Wang Jing: Cultural Identity: Huayan Studies within the Horizon of the Community for the Chinese Nation
By Wang Jing
Historically, there has been close interaction and exchange among the various ethnic groups in China, which has continuously fostered mutual cultural identity and nourished the strengthening of the consciousness of the community for the Chinese nation in terms of both thought and emotion, forming an integrated process of mutual fusion. Huayan studies originated in ancient India and took shape in China's western frontiers. Between the Han and Tang Dynasties, it spread from the western frontiers to the interior, gradually flourishing in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins centered around Nanjing, Luoyang, and Chang'an. This directly stimulated the transformation from Huayan scriptural studies (jingxue) to Huayan sectarian studies (zongxue). This not only facilitated a major breakthrough in the theoretical construction of Han Chinese Buddhism but also wrote a brilliant chapter in the cultural identity between the interior and the western frontiers. Between the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the Sinicized Huayan studies spread once again from the interior to the northern frontiers, becoming widely accepted by ethnic minorities such as the Khitan, Tangut, Jurchen, and Mongolians. In an era of war and fragmentation, it used its sacred faith and broad theory to silently weave the spiritual bond of the Chinese nation, advancing the historical process of Chinese integration. Throughout the long passage of a thousand years, Huayan studies presented a transmission path across the land of China from west to east and south to north. Rooted in the western frontiers and flowing into the northern borderlands, it connected different regions and ethnic groups, becoming a spiritual resource for nurturing the consciousness of the community for the Chinese nation.
The Arrival of the Huayan Sutra from the West
The Huayan Sutra (Avatamsaka Sutra) has long enjoyed the reputation of being the "King of Sutras." Its thought is magnificent and exquisite, regarded by academia as the paradigm of the Buddhist philosophy of perfect fusion (yuanrong) [1]. In history, the place where this sutra reached its grand synthesis was in what is now Xinjiang, China. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Lokaksema, a person of the Great Yuezhi [2] from Central Asia, traveled through the Western Regions to Luoyang and translated the first individual Huayan-type text, the Dousha jing. During the Three Kingdoms period, Zhi Qian, whose ancestral home was with the Great Yuezhi, translated the Benye jing (derived from present-day Xinjiang) in Jiankang (modern Nanjing). During the Western Jin Dynasty, Dharmaraksa, a Great Yuezhi migrant residing in Dunhuang, collected scriptures across the Western Regions, including present-day Xinjiang, and later translated various individual Huayan texts like the Dosadhumi Sutra (Pusa shidi jing) and the Sutra on the Gradual Completion of the [Bodhisattva] Steps (Jianbei jing) in Chang'an and Luoyang. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Kumarajiva came from Kucha (modern Kuqa, Xinjiang) to Chang'an and translated the Dasabhumika Sutra (Shizhu jing). These individual Huayan scriptures became witnesses to the cultural exchange between the western frontiers and the interior during that period.
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the eastern part of present-day southern Xinjiang, centered on Khotan (modern Hotan), gradually became the center for the propagation of Huayan studies for the entire Buddhist world at the time. Almost both full versions of the Huayan Sutra, which had a massive impact on later generations, were finalized there. Zhi Faling, a disciple of Huiyuan of Mount Lu, trekked ten thousand li [3] with Fa Jing and others in the 17th year of the Taiyuan era of Emperor Xiaowu of Eastern Jin (392), reaching Khotan to obtain a Sanskrit manuscript of the Huayan in 36,000 verses to bring back to the interior. Buddhabhadra, in the 14th year of the Yixi era (418), completed the Chinese translation in Yangdu (modern Nanjing) together with the monks Faye, Huiyan, and over a hundred others, totaling sixty volumes. Thus, the first full Chinese version of the Huayan Sutra was born, making the spiritual bond between the interior and the western frontiers even stronger.
The appearance of the sixty-volume Huayan Sutra drew intense attention from the Buddhist community in the interior. Scholars and propagators followed one after another, gradually forming Huayan scriptural studies centered on the sutra. Entering the Tang Dynasty, Du Shun promoted the Huayan Sutra in Chang'an and was praised by Emperor Taizong as the "Venerable One of the Imperial Heart." His disciple Zhiyan taught the Huayan Sutra in the Zhongnan Mountains area; Fazang and the Silla monk Uisang [4] attended his lectures together. Its influence reached a peak, marking the formal formation of the Huayan school (Huayan zong). When Fazang was ordered to preach the Huayan Sutra, he used the golden lion in front of the palace as a metaphor to explain the principles of "perfect fusion without obstruction" (yuanrong wu'ai), resulting in the Treatise on the Golden Lion (Huayan jin shizi zhang), which has been passed down through the ages. After over two hundred years of development, Huayan studies in the interior underwent the transformation from scriptural studies to sectarian studies, and the cultural interaction between the interior and the western frontiers reached a new height.
