and finally as itself determined, hence conditioned,
hence empty, hence provisionally posited, hence the
“mean.” Once this is done, all other contents are
equally seen as the three truths, but the process of
transformation must begin with the deluded mind, the
mind that mistakenly sees itself as “inside” as opposed
to “outside,” which makes arbitrary distinctions, and
which is conditioned in a particular manner by par-
ticular causes. Only in this way, Zhili thinks, is prac-
tice both possible and necessary.
Zhili also reasserts the centrality of the doctrine of
inherent evil, as is particularly evident in his teaching
of “the six identities as applicable even to the dung bee-
tle.” The six identities were propounded by Zhiyi orig-
inally to maintain a balance to the claims of identity
between sentient beings and buddhahood. All beings
are identical to the Buddha (1) in principle; (2) in
name, once they hear of this teaching and accept it in-
tellectually; (3) in cultivation; (4) in partial attainment;
(5) in approximation to final identity; and finally (6)
when Buddhist practice is completed and one becomes
explicitly a buddha. Zhili asserts that these six levels of
difference and identity apply not only to the relations
between sentient beings and buddhas, but also to the
relations between any two sentient beings, any two de-
terminations of any kind, indeed, even between any
entity and itself. This means that prior to Buddhist
practice one is identical to, say, a dung beetle in prin-
ciple only, but as one’s practice continues, one finally
attains a more and more fully realized identity with the
dung beetle, so that all the marks and names associ-
ated with dung beetle-hood become increasingly ex-
plicit and fully realized as practice continues. Evil, in
other words, is not only what is cut off, but also what
is more fully realized with practice; all things become
more explicit together, and this full realization of their
own determinate marks, by virtue of the three truths,
is their liberation and transformation. This is the real
goal of practice; indeed this is buddhahood itself.
Transmission to and development in Japan
and Korea
Much of Zhili’s concern in his polemic against the
Shanwai and his defense of the doctrine of “inherent
evil” was to maintain the seriousness of Tiantai ritual
practice, an evil that he saw threatened by the “sud-
den” doctrines of Chan and the Shanwai. Zhili and his
dharma-brother Zunshi (Ciyun fashi,963–1032) were
instrumental in combining Tiantai contemplation
with the practice of the PURELAND SCHOOLS, partic-
ularly the visualizations of AMITABHA, which were to
be done in tandem with Tiantai doctrinal rumina-
tions, “contemplating the image of the Buddha as an
inherent aspect of the mind, utilizing the Buddha im-
age to manifest the nature of mind.” This was con-
sistent with Zhili’s general teaching that when any
given content is made more explicit, it simultaneously
makes all contents more explicit, as well as their
interpervasion, the interpervasive three thousand be-
ing the realm of enlightenment.
In China, Tiantai and Pure Land practice came to
be closely associated. A different development took
place in Japan, where Tiantai, or Tendai in the Japan-
ese pronunciation, became closely associated with es-
oteric Buddhism. Tiantai texts were first brought to
Japan by the Chinese vinaya monk Jianzhen (687–
763), but did not really take hold until the founding of
the Japanese Tendai school by SAICHO(Dengyo daishi,
767–822). Saichocombined the Tiantai teachings he
had studied in Tang China under Zhanran’s disciple
Daosui with elements of esoteric and Chan Buddhism.
The tradition he founded later split into several rival
schools, but Tendai remained for centuries the main-
stream of Japanese Buddhism, providing the theoreti-
cal foundation of Buddhist practice to a much greater
degree than was the case in China, where Huayan and
Chan understandings of Buddhist doctrine arguably
took a more preeminent position. Later Japanese
Tendai contributed distinctive developments to the
doctrines of ORIGINAL ENLIGHTENMENT (HONGAKU)
and the buddhahood of inanimate objects, on which it
laid special stress. All of the Buddhist reformers who
created the new Japanese sects in the Kamakura period,
including HONEN(1133–1212), SHINRAN(1173–1263),
NICHIREN(1222–1282), and DOGEN(1200–1253), were
trained initially as Tendai monks.
Both Huisi and Zhiyi are said to have had direct
disciples hailing from the Korean peninsula, and this
tradition of exchange continued for many centuries.
But it was not until 1097 that a separate Tiantai (Ko-
rean, Ch’o ̆nt’ae) school was established there. Its
founder, U ̆ICH’O ̆N(1055–1101), hoped the new school
would help reconcile the long-standing conflict in Ko-
rean Buddhism between scholastic studies and medi-
tative practice. Ch’o ̆nt’ae became one of the two main
pillars of Korean Buddhism, together with Chan (Ko-
rean, So ̆n). The schools were unified under the
auspices of a reconstituted So ̆n school in the early fif-
teenth century.See also:China; Japan; Korea; VietnamTIANTAISCHOOL