academic and doctrinal systems of Chinese Maha ̄ya ̄na Bud-
dhism.
ORIGINS. Zhiyi’s major meditation text, the Mohe zhiguan
(The Great Stilling and Insight; T. D. no. 1911), states that
the Tiantai lineage began with Huiwen, who transmitted the
essence of his enlightenment experience to his disciple Huisi,
who in turn instructed Zhiyi. Later Tiantai church history
therefore refers to these monks as the first three (Chinese)
Tiantai “patriarchs.”
Huiwen. Other than the fact that he was active during
the Northern Qi period (550–557), little is known of the life
of Huiwen. Even late accounts admit that both his place of
birth and his dates are unknown. His importance to the tra-
dition derives from his adumbration of certain key concepts
that, in the writings of Zhiyi, would become central to
Tiantai thought. One source relates that while reading the
Da zhidu lun (a commentary on the Prajña ̄pa ̄ramita ̄ Su ̄tra
in twenty-five thousand slokas that is traditionally attributed
to Na ̄ga ̄rjuna) he was struck by a passage that notes, “When
one moment of mind obtains all wisdom, the wisdom of the
Path, and all species of wisdom, then all of the defilements
and their traces are cut off.” This concept of “three wisdoms
in one mind” (yxin sanzhi) became identified in the writings
of Zhiyi with his concept of “three insights in one mind”
(yxin sanguan), a core teaching of the Tiantai system.
This link to the teachings of Na ̄ga ̄rjuna, founder of the
Ma ̄dhyamika system and perhaps the greatest of all Buddhist
thinkers, was later formalized by recognizing him as the tra-
dition’s first Indian patriarch and the inspirator of the system
as a whole. Such post facto linkage with Indian figures of un-
questioned authority was a common means of bestowing le-
gitimacy and prestige upon the Buddhist traditions indige-
nous to China. Na ̄ga ̄rjuna, in fact, is counted as “first
patriarch” of several East Asian Buddhist traditions.
Huisi. The master Huisi was a native of Honan Prov-
ince; later biographies state that he was born under the
Northern Wei on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of
- At the age of fourteen he entered the monastic life and
received full ordination, devoting himself to chanting the
text of the Fahua jing. At the age of nineteen he had an en-
lightenment experience while reading the Miaoshengding jing
(Sutra of Marvelous, Unsurpassed Sama ̄dhi; otherwise un-
known); from this time on he retired to the woods and for-
ests to practice meditation in solitude.
Sometime after this experience Huisi met the master
Huiwen and received instruction from him concerning med-
itation and its concomitant, the experience of enlighten-
ment. Thereafter, he confined his practice to meditation.
Tradition alleges that he attained enlightenment only at the
point when, dispairing of ever realizing the goal of his prac-
tice, Huisi climbed to the top of the monastery wall to throw
himself off. The resulting breakthrough he later termed
fahua sanmei, or “Lotus sama ̄dhi.”
A recurrent theme in his preaching is summarized in
one of his biographies: “The source of enlightenment is not
far away, and one’s (Buddha) nature, like a sea, is not distant.
Only direct your seeking inward upon yourself; do not get
enlightenment from another.” Huisi died peacefully in 577,
at the age of sixty-two.Some six extant works are attributed to Huisi: the Das-
heng zhiguan famen (The Maha ̄ya ̄na Teaching of Stilling and
Insight; T. D. no. 1924); the Zhufa wucheng sanmei famen
(The Teaching of Noncontentious Sama ̄dhi with Respect to
All Phenomena; T. D. no. 1923); the Sui ciyi sanmei (The
Sama ̄dhi Attained at Will; Zokuzo ̄kyo ̄ 2.3); the Fahua jing
anluo xingyi (The Cultivation of the Anluo Chapter of the
Fahua jing; T. D. no. 1926), a work that treats the ethics of
a Lotus devotee in an era of the decline of the Dharma, as
outlined in the fourteenth chapter of the Lotus; the Shou
pusa jiehyi (The Ritual for Receiving the Bodhisattva Pre-
cepts; Zokuzo ̄kyo ̄ 2.10); and the Nanyue sidashi lishi yuanwen
(The Vows of Master Si of Nanyue; T. D. no. 1933). The
authenticity of some of these works remains open to scholar-
ly investigation. Attributions, in later catalogs, of some four
other inextant works to Huisi may, to judge from the titles
of these works, represent a retrospective attempt to ascribe
many of the major teachings of Zhiyi to his master’s
inspiration.
Zhiyi. Zhiyi, the de-facto founder of the Tiantai tradi-
tion, was born in Jingzhou (present-day Hunan Province) in- At the age of seventeen he entered the monastic life
under the direction of the master Fazhu of the guoyuan Si
in Xiangzhou; after his ordination he began the study of the
Vinaya (rules of monastic discipline) with Huikuang, read-
ing at the same time various Maha ̄ya ̄na texts. Sometime later
Zhiyi made a pilgrimage to Mount Taixian, where he went
into retreat, reciting the “three Lotus scriptures,” the Fahua
jing, the Wuliang yi jing, and the Puxianguan jing. He con-
tinued his chanting for twenty days, at which time he fully
understood the meaning of these texts.
In 560 Zhiyi journeyed to Mount Dasu, where he met
Huisi, who was now destined to become his chief instructor.
Huisi instructed him in devotions centered around the figure
of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra (Chin., Puhxian) and in
the Anluo practices, practices taught in the fourteenth chap-
ter (Anluoxing pin) of the Fahua jing. Following Zhiyi’s en-
lightenment experience Huisi named him his Dharma heir
and successor. Thereafter, Zhiyi took up residence in the
Waguan Si in Jinling (Nanking), where he was to stay for
eight years. During this period he lectured on the Lotus and
the Da zhidu lun and taught a path of gradual meditative cul-
tivation to his disciples. These teachings formed the basis for
his Fajie ziti chumen (T. D. no. 1925). In 575 he moved to
Mount Tiantai, a mountain that was to remain his major
headquarters for the rest of his life and from which the tradi-
tion derives its name. In 577 Zhiyi and his followers were,
by imperial edict, given the tax levies from Shifeng Prefecture
(xian), and two clans were indentured to him to provide his
community with fuel and water. Sometime in this period
Zhiyi lectured on the Jingming jing (the Vimalak ̄ırtinirde ́sa9174 TIANTAI