templation of the deluded mind, the inherent entail-
ment of all quiddities in each other, the existence of
differentiated characteristics even in the absence of
delusion, the simultaneous validity of both mind-only
and matter-only doctrines, and “the ultimacy of the
dung-beetle.” The last-named doctrine was rooted in
his claim that enlightenment was a state that made
more explicit all determinate realities, good and evil,
and disclosed each sentient being’s identity not only
with the Buddha, but with all other possible SENTIENT
BEINGSin all their aspects, all of which were the ulti-
mate reality.
Zhili was instrumental in combining Tiantai doc-
trine with Pure Land practice, and much of his doc-
trinal work can be understood as an attempt to provide
an adequate framework for understanding the neces-
sity and legitimacy of Buddhist ritual practice in the
face of certain interpretations of “sudden enlighten-
ment” that might threaten it. In 1017 he made a vow
to commit SELF-IMMOLATIONafter three years of prac-
ticing the Lotus Repentance with a group of junior
monks. He vowed to be reborn in AMITABHA’s Pure
Land. After defending his intention to commit this ar-
guably sinful act in a series of letters, in which Zhili
makes the notorious claim that “there is no Buddha
but the Devil, and no Devil but the Buddha,” he finally
abandoned his plan, and was given a purple robe and
the honorific name Fazhi (Dharma-wisdom) by the
emperor.
See also:Pure Land Buddhism
Bibliography
Chan, Chi-wah. “Chih-li (960–1028) and the Crisis of T’ien-t’ai
Buddhism in the Early Sung.” In Buddhism in the Sung,ed.
Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A. Getz, Jr. Honolulu: Univer-
sity of Hawaii Press, 1999.
Ziporyn, Brook. “Anti-Chan Polemics in Post-Tang Tiantai.”
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
17, no. 1 (1994): 26–63.
Ziporyn, Brook. Evil and/or/as the Good: Omnicentrism, Inter-
subjectivity, and Value Paradox in Tiantai Buddhist Thought.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
BROOKZIPORYNZHIYI
Zhiyi (Tiantai Zhizhe dashi) (538–597) was the nom-
inal third patriarch of the Chinese TIANTAI SCHOOL,
but he was, in fact, its eponymous founder. Zhiyi was
born in Jingzhou (present-day Hubei), and became a
monk at the age of eighteen, taking the full precepts
two years later. At the age of twenty-three, he went to
study with Nanyue Huisi (d. 577), under whom he
practiced the Lotus Samadhi, during which he had a
breakthrough experience. At thirty, he went to Jin-
ling, capital of the Chen kingdom, and began to lec-
ture extensively.
Zhiyi taught for the rest of his life, his lectures tran-
scribed by his disciples, most notably Guanding
(561–632), who recorded the “three great works of
Tiantai”: Fahua wenju (Commentary on the Lotus
Sutra), Fahua xuanyi(Profound Meaning of the Lotus
Sutra), and MOHE ZHIGUAN(Great Calming and Con-
templation), the first based on lectures given in 587 and
the latter two based on lectures given in 593 and 594.
Zhiyi also composed several works by his own hand,
most notably a commentary on the Vimalaklrtinirdes ́a,
written at the request of the Jin ruling house.
Zhiyi’s teaching stresses the simultaneous and equal
development of both doctrinal understanding and
meditative practice. He devised an elaborate system of
classification of Buddhist teachings, making a coherent
whole of the mass of Buddhist scriptures translated into
Chinese, in accordance with his development of the
true meaning of UPAYA(skillful means) as expounded
in the LOTUSSUTRAand NIRVANASUTRA. His teaching
combined the Lotusnotion of upayaand mutual en-
tailment with Madhyamaka notions of S ́UNYATA
(EMPTINESS) and conventional truth and the buddha-
nature concept from the Nirvana Sutra,by which Zhiyi
devised the doctrine of the three truths—emptiness,
provisional positing, and the mean—as a comprehen-
sive template for understanding Buddhist teachings and
practices. This doctrine holds that every element of ex-
perience is necessarily and simultaneously (1) determi-
nate, (2) ambiguous, and (3) absolute, and that these
three predicates are ultimately synonymous. This led to
a distinctive understanding of the interpervasion of all
dharmas as suggested in the HUAYAN JING, which in
Zhiyi’s understanding led to the doctrine of “the three
thousand quiddities inherently entailed as each mo-
ment of experience,” as well as the further doctrines of
“the evil inherent in the Buddha-nature,” the non-
obstruction of enlightenment between delusion, and
the equal ultimacy of all possible doctrinal positions, as
mediated by the Lotusdoctrine of upaya.Zhiyi also
rewrote the Indian mind-only doctrine so that it could
be equally restated as a claim that all reality is matter-
only, or alternately scent-only, taste-only, touch-only,ZHIYI