Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

DDB Top Page 
 
 
  XML source

地論宗

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: School of the Treatise on the Bhūmis

Senses:

  • The Dilun zong. One of the earlier of the so-called thirteen schools 十三宗 of Chinese Buddhism, a Mahāyāna school in which we can see the intermixed development of Yogâcāra 唯識 and Tathāgatagarbha 如來藏 ideas. Also known in Chinese as Dilun philosophers 地論家 and Dilun doctrinal lineage 地論學派. The name of the school derives from its scholars basing their doctrinal positions on the commentary written by Vasubandhu 世親 on the Daśabhūmi-vyākhyāna (Shidijing lun 十地經論), which also forms the commentary on one chapter of the Huayan jing 華嚴經.

    Ratnamati 勒那摩提 and Bodhiruci 菩提流支 brought the manuscript of the Daśabhūmi-vyākhyāna and translated it into Chinese during the Northern Wei dynasty. The members of the Dilun school were particularly interested in theories of the ālayavijñāna 阿梨耶識. The school ended up breaking into northern and southern branches after disagreements occurred between Ratnamati and Bodhiruci. The northern branch of the school, represented by Bodhiruciʼs student Daochong 道寵, took the position that the storehouse consciousness is not real, and that buddha-nature is first acquired on attaining Buddhahood, thus it is not inborn. The southern school, represented by Ratnamatiʼs student Huiguang 慧光, saw the ālayavijñāna as real and identical with the inborn buddha-nature 佛性. The positions of the southern branch would be furthered by the creative energies of a number of scholars, including Huiguangʼs disciple Fashang 法上, and Fashangʼs disciple Huiyuan 慧遠. The Huayan school 華嚴宗 is said to have developed out of the southern branch, while Faxiang 法相宗 absorbed the northern branch.

    [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, JEBD, Iwanami]
  • Search SAT
  • Search INBUDS Database

  • Feedback

    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 733

    Bulgyo sajeon 818a

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 456

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 139a/153

    Fo Guang Dictionary 2314

    Ding Fubao

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)3740c,3250c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1230-1



    Entry created: 2001-09-08

    Updated: 2017-07-18