Zhīlǐ

Siming Zhili (Chinese: 四明知禮, pinyin: Sìmíng Zhīlǐ, Japanese romanization: Shimei Chirei) (960–1028), also known as Siming Fazhi (四明法智), was a Chinese Buddhist scholar monk and key figure in the revival and development of the Tiantai School during the Northern Song dynasty. Revered as the seventeenth patriarch of Tiantai Buddhism, he was also posthumously titled Fazhi Dashi (法智大师), meaning "Master of Dharma Wisdom." His efforts defended and defined the orthodox philosophy of the Tiantai school, and shaped its doctrinal and ritual practices for generations.

Life Zhili was a native the city of Mingzhou (now Ningbo), in Zhejiang Province. This region (along with a specific mountain in it) was also called Siming, hence the moniker "Siming" Zhili. Zhili was born into the Jin 金 family and went by the style name Yueyan 約言. Following the loss of his mother at age seven, he entered the monastic order as a novice. By fifteen, he was fully ordained as a bhiksu and began to study the Vinaya. In 979, Zhili became a disciple of Baoyun Yitong, a Korean monk who became his most influential spiritual teacher. Zhili studied Tiantai with Yitong until the master's death in 988.

In 995, Zhili settled at Bao'en Yuan (保恩院, later renamed Yanqing Yuan) on Mt. Siming (四明山), a "public" (shifang zhuchi) monastery which had been reserved for the Tiantai school by imperial decree. Zhili would remain for the rest of his life. Zhili and his co-abbot Yiwen worked to restore the dilapidated temple, making it into a key center for the Song Tiantai revival. He spent much of his time lecturing and performing Tiantai repentance rites as well as writing. Zhili's writings are deeply concerned with establishing and defending the orthodox Tiantai philosophy (which Zhili termed "home mountain") against other interpretations influenced by the Chan and Huayan schools that had begun to make their way within Tiantai circles (which Zhili derogatorily refers to as "off the [Tiantai] mountain"). His writings also defend Tiantai ritual practices like the Lotus Repentance ritual against interpretations of sudden enlightenment that could undermine such practices.

In 1003, the Japanese Tendai Pure Land scholar Genshin (942–1017) sent a disciple to China with a series of questions for Zhili. Zhili responded and his letters have survived. Zhili also reportedly read Genshin's Ōjōyōshū (Essentials of Birth in the Pure Land) and was deeply moved by it.

In his later years (from 1013 to 1028), Zhili's activities turned to working out Tiantai Pure Land doctrine and working to involve laypersons in Pure Land Buddhist societies. During this later period of his life he also promoted other gatherings, such as life release ceremonies and conferral of bodhisattva precepts to laypersons. This practice was also associated with attaining birth in the Pure Land through devotion to the Lotus Sutra (which mentions self-immolation and self-burning). Zhili engaged in a series of letters with the scholar-official and man of letters Yang Yi (974-1020), who sought to convince Zhili to abandon his suicide vow. After increasing pressure from several officials (and perhaps even imperial intervention), Zhili abandoned the plan and received further imperial recognition, including a purple robe and the honorific name Fazhi Dashi. After this event, Zhili did not abandon his desire for ascetic practice however, and practiced a Guanyin repentance rite for three years. He also burnt off three of his fingers as an offering.

In his later age, Zhili also completed his commentaries on Zhiyi's five minor works, which complemented Zhanran's commentaries to Zhiyi's three main works (Fahua xuanyi, Fahua wenju and Mohe Zhiguan). He also composed a repentance rite based around the Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī called the Dabei Chan (Chinese: 大悲懺; lit. 'Great Compassion Repentance'), which has remained one of the most popular and commonly performed rite in contemporary Chinese Buddhism.

While Zhili's teachings were not accepted by all Tiantai figures of his time, Zhili and his followers had a profound impact on the history of the Tiantai school since they soon came to dominate the tradition. Zhili's writings became a key source for the school's doctrinal orthodoxy, becoming part of the orthodox Tiantai canon later in the Song dynasty. Zhili's works, including commentaries on Zhiyi's texts such as Guanxin Erbai Wen (观心二百问) and Guanjingshu Miao Zong Chao (观经突妙宗钟), remain central to Tiantai and Tendai (Japanese Tiantai) scholarship today.

Teachings

View of Tiantai's perfect teaching Zhili’s career was defined by the controversy known as the "Home Mountain" (Shanjia, 山家) also known as the Siming faction, versus "Off Mountain" (Shanwai, 山外, also known as the Qiantang faction) debate. This heated debate went on for some years as various figures from the opposing Qiantang faction wrote various works defending their position and Zhili and his disciple Renyue responded in kind.

Zhili's criticisms were particularly focused on the Huayan-Chan emphasis on the ultimate principle (理) and one mind (一心), exemplified in the writings of Guifeng Zongmi. According to this view, all phenomena (dharmas) are modes or aspects of the ultimate reality, Dharmakāya, like waves and water. In this view, the idea of a pure nature without inherent evil is a dualistic idea. From the ultimate perspective of the Tiantai perfect teaching however, defilement is enlightenment and vice versa, and the essence of enlightenment contains defilement and vice versa.

Another important element of Zhili's metaphysical position is a rejection of the view that awareness is primary. Zhili considers any adoption of this idealistic trend which gives ontological priority to the mind to be a corruption of Tiantai thought. According to Zhili, mind has no special ontological status, mental phenomena are on the same ontological level as material phenomena, and as such they are not more real or foundational. Off mountain scholars like Yuanqing had adopted this doctrine and identified it with the Tiantai teaching "three thousand realms in a single thought moment" (yinian sanqian). However, for Zhili, buddha-nature refers to the three truths (emptiness, provisional, and the middle). The unity and perfect harmony of the three truths means that none of them is more ultimate or foundational, all phenomena are inherently included in all others, and thus one cannot speak of any phenomenon as more important or basic. For Zhili, the initial object that one meditates on is the constantly changing and deluded sixth consciousness and its everyday thoughts. Thus, he writes:Just this one single word—inclusion (ju 具)—clearly reveals [the doctrine of] our school. The masters of other schools also know that the Buddha-nature includes good, but none of them know that [Buddha-nature] as Conditioning Cause and as Revealing Cause also includes evil.

Zhili's contribution to the doctrine of inherent evil is deeply intertwined with his philosophical framework, particularly his use of the concept of "identity" (ji 即). He also emphasized the identity of essence (nature) and function (practice). Unlike Huayan (and some Shanwai positions), which might separate the pure principle (essence) from differentiated phenomena arising from conditions (function), Zhili insisted that essence and function are mutually included in and ultimately identical to each other. For Zhili, the principle (essence) inherently includes the functions of all realms even when they do not compassionately adapt to the