell, Jr., in his The Korean Approach
to Zen (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaii
Press, 1983). I hereby acknowledge my debt to the
efforts of these scholars. Nevertheless, all
translations appearing within the article are my
own. I would also like to thank Michael Sells and
Alan Sponberg for their helpful comments on an early
draft of this paper.

1. This famous sentence, of course, derives
from the end of the first chapter of the Lao Tzu. It
does not appear in any of Shen-hui's extant
writings. It is quoted by Ch'eng-kuan, who
attributes it to a Ch'an Master "south of the river"
(sui-nan(ce)) without, however, specifying Shen-hui
by name (T 36.262a5-6). To my knowledge, Tsung-mi is
the first to attribute it explicitly to Shen-hui. I
am not particularly fond of Hu Shih's translation,
although, except for the all improtant term "chih,"
I will not quibble with it here, other than to point
out that Tsung-mi seems to understand the word
"men(cf)" to mean "the gate from which all mysteries
(miao(cg)) issue" (as indicated by his substitution
of "yuan" for "men" in the passage from the Ch'an
Chart quoted later) rather than "the gate through
which we gain access to them," as Hu seems to
understand it.
2. "Here chih means praj~naa-intuition and not
'knowledge' in the ordinary sense. When chih is
rendered--as it is by Hu Shih--as 'knowledge,' all
is lost, not only Shen-hui and Hui-neng but also Zen
itself" ("A Reply to Hu Shih, " p.28). While
acknowledging that praj~naa-intuition "defies being
defined, for definition means ideation and
objectification," Suzuki does, nevertheless, go on
to characterize it as "the consciousness of the
self, where there is no subject-object separation,
but where subject is o bject and object is subject"
(p.32).
3. See Yuan-chueh ching ta-shu ch'ao, at ZZ
1/14/3.277c-280a. Tsung-mi does not quote Shen-hui's
famous dictum in his account of his teaching in this
section of his subcommentary.
4. "Chih" does not seem to have the paramount
importance or technical meaning for Shen-hui that it
does for Tsung-mi. My impression is that Tsung-mi's
understanding of "chih" owes more to Ch'eng-kuan's
"ling-chih pu-mei" ("numinous Awareness
unobscured") , with all of its tathaagatagarbha
overtones, than it does to Shen-hui's use of the
term.
5. My translation of the two sentences
beginning with "When it is deluded" and ending with
"but Awareness is not [these] supernormal powers" is
based on an emendation. The ZZ text reads: "Mei-shih
fan-nao i chih fei fan-nao. Wu-shih shen-pien i
chih, chih fei shen-pien(ch)." The otherwise perfect
symmetry of these two sentences demands that the
first be emended, as Kamata does, to read ",Mei-shih
fan-nao i chih, chih fei fan-nao(ci)" to parallel
the second, or that one of the two ''chih" in the
second sentence be deleted to parallel its single
occurrence in the first. I have followed the latter
reading, basing myself on Chinul's quotation of this
passage in his Popchip pyorhaeng nok choryo pyongip
sagi (Yanagida Seizan, ed., Korai hon: Zemmon
satsuyo; Zengen shosenshu tojo; Hoju betsugyo roku
setsuyo (Kyoto: Chubun Shuppansha, 1974), p.151):
"Mei-shih fan-nao chih fei fan-nao. Wu-shih
shen-pien chih fei shen-pien(cj)." This is also the
same form in which the two sentences are quoted in
Hsien-yen's Hua-yen ching t'an-hsuan chueh-shih, at
ZZ 1/11/5.437b8-9. Cf. the parallel passage in the
Ch'an Preface, at T48.402c27-c2; K 95.
6. Tsung-mi's analogy is based on the famous
metaphor of the water and waves from the Awakening
of Faith (see T 32.576c) . Tsung-mi uses this
metaphor later on in the Ch'an Chart to illustrate
sudden enlightenment followed by gradual cultivation
(see K 340-341; the passage is

P.267

missing from the ZZ text and Kamata has included it
from Chinul's Popchip pyorhaeng nok choryo pyongip
sagi).
7. Tsung-mi's identification of the sudden
teaching with kataphasis is unusual, if not unique.
In the sudden/gradual debates, subitism was
typically associated with apophasis (see my "The
Sudden/Gradual Polarity: A Recurrent Theme in
Chinese Thought,'' Journal of Chinese Philosophy 9
(1982) : 471-486) . I have discussed Tsung-mi's
interpretation of the sudden teaching (tun-chiao) at
length in "The Place of the Sudden Teaching within
the Hua-yen Tradition: An Investigation of the
Process of Doctrinal Change." Journal of the
International Association of Buddhist Studies 6, no.
1 (1983): 31-60. For a discussion of Tsung-mi's
explanation of sudden enlightenment (tun-wu), see my
"Sudden Englightenment Followed by Gradual
Cultivation," in Robert M. Gimello and Peter N.
Gregory, eds., The Sudden/Gradual Polarity in
Chinese Thought (Honolulu, Hawaii: University of
Hawaii Press, forthcoming).
8. Tsung-mi makes the same point in the Ch'an
Chart:

Question: According to what is set forth in the
Mahaayaana scriptures, the Ch'an teachings of the
various ancient and contemporary lineages, as well
as Ho-tse [Shen-hui], the Nature (li-hsing) is in
all cases the same: it is without birth and
destruction, without construction and phenomenal
appearance, without sage and ordinary person,
without right and wrong; it can be neither realized
nor expressed. If one just relies upon this as true,
then what need is there to talk about numinous
Awareness (ling-chih)?

