Huayan


The Huayan school of Buddhism is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty. The Huayan worldview is based primarily on the Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra as well as on the works of Huayan patriarchs, like Zhiyan, Fazang, Chengguan, Zongmi and Li Tongxuan.
Another name for this tradition is the Xianshou school. The Huayan School is known as Hwaeom in Korea, Kegon in Japan and Hoa Nghiêm in Vietnam.
The Huayan tradition considers the Flower Garland Sūtra to be the ultimate teaching of the Buddha. It also draws on other sources, like the Mahayana Awakening of Faith, and the Madhyamaka and Yogacara philosophies. Huayan teachings, especially its doctrines of universal interpenetration, nature origination, and the omnipresence of Buddhahood, were very influential on Chinese Buddhism and also on the rest of East Asian Buddhism. Huayan thought was especially influential on Chan Buddhism, and some scholars even see Huayan as the main Buddhist philosophy behind Chan/Zen.

History

Origins of the Chinese ''Avataṃsaka'' tradition

The Buddhāvataṃsaka Sūtra is a compilation of sūtras of various length, some of which originally circulated as independent works before being combined into the "full" Avataṃsaka. One of the earliest of these texts, the Ten Stages Sūtra, may date from the first century CE. These various sūtras were probably joined shortly before its translation into Chinese, at the beginning of the 5th century CE.
There are various versions of the Chinese Avataṃsaka ''. The full sūtra was translated into Chinese three times .'' The earliest Chinese texts associated with the Avataṃsaka are the Dousha jing, produced by Lokaksema in the latter part of the second century CE, and the Pusa benye jing, translated by Zhi Qian in the early to mid third century. There is evidence that these smaller or partial Avataṃsaka sūtras circulated on their own as individual scriptures.
As soon as the large Huāyán Sūtra appeared in China, an exegetical tradition grew up around the text in order to explain it. The first translation of the larger Huāyán Sūtra is often dated to the Southern Dynasties era, when a translation team led by Gandharan master Buddhabhadra produced a full Chinese translation of the text. There is also evidence of a Huāyán Sūtra tradition in the Northern Dynasties era. The Avataṃsaka teachings are associated with figures like Xuangao who led a community with Daorong at Binglingsi cave, and Zhidan, who argued that only the Huāyán Sūtra teaches the "sudden teaching".
Xuangao, a disciple of Buddhabhadra, was associated with the teaching of the "Huāyán Samadhi" which is said to have been passed on to him by Buddhabhadra. According to Hamar, Xuangao's tradition is a precursor to the Huayan school and may have even composed the apocryphal Brahma's Net Sūtra ''. Xuangao's tradition is also associated with Chinese meditation cave grottoes such as the Yungang Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes and the Bingling Temple Grottoes.
The origins of some of the teachings of the Huāyán school proper can also be traced back to the Dilun school, which was based on the Shidijing lun, Vasubandhu's commentary to the Daśabhūmikā-sūtra translated by Bodhiruci and Ratnamati. Dilun figures like Ratnamati's disciple Huiguang emphasized the study of the entire Avataṃsaka and Dilun masters likely had their own commentaries on the text. Only a few extracts remain, such as parts of Huiguang's commentary and parts of Lingyu's.
Lingbian was another early figure who studied and commented on the Avataṃsaka. He is referred to by Fazang as a great devotee of Manjushri, and 12 fascicles of Lingbian's commentary to the Avataṃsaka survive, being the earliest significant Chinese commentary on the Avataṃsaka which is extant. Jingying Huiyuan was another prominent Dasabhūmika master in the North. Huiyuan's lineage was a major force in transmitting the Dasabhūmika tradition in Chang'an during the early Sui dynasty. Other monks like Pu'an also focused on Huayan sūtra study during the Sui. The integration of different Huayan sūtra lineages at Zhixiang temple became a key base for the future Huayan School.