In the first year of the Yongchang era of Wu Zetian's reign (689), Devaprajna came to Luoyang from what is now southern Xinjiang. By imperial decree, he translated scriptures at the Eastern Wei Temple and over the next two years translated Huayan texts such as the Sutra on the Inconceivable State of the Buddha. The Huayan studies of the Khotan area in southern Xinjiang were further accepted by the interior. At this time, an even more complete Sanskrit manuscript of the Huayan Sutra appeared in Khotan. Upon hearing this news, Empress Wu Zetian dispatched envoys to retrieve it and invited Siksananda, a Khotanese monk proficient in Huayan studies, to Luoyang. In the first year of the Zhongsheng era (695), with Wu Zetian's support, a massive translation team was formed with Siksananda as the chief translator. They began translating the sutra at the Biankong Temple within the Luoyang palace. Empress Wu personally attended the translation site, naming the sutra and writing a preface for it. After four years, in the second year of the Shengli era (699), the eighty-volume Huayan Sutra was completed at the Foshouji Temple. This is the most complete text of the Huayan Sutra in Chinese and indeed in the entire history of world Buddhism.
The new translation had a full range of chapters and complete content, reflecting that Huayan studies in the western frontiers between the Han and Tang Dynasties consistently maintained a developmental momentum and directly influenced the direction of Huayan studies in the interior. After the eighty-volume Huayan Sutra was translated, Huiyuan, Chengguan, Li Tongxuan, and others vied to write commentaries for the new version, exploring Huayan theory based on it, which sparked a new craze for Huayan studies in the interior. In the 13th year of the Zhenyuan era (797), on the occasion of Emperor Dezong’s birthday, Chengguan was summoned to the capital to preach the new translation of the Huayan Sutra and was bestowed the title "National Preceptor Qingliang." Zongmi used the "perfect fusion" thought of Huayan to synthesize other sects, receiving great attention from the imperial court and being granted the purple robe. His thought on Huayan synthesis also influenced many literati, including the Chancellor Pei Xiu, and the influence of Huayan studies on cultural circles deepened daily.
The Northward Movement of the Huayan School
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties succeeded one another and the Ten Kingdoms were in turmoil. The Central Plains had not yet achieved complete unification, and the north successively fell under the rule of several ethnic minorities. During this era of national division and ethnic confrontation, Huayan studies continuously spread northward. In the process of accepting Huayan studies, the social forms and cultural characteristics of the northern ethnic minorities underwent significant changes.
Huayan studies was the most powerful school of thought in the Liao Dynasty. All nine emperors of the Liao Dynasty placed importance on Huayan doctrine. Among them, Emperor Daozong, who had the highest Buddhist attainments, promulgated the Imperial Eulogy to the Huayan Sutra and the Five Gathas on the Huayan Sutra. He also wrote the ten-volume Eulogy to the Chapters of the Huayan Sutra and the two-volume Precepts for Awakening the Bodhi Mind, advocating the use of the Huayan "True Mind" (zhenxin) doctrine as the ideological basis for national political unification. The Buddhist community in the Liao Dynasty also vigorously promoted Huayan theory, and a large number of Huayan-related works emerged. Some of these were widely circulated and highly influential, such as Sixiao’s Great Huayan Sutra, Daobi’s Records of the Great Huayan Sutra, and Xianyan’s Exposition of the Huayan Sutra. All of them used the Huayan "Mind" to argue for the state of perfect fusion.
The Western Xia [5] also highly identified with Huayan studies. Major Chinese translations of the Huayan Sutra were translated into the Tangut script. Among the documents from Khara-Khoja (Black Water City) held in Russia, there are 24 items of the Chapter on the Vows of Samantabhadra from the Huayan Sutra. In the lineage of patriarchs listed by the Western Xia monk Huijue, "various masters who propagated Huayan in the Great Xia state" were listed after the "orthodox Huayan patriarchs of the Eastern Land." From this, it can be seen that Western Xia Huayan studies was a direct inheritance of Tang and Song Huayan studies. Works by interior Huayan patriarchs like Fazang, Chengguan, Zongmi, Jingyuan, and Benhong, as well as Liao Dynasty Huayan monks like Xianyan and Daovhen, have been discovered among the Western Xia documents. From Western Xia works such as the Key to the Three Contemplations and Nine Gates, it is evident that the manifestation of perfect fusion through the "Mind-substance" was also a focus emphasized in Western Xia Huayan studies. This proves that Western Xia Huayan and interior Huayan studies had a direct theoretical inheritance relationship.
