Guanding
Guanding, also known as Shi Guanding, was a Chinese Buddhist monk and exegete during the Sui dynasty. Guanding is traditionally recognized as the principal disciple and successor of Zhiyi, the eminent founder of the Tiantai school. He is also traditionally regarded as the fourth patriarch of the Tiantai tradition. Guanding played a decisive role in the preservation, organization, and transmission of Zhiyi's teachings, notably by ensuring that many of his master's oral discourses were systematically recorded and edited into written form. His efforts were instrumental in shaping the doctrinal and institutional legacy of Tiantai Buddhism.
Guanding was sometimes referred to by the name of his birthplace, Zhang'an, and is thus often called the Master of Zhang'an or Zhang'an Guanding in historical records. Following Zhiyi's death, Guanding assumed responsibility for compiling his master's teachings, especially by writing down the "Three Great Works of Tiantai", which is considered his major contribution to the establishment of Tiantai doctrine.''''
Life
As a direct disciple of Zhiyi, the founder of the Tiantai tradition, Guanding played a critical role in systematizing and transmitting Tiantai doctrines after Zhiyi's death.Guanding's secular surname was Wu, his courtesy name was Fǎyún. He was born in Zhang'an, Zhejiang. His ancestral home was Yixing, Changzhou. Little is recorded about Guanding's early years, but he entered the Buddhist order at a young age after his father's death and quickly demonstrated exceptional devotion and intellectual capacity. He became one of Zhiyi's closest disciples, serving both as an attendant and a recorder of his teachings. He remained closely associated with Guoqing-si on Tiantai Mountain throughout his life.
In 583, he entered Guangzai Monastery and became a disciple of Zhiyi. In 584, Zhiyi lectured on the Lotus Sūtra at Guangzai Monastery. Guanding recorded and organized these lectures and wrote the Fahua Wenju. Later, when Zhiyi moved to Yiquan Monastery in Jingzhou, Guanding followed him there. In 591, he moved with Zhiyi to Chanzhong Monastery in Yangzhou. At that time, Zhiyi administered the bodhisattva precepts to Prince Jin, Yang Guang, and was granted the title "Great Master Zhizhe". Afterward, Zhiyi returned to Mount Tiantai, and Guanding accompanied him.
In 597, Zhiyi died, and Guanding, along with his fellow disciple Zhi'yue, continued to uphold the teachings and monastic order of the Tiantai lineage. Zhang'an Guanding continued to reside at Guoqing Monastery on Mount Tiantai, editing and organizing Zhiyi's lecture notes. The lecture notes from Zhiyi's teaching period at Yiquan-si, after being recorded and compiled by Guanding, were transmitted to later generations as works such as the Fahua Xuanyi and the Mohe Zhiguan.
In 602, he took up residence at the Huiri Practice Center. In 602–604, Guanding traveled to the Sui court carrying annotated commentaries on the Lotus Sūtra authored by Zhiyi. His primary responsibility was to deliver and proofread these texts, rather than to lecture extensively. Nevertheless, while in the capital, Guanding engaged in doctrinal instruction and received favor and substantial rewards from Yang Guang, including gifts of luxury religious artifacts. In the early years of the Sui dynasty, Guanding continued his religious activities in the Jiangnan region. During the reign of Emperor Yang, around 607, he was summoned to Xianyang due to a controversy involving monks at Riyansi, a major center of Buddhist debate founded by Yang Guang. On the journey, he encountered natural disasters and separation from companions. Subsequently, he was slandered and accused of practicing sorcery, resulting in his exile to the northern regions of Youji.
There are indications that Guanding engaged in doctrinal debate with Jizang, a leading figure of the Sanlun school, who was renowned for his exceptional dialectical skills. Although Guanding's exact success in these debates is unclear, they demonstrate his active participation in the vibrant Buddhist scholastic culture of the Sui capital.
Later in life, Guanding returned to his monastic duties on Mount Tiantai, ordaining monks and continuing the propagation of Tiantai teachings. It was also during his last years that he wrote his two commentaries on the Great Nirvana sutra. His final years and death are not well documented, but he likely died around 632 the age of seventy-two. He was posthumously honored with the title "Venerable Master of Total Retention".
Guanding's efforts in compiling, editing, and authoring of the main three Tiantai texts ensured that Zhiyi's complex system was transmitted to later generations in a coherent and structured form. Although Guanding himself did not significantly innovate upon Zhiyi's doctrines, his interpretive and organizational contributions subtly shaped how Tiantai thought was received and developed in subsequent centuries. Through his own commentarial writings, Guanding also participated in the development of Tiantai Buddhism, particularly in the integration of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra into the Tiantai framework
While he was not the actual head of the Tiantai community at the mountain during his life, Guanding later came to be seen as the true heir and successor to Zhiyi. He was later named the fourth patriarch of Tiantai. The historian Zhipan also compares his role to Ananda, Shakyamuni Buddha's attendant. Guanding's scholastic efforts thus solidified the foundational corpus of the Tiantai school. Today he is still revered as a transmitter and preserver of the Tiantai teaching.
