Qingliang Chengguan

Qingliang Chengguan (; Korean: Jinggwan; Japanese: Chōgan, 738–839 or 737-838 CE), was an important scholar-monk and patriarch of the Huayan school of Chinese Buddhism also known as Huayan pusa (bodhisattva Avatamsaka) and Qingliang Guoshi (Imperial Preceptor "Clear and Cool", Clear and Cool is a name for Mount Wutai).

Chengguan is most widely known for his extensive commentaries and sub-commentaries to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Huayan jing), as well as for his translation of a new Gandhavyuha sutra version, together with the Indian monk Prajña. At the age of 20 (in 757 CE), he became a fully ordained monk under Tanyi (, 692-771) and took bodhisattva precepts under Changzhao (常照).

However, Chengguan's primary focus was on the Avatamsaka Sutra and Huayan studies. Chengguan studied Huayan under Fashen ( 718–778), who was a student of the Huiyuan (, 673–743), a disciple of Fazang.

In 776 CE Chengguan returned to the sacred mountain of Wutaishan (believed to be the abode of Manjusri), where he stayed for the next 15 years.

Chengguan was also a serious Buddhist practitioner. According to Guo Cheen, he maintained various self-determined vows including "always keeping his sash and alms bowl by his side, avoiding looking at women, avoiding visits to laypeople’s homes, never lying down to sleep, abandoning any fame or fortune, regularly reciting the Lotus Sūtra, regularly teaching on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, regularly studying Mahāyāna texts, and never ceasing to be compassionate in an attempt to help all beings." The Song Biographies of Preeminent Monks and A Brief Account of the Five Patriarchs of Huayan School offer two specific sets of his ten vows that are equal in rigor but with slight variations.

Thought

Doctrinal issues Chengguan's thought attempts to follow Fazang's thought closely.

Syncretism Chengguan developed Huayan thought in new directions by drawing on various Buddhist schools including various Chan schools, Xuanzang's Weishi and Tiantai. Chengguan also interpreted the Sudden division of Fazang's doctrinal schema as referring to the teachings of Chan Buddhism (while Fazang merely saw it as referring to the teaching of Vimalakirti). According to Chengguan, Chan teachings teach how the mind is Buddha and transmit this wisdom through non-verbal methods. This indicates that Chengguan was conscious about his syncretic tendencies.

The Fourfold Dharmadhatus Chengguan's main unique contribution to Huayan thought is the theory of the fourfold Dharmadhatu or four Dharmadhatus . The Dharmadhatu is the ultimate reality that must be known by the bodhisattva and the four dharmadhatus are four ways of understanding ultimate truth.

The dharmadhātu of phenomena , which is the view in which all dharmas are seen as particular separate phenomena and which is to be seen as like an illusion. In the widely used Huayan metaphor of the water and the waves, the phenomena are symbolized by the waves. The dharmadhātu of principle which sees all phenomena as arising from li (, the ultimate principle), which is "emptiness", the “One Mind” and Buddha nature, it is the source or origin of all dharmas as well as the immutable nature of all dharmas, the ultimate essence of all things. It is the non-dual and transcendental Absolute according to Guo Cheen. In the metaphor of the water and the waves, the principle / essence is symbolized by water. The dharmadhātu of the non-obstruction of principle and phenomena this is the interpenetration and interfusion of all phenomena and the ultimate principle, the pure source / essence. In the metaphor of the water and the waves, this level is symbolized by how waves are water. The dharmadhātu of the non-obstruction of [all] phenomena , which refers to the perfect interfusion of all phenomena with each other. While all things are perfectly interfused, they also do not lose their particularity. Since all phenomena share the same ultimate source, they are interconnected and interpenetrating. In the water-wave metaphor, this is symbolized by how all waves are connected due to being part of the same ocean. According to Imre Hamar, while Fazang emphasized the non-obstruction and interfusion of all dharmas, Chengguan stressed the non-obstruction of principle and phenomena.

The sub-commentaries remained a separate publication. Preeminent commentators of Yuan and Ming continued to annotate, study, and lecture on Chengguan’s commentaries. In the Ming Dynasty, Miaoming (妙明) compiled Chengguan’s Commentaries and Subcommentaries into one publication for the first time. They did not mesh well, however, because Chengguan’s Outline to the Commentaries to the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Huayanjing Shu Kewen 華嚴經疏科文) was still missing.

In 1912, laymen Xu Weiru 徐蔚如 (1878-1937 CE) and others edited Chengguan’s Commentaries and sub-commentaries based on a version of the Outline to the Commentaries to the Huayanjing that survived the Chinese persecutions by being in hiding in Japan. In 1936, an edition of the Avatamsaka, the commentary and sub-commentary edited by Chiang Tsu Chuang (將竹莊) was published in Shanghai. More recently, the Xinxiu Huayan jing shuchao (新修華嚴經疏鈔, 20 volumes) a revised edition of this work led by Chengyi (成一), was published by the Huayan Society (華嚴蓮社) in Taibei between 2001 and 2004.