The prosperity of Huayan studies in the Jin Dynasty can be proven by numerous excavated tomb inscriptions and pagoda steles. Figures such as Binghui, Baoyan, and Fayun frequently studied Huayan. Huiji received the Huayan inheritance from the Tianning Temple in Fenzhou, which had been an important Huayan temple since the Tang Dynasty, showing the Jin Dynasty's continuation of Han Chinese Huayan studies. While promoting Buddhism, the Jin rulers also gave great support to Confucianism and Quanzhen Taoism, striving to advance the Huayan idea of "harmonizing the three teachings" in practice, fully demonstrating their identification with interior Huayan studies.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty also vigorously promoted the thought of the Huayan school. Xiangmai’s Record of Discerning the False records that Kublai Khan valued Huayan, once "gathering famous monks from across the world at Mount Wutai to hold a hundred-day grand assembly to offer to the Great Sage Manjusri," and built five major temples there. Subsequent emperors also regarded Mount Wutai as a sacred site for Huayan and invested heavily in its construction, making it an important base for the transmission of Han Chinese Huayan studies to the northern frontiers. Many eminent monks of the Yuan Dynasty, such as Xingyu, Wencai, and Zhijian, made a career of studying Huayan. Wencai, in his New Commentary on the Zhao Lun, used the Huayan "One Mind of True Suchness" to synthesize Prajna studies, following the same lineage as the interior Huayan studies since the Tang and Song.
In short, Han Chinese Huayan studies had a broad and profound influence on the northern frontiers during the Song and Yuan periods. During the period of political division before the Yuan unification, it promoted cultural identity and deep integration among different ethnic groups.
The Perfect Fusion of Huayan Studies
As a cultural bond connecting the interior with the western and northern frontiers, Huayan studies possesses both sacred faith and profound philosophy. Among these, the "Perfect Fusion of the Dharma Realm" (fajie yuanrong) thought has the most profound impact on modes of thinking and behavior.
The "Dharma Realm" (fajie) [6] is the realm observed through all phenomena in the universe. It can be divided into the "Four Dharma Realms": the realm of principle, the realm of phenomena, the realm of the non-obstruction between principle and phenomena, and the realm of the non-obstruction between phenomena and phenomena. Its purpose is to elucidate the state of harmony and perfect fusion among all things manifested by the Mind-substance. This state is presented through observational approaches such as the "Six Characteristics" and the "Ten Mysterious Gates." The "Six Characteristics" refer to the general, particular, similar, different, formed, and disintegrated characteristics of things. These six characteristics are both opposite and complementary, without hindrance or obstruction. The "Ten Mysterious Gates" show the existential mechanism of things merging and reflecting each other from ten aspects. The thought of the perfect fusion of the Dharma realm is an inevitable product of the "One is All, All is One" way of thinking. This mindset dissolves the opposition between different things, advocates mutual harmony and symbiosis, and demonstrates strong inclusiveness and coexistence. This thought not only compensated for the theoretical bias of "True Emptiness" in the Madhyamaka (Emptiness) school of Mahayana but also overcame the ontological looseness of the Yogacara (Existence) school. It successfully shifted Mahayana Buddhism from analytical philosophy to synthetic philosophy, and Huayan studies thus reached the peak of Chinese philosophical speculation.
The thought of perfect fusion permeates every link of Huayan theory and social practice. It not only justified the existence of different ethnic groups at the ideological level but also promoted interaction, exchange, and fusion among ethnic groups in practice. The acceptance and creative development of western frontier Huayan studies by the Chinese interior during the Han and Tang, and the absorption and practical application of interior Huayan studies by northern ethnic minorities during the Song and Yuan, directly facilitated the deep integration of the interior with the western and northern frontiers, promoting the formation of the "diverse in unity" pattern of the Chinese nation.
The thought of perfect fusion in Huayan studies also had a cooling influence on the mainstream Chinese culture after the Song Dynasty. Cheng Hao, a founder of Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, spent decades exploring Buddhism and Taoism and especially loved the Huayan way of perfect fusion, using it to unify the ultimate reality with social ethics. Zhu Xi, the great synthesizer of Neo-Confucianism, also studied Huayan for decades, borrowing its ontology to propose the theory of "Principle is One" (li yi yuan lun) to highlight the fusion between the laws of things and moral standards. Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming drew on the Huayan "Mind-substance" idea, asserting that human ethics and the universal onto-body are both fused within the Mind-substance. Influenced by Huayan, Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism and the School of Mind conducted a deep critique and reconstruction of ancient Chinese philosophy. On the basis of Neo-Confucianism, they synthesized Buddhist and Taoist thought, opening a new era of Chinese culture centered on the "Three Teachings in One." A cultural system that fully supports the community for the Chinese nation gained unprecedented identification during the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. Tracing its origins, the "perfect fusion" thought of Huayan studies can be called an important intellectual resource for forging the consciousness of the community for the Chinese nation.
(The author is a doctoral student at the School of Philosophy, Nanjing University) Source: Guangming Daily February 6, 2025 Web Editor: Huihui