Works
Zhiyi's works
Guanding is most famous for being the actual author of three of Zhiyi's key works, known as the "Three Great Works of Tiantai". Guanding compiled, wrote and edited these texts based on Zhiyi's lectures. The three great works are:'- Mohe zhiguan
- Fahua xuanyi
- Fahua wenju
Guanding also composed an influential preface to the Mohe zhiguan, which contains the first outline of the lineage of the Tiantai school, connecting its Chinese line with the Indian tradition. This lineage is traced back to the Indian patriarch Nagarjuna, and begins in China with Huiwen, who is followed by Nanyue Huisi. A unique feature of this lineage history is that there is no direct line of teacher-disciple transmission from Nagarjuna to Huiwen. Instead, Huiwen is said to have read the Dà zhì dù lùn and then to have practiced meditation based on its teachings. In this way, he is said to have attained insight into the nature of things, as Nagarjuna had done.
Guanding also edited and in some cases completed other works by Zhiyi. For example, Guanding completed Zhiyi's commentary to the Vimalakīrti-sūtra, which was incomplete on Zhiyi's death, missing commentary on the six chapters after chapter nine. Guanding added three fascicles to this commentary, completing the work.
Original works
In addition to his editorial work, Guanding himself authored eight distinct compositions, totaling forty-nine fascicles. Among his own writings are:- Dàbān Nièpán-jīng Xuányì
- Commentary on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra
- Guanxinlun shu
- The Essential Meaning of the Eight Teachings of Tiantai
- Guoqing bai lu, this work has been translated into English by BDK publications as The Hundred Records of the Temple of National Purity. It provides information on early Tiantai monastic practices and the development of Guoqing Monastery as the school's central site.
- ''Zhizhe dashi biechuan''
Interpretation of the ''Great Nirvana Sutra''
The meaning of Great Nirvāṇa
Guanding sees the term Mahāparinirvāṇa as containing multiple layers of meaning which communicate the highest and ultimate state of the Buddha's Nirvāṇa. Glosses include “extinction,” “tranquility,” “cessation,” “release,” “liberation,” “no rebirth,” “nonexistence,” “non-self,” “elimination of suffering,” etc. Guanding also critiques the rendering of the term as “great extinction” indicating non-being or elimination, since it would entail a distortion of the intent of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which argues that the Buddha's Nirvana was not ultimately an actual moment of extinction. As a non-dual reality, Great Nirvana is also the Mahayana “Non-abiding Nirvana”, which includes the Trikāya : Dharmakāya, Sambhogakāya, and Nirmāṇakāya. As such, Guanding sees Mahāparinirvāṇa as indicating a truth which transcends all dualistic categories and which also embodies permanence, bliss, self and purity. Thus Guanding states:The meaning of "extinction" is like this: Extinction means stillness; stillness ends birth and death; it is the movement of sentient beings toward Buddhahood... From stillness comes permanence, from permanence comes bliss, and thus extinction is also self and purity.While including these positive qualities, Great Nirvana is also transcends all categories, thus Guanding glosses it as “non-existence yet not non-existence”. However, even this meaning is ultimately transcended, as Guanding then links Great Nirvana to Samsara itself and to the Threefold Truth of Tiantai. Thus, Guanding affirms the non-duality of Nirvāṇa and Samsāra, seeing Nirvana as an immanent and ever-present reality in all things:
Just as one sees a person and recognizes the shadow, so too is it with all conditioned things. Nirvāṇa is not separate from them; even amid impermanence and suffering, Nirvāṇa is always present.Guanding analyzes the immanence of Great Nirvana by explaining how it extends into the non-obstruction and mutual interpenetration of the threefold Buddha body, with the threefold truth and threefold contemplation taught in Tiantai, all of which "are precisely Great Nirvana"... "they are not one and the same, yet neither are they different". He also explains how the three bodies and the three wisdoms, together forming a unity, correspond respectively to body, mind, and function. This is further mapped into further relationships with the three aspects of buddha-nature. Thus in this schema, Great Nirvana has the following threefold aspect:
- Body, which is linked with essential nature and the Dharmakāya
- Mind which corresponds to wisdom and Sambhogakāya
- Function which corresponds to practice, and the Nirmāṇakāya
Even this kind of namelessness must be transcended however, and the final realization of Nirvana is labeled as the “Transcendent Name” by Guanding. This truly ineffable non-dual reality goes beyond all names and forms, even "nameless" and "non-nameless" or any views about relying on or letting go of name and form, "it means the mind is completely free, not dependent on or tied to anything whatsoever." This is the true Great Nirvāṇa, the Buddhahood that does not abandon the beings of the nine realms which is based on the principle of the Middle Way's Complete and Profound Interfusion.
Guanding describes the different levels of understanding Great Nirvana as follows:
If one sees Nirvana as the supreme good, then one is still within the realm of the Provisional Teaching. If Nirvana is seen as separate from the worldly, that too belongs to the Shared Teaching. If Nirvana is viewed as both existent and empty, that is the Distinct Teaching. But if Nirvana is seen as neither empty nor existent, as both arising and ceasing, as both worldly and transcendental, then this is the Perfect Teaching. Thus, the Transcendent Name lies in the ability to affirm and deny without clinging to either.