Tang dynasty patriarchs

The founding of the Huayan school proper is traditionally attributed to a series of five patriarchs who were instrumental in developing the school's doctrines during the Tang dynasty. These Huayan "patriarchs" were erudite scholar-practitioners who created a unique tradition of exegesis, study and practice through their writings and oral teachings. They were particularly influenced by the works of the Dilun and Shelun schools of Chinese Yogacara.
These five patriarchs are:
  1. Dushun, a monk who was known as a meditator master and who was devoted to the Huayan sūtra. He wrote several works. The Discernments of the Huayan Dharmadhātu has been attributed to him, but this is questioned by modern scholars. His base was at Xi'an and the Zhongnan mountains.
  2. Zhiyan, was a student of Dushun who is considered to have established most of the main doctrines of Huayan thought and is thus a crucial figure in the foundation of Huayan. Zhiyan also studied with various masters from the Dilun and Shelun schools, which were branches of Chinese Yogacara, and synthesized their ideas. Zhiyan's key contribution was the theory of the "dependent arising from the dharma realm", which he saw as the essence of Huayan Sūtra. He also taught the doctrine of the ten mysterious gates, which are principles that explain dependent arising and the interfusion of all phenomena.
  3. Fazang, who was the disciple of Zhiyan and the Buddhist teacher of the Empress Wu Zetian. He is often considered the real founder of the school. He wrote numerous works on Huayan thought and practice including several commentaries on the Avatamsaka. He developed the doctrinal classification system of Huayan and the doctrine of the perfect interfusion of six characteristics. He also worked on a new translation of the Avatamsaka Sūtra in 80 fascicles.
  4. Chengguan, though he was not a direct student of Fazang, Chengguan further developed the Huayan teachings in innovative directions in his various commentaries and treatises. He was a student of Fashen, who was a student of Fazang's student Huiyuan. Chengguan's voluminous commentary to the new 80 fascicle Avatamsaka, along with his sub-commentary to it, soon became the authoritative commentaries to the sūtra in East Asia.
  5. Guifeng Zongmi, who is also known for also being a patriarch of Chinese Chán and for also writing on Daoism and Confucianism. His writings include works on Chan and various Huayan commentaries. He was particularly fond of the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment, writing a commentary and sub-commentary to it.
While the above list is the most common one, other Huayan patriarchal lists add different figures, such as Nagarjuna, Asvaghosa, Vasubandhu, and the lay master Li Tongxuan, the author of the Xin Huayan Jing Lun '', a popular and lengthy commentary on the Avatamsaka. Li Tongxuan's writings on the Huayan sūtra were particularly influential on later Chan Buddhists, who often preferred his interpretations.
Another important Huayan figure of the Tang era was Fazang's main disciple Huiyuan who also wrote a commentary on the Avatamsaka Sūtra. Because Huiyuan modified some of Fazang's interpretations, he was retroactively sidelined from the Huayan lineage of patriarchs by later figures like Chengguan who criticized some of his doctrinal positions. According to Imre Hamar, Huiyuan compared the Daoist teachings on the origination of the world to the Huayan teaching on the dependent arising of the tathagatagarbha. Huiyuan also incorporated Daoism and Confucianism into his panjiao system. Chengguan disagreed with this.

Liao and Xia developments

After the time of Zongmi and Li Tongxuan, Chinese Huayan generally stagnated in terms of new developments, and then eventually began to decline. The school, which had been dependent upon the support it received from the government, suffered severely during the Great Buddhist Persecution of the Huichang era, initiated by Emperor Wuzong of Tang. The Huichang persecution caused significant destruction of temples and scriptures, disrupting the formal transmission lineage of the Huayan School. After this, the history of the school became more about the transmission of Huayan doctrine within the broader Buddhist landscape rather than a strict lineage. The middle and late Tang also saw the unity of Chan and doctrines, including Huayan. During this time Huayan philosophy was absorbed into Chan, with some figures considered patriarchs of both schools. Xiqian's Can Tong Qi is an example of Chan absorbing Huayan theory.
The school stagnated even further in the conflicts and confusion of the late Tang dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era. After the fall of the Tang dynasty several Huayan commentaries were lost. However, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era, Huayan remained influential, being part of the "Huayan-Chan" lineages influenced by Zongmi which were very popular in the north, especially in the Khitan Liao Empire and the Tangut kingdom of the Western Xia. Various masters from these non-Chinese kingdoms are known, such as Xianyan from Kailong temple in Khitan Upper capital, Hengce, Tongli dashi from Yanjing, Daoshen, Xianmi Yuantong, from Liao Wutaishan, Zhifu.
The Liao and Xia Huayan traditions were more syncretic, adopting elements of Zongmi's Heze Chan influenced Huayan, as well as Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, Hongzhou Chan, and even Tibetan Buddhism in some cases. Several texts from the Liao Huayan tradition have survived, such as master Daochen's Chan influenced Account of Mirroring Mind and his esoteric influenced Collection of Essentials for Realization of Buddhahood in the Perfect Penetration of the Exoteric and Secret Teachings. Another important Huayan esoteric source of this period is Jueyuan's sub-commentary on Yixing's commentary to the Mahāvairocana sūtra.
According to Daochen, the best approach to Buddhahood is the "combined practice of the exoteric and esoteric" which is for those of the highest capacity. However, he also recommended that those of "middling and lesser faculties...can choose to practice a single method according to their preference, be it the exoteric or esoteric." Daochen's esoteric teachings focused on the dharani of Cundi which he saw as "the mother of all Buddhas and the life of all bodhisattvas" and also drew on the Mani mantra. The combined use of both of these is found in the Kāraṇḍavyūha ''sūtra.
Another Liao Tangut work which survives from this period is The Meaning of the Luminous One-Mind of the Ultimate One Vehicle'' by Tongli Hengce. The works of the Liao tradition are important because they served as one of the sources of the later Huayan revival during the Song.