Encyclopedia of Buddhism

a concrete meaning as clan guardian or protector, a
figure who was the object of ritual veneration by clan
descendants. The living clan head was responsible for
decisions affecting clan welfare and prosperity, for the
preservation of clan identity, and for the perpetuation
of its legacy. The authority of the clan head was sym-
bolically linked to the clan progenitor. Chinese emper-
ors naturally seized upon this symbolism, promoting
themselves, as well as their own deceased ancestors, as
protectors of the Chinese people, responsible for the
welfare and prosperity of the country as a whole. In
this sense, the imperial family represented the “grand
clan” of the Chinese people, the focal point of collec-
tive as opposed to individual clan identity.

Following the Chinese predilection to ascribe indi-
vidual identity on the basis of clan affiliation, Bud-
dhists in China were officially removed from their natal
clan and adopted into the “Buddhist” one using the
clan name Shi. Shiis an abbreviation of the name Shi-
jiamouni, the Chinese pronunciation of S ́a
kyamuni,
which is derived from the Buddha’s clan name, S ́a
kya,
in India. Buddhist monks in China regarded their
teachers as they would a father, and began to take great
interest in genealogy. As in India, genealogy served as
a means of validating claims, and lineage became the
contested terrain of sectarian disputations. In the early
fifth century, the Indian monk Buddhabhadra trans-
lated the Damoduoluo chanjing(Dharmatra
ta’s Medi-
tation Scripture), with prefaces by HUIYUAN and
Huiguan. The scripture highlights Buddhabhadra’s
Sa
rvastiva
din lineage in an attempt to establish that the
meditation teaching contained in the scripture was
guaranteed by direct lineal succession from the Bud-
dha. In addition, a vinaya work translated by Bud-
dhabhadra and FAXIANin 416 to 418 C.E. provided a
similar lineage of succession from the Buddha to Bud-
dhabhadra’s teacher for a supposed vinaya lineage. An-
other indigenous Chinese work, the Fu fazang yinyuan
zhuan(Biographies of the Circumstances of Transmis-
sion of the Dharma Repository), dated 472 C.E., pro-
vided a list of lineal heirs from the Buddha to Simha
bhiksu.

Lineage in Chinese Buddhism
The lineages of succession in these texts provided the
bases for sectarian legitimation claims of leading Chi-
nese Buddhist traditions, such as the TIANTAI SCHOOL
and CHAN SCHOOL. Based on the Fu fazang yinyuan
zhuan,the Tiantai school created a list of twenty-three
patriarchs of the “su
tra-transmission,” to which they
added a series of three Tiantai meditation masters—

Huiwen, Huisi, and ZHIYI(538–597)—to claim legiti-

mate succession from the Buddha (see Table 1). Ac-

cording to Zhiyi’s disciple Guanding (561–632), who

created the lineage, Tiantai masters were connected be-

cause Huiwen adopted the meditation promoted in the

Da zhidu lun(Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise) at-

tributed to the famed scholastic NA
GA
RJUNA(ca. sec-

ond century C.E.), the thirteenth patriarch in the Fu

fazang yinyuan zhuanlist.

The notion of zongas clan ancestor connected to lin-

eal descendants played a particularly important role in

shaping identity in the Chan school. In Buddhist mythol-

ogy, S ́a
kyamuni Buddha was not the only Buddha, but

the last in a line of seven BUDDHAS of antiquity—

Vipas ́yin, S ́ikhin, Vis ́vabhu
, Krakucchanda, Kanaka-

muni, Ka
s ́yapa, and S ́a
kyamuni. According to Chan

school traditions, the seven buddhas are believed to

have transmitted a uniform dharma, or teaching, be-

tween them. This teaching is summarized in the four

line refrain: “Shunning all evil; performing every good;

purifying one’s mind—this is the teaching of all bud-

dhas.” As the source of all Buddhist teaching, the var-

ious tenets of Buddhism are said to spring from these

verses. In this way, S ́a
kyamuni’s message was con-

ceived as a universal teaching transmitted to him

through a line of predecessors, and handed down to

his immediate disciples. Early Chan relied on the lin-

eage supplied with Buddhabhadra’s translations, even-

tually fusing it with Tiantai assertions based on the Fu

fazang yinyuan zhuan,and supplanting it with their

own innovations. Like the Tiantai list of lineage suc-

cession, the Chan list was composed of two parts: a list

of Indian patriarchal transmission, coupled with a

LINEAGE

i i

i

i

i

i

i

Á i

á

á

á

á

á

Á

Tiantai lineage based on the Fu fazang yinyuan zhuan

(Biographies of the Circumstances of Transmission of

the Dharma Repository)

14. Kanadeva


15. Rahulata


16. Sanghanandin


17. Gayasata


18. Kumarata


19. Jayata


20. Vasubandhu


21. Manorhita


22. Haklenayasas


23. Simha bhiksu


24. Huiwen


25. Huisi


26. Zhiyi

á

Sakyamuni

1. Mahakasyapa


2. Ananda


3. Sanavasa


4. Upagupta


5. Dhrtaka


6. Miccaka


7. Buddhanandin


8. Buddhamitra


9. Parsva


10. Punyayasas


11. Asvaghosa


12. Kapimala


13. Nagarjuna
    SOURCE: Author.

TABLE 1