Answer: These are all examples of negative discourse
(che-ch'uan) and do not yet directly reveal the
essence of the Mind. If I did not point to the
direct revelation that this clear and bright
ever-present Awareness which is unobscured is your
own Mind at this very moment, what could I say is
without construction and phenomenal appearance, etc?
We thus know that the various teachings just say
that it is this Awareness that is without birth and
destruction, etc. Thus Ho-tse [Shen-hui] directly
revealed the awareness and vision within the empty
state of being without phenomenal appearances to
enable people to apprehend it; then they would
become aware (chueh(ck)) that it is their own mind
that passes through lifetime after lifetime
eternally uninterrupted until they attain
Buddhahood. Moreover, Ho-tse summed up such
expressions as unconstructed, nonabiding,
inexpressible, etc., by simply speaking of the empty
tranquil Awareness which includes them all. "Empty"
means empty of all phenomenal appearances and is
still a negative term. "Tranquil" just indicates the
principle of the immutability of the True Nature and
is not the same as nothingness. "Awareness"
indicates the revelation of the very essence and is
not the same as discrimination. These alone
constitute the intrinsic essence of the True Mind.
(437b7-18; K 332-333)

9. "Chinese Buddhist Hermeneutics: The Case of
Hua-yen, " Journal of the American Academy of
Religion 51 (1983): 231-249.
10. Cf. the almost identical characterization
in Tsung-mi's Yuan jen lun, at T45.710a11-13.
11. Cf. Ch'eng-kuan's subcommentary, Hua-yen
ching sui-shu yen-i ch'ho, at T 36.261b17.
12. The importance of this passage for Tsung-mi
is indicated by the frequency with which he refers
to it in passages which seek to clarify the
significance of Awareness. See, for example, Ch'an
Chart, 437c14(K336); Yuan-chueh ching ta-shu ch'ao,
at ZZ 1/14/3.213b2-3; and Yuan-chueh ching lueh-shu
ch'ao, at ZZ 1/15/2.97c3-4.
13. Tsung-mi makes the same point in the Ch'an
Preface, 406b8-9 (K 163).
14. The two sentences in quotation marks within
Tsung-mi's comment are taken from Ch'eng-kuan's
commentary and subcommentary, respectively (see
T35.612b27 and T36.261b22).
15. Tsung-mi draws the same distinction between
these two types of functioning in his discussion of
Awareness in his Yuan-chueh ching ta-shu ch'ao, at
ZZ 1/14/3.213b5-8; and Yuan-shueh ching lueh-shu
ch'ao, at ZZ 1/15/2.97c5-9.
16. In the ninth century when Tsung-mi wrote,
the metaphor of the mirror already had a long
history within both Buddhism and the indigenous
strands of Chinese thought, as Paul Demieville and
Alex Wayman have ably demonstrated. See "Le miroir
spirtuel," Sinologica 1 (1947): 112-137 (reprinted
in Choix d'etudes bouddiques by E. J. Brill in 1973)
, and "The Mirror as a Pan-Buddhist
Metaphor-Simile," History of Religions 13 (1974):
251-269. It is perhaps most well known in the famous
exchange of verses that The Platform Sutra of the
Sixth Patriarch ascribes to Hui-neng and Shen-hsiu
in their contest for the Ch'an patriarchate (see the
translation done by Philip B. Yampolsky (New York
and London: Columbia University Press, 1967), pp.
130 and 132).
17. Cf. the parallel passages in Yuan-chueh
ching ta-shu ch'ao, at ZZ 1/14/3.213c7-18.
18. Tsung-mi's analogy probably derives from
the Yuan-chueh ching passage at T17.914c6. For his
commentary on this passage see Yuan-chueh ching
ta-shu, at ZZ 1/14/2. 145cl1-d12;and Yuan-chueh

P.268

ching lueh-shu, at T39.541c4-24. See also the
passages immediately following the two referred to
in note 15.
19. Tsung-mi also applies the metaphor to the
Northern and Ox-Head lines. He maintains that
proponents of the Northern line of Ch'an would hold
that the true, luminously reflective nature of the
jewel can only be seen after the blackness has been
completely removed. He criticizes this view as based
on the erroneous belief that the Nature and its
phenomenal appearance are totally unrelated. In
other words. it overlooks Nature origination,
according to which phenomenal appearances are
manifestations of the Nature (see 436d11-13; K 322).
Proponents of the Ox-Head line of Ch'an, on the
other hand, would hold that just as the blackness of
the jewel is empty, so too must be the entire
essence of the jewel. "Such people do not realize
that precisely where it is altogether empty of the
phenomenal appearance of color lies the jewel which
is not empty." This view does not recognize the
non-empty aspect of the tathaagatagarbha, which is
tranquil (chi) and aware (chih) (see 437a4-11; K
327-328).
20. For example, it is well known that Tsung-mi
valued li-shih wu-ai(al) over shih-shih wu-ai(cm).
If li can be correalated with Nature (hsing) and
shih, with phenomenal appearance (hsiang), then
li-shih wu-ai could be correlated with Nature
origination (yuan-ch'i). Just as Tsung-mi includes
both within the highest category of teaching, so he
also includes the Ho-tse and Hung-chou lines of
Ch'an. The Ho-tse teaching, moreover, is based on
Nature origination, and that of Hung-chou, with its
emphasis on the responsive functioning of the
Nature, would seem to correlate with conditioned
origination.
21. Yanagida Seizan has shown how Tsung-mi's
conservative Ch'an stance was a reaction against
various radical developments in Szechwan. See his
"The Li-tai fa-pao chi and the Ch'an Doctrine of
Sudden Awakening," translated by Carl W. Bielefeldt,
in Whalen Lai and Lewis R. Lancaster, eds., Early
Ch'an in China and Tibet (Berkeley, California:
Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1983), pp. 13-49.
Ma-tsu, like Tsung-mi, came from Szechwan.