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四句百非

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: four lemmas and hundred disagreements

Senses:

  • A technical term of the Three Treatise school 三論宗 (East Asian Madhyamaka), often used in Chan 禪宗 discourse. All the doubts and arguments about metaphysics and ontology related to Buddhism, with the tetralemma 四句 referring to all kinds of disagreements over existence and nonexistence (existence 有, nonexistence 無, both existent and nonexistent 亦有亦無, and neither existent nor nonexistent 非有非無, interpreted and expressed in various permutations). The hundred disagreements are mainly over issues about arising and cessation 生滅, past and future 去來, annihilationism and eternalism 斷常, etc., but can refer to all kinds of argumentation, such as the list of characterizations of the nirvana of the Tathāgata seen in the Nirvana Sutra 〔涅槃經 T 374.12.443c〕 . Chan texts usually cite these for the purpose of rejecting all forms of logical argumentation whatsoever. [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, JEBD, FGD, Yokoi]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 396

    Zengo jiten (Iriya and Koga) 18-P98

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 423a

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 279b/310

    Koga 170

    Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi) 645

    Fo Guang Dictionary 1676

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)1756c

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2009-10-19

    Updated: 2018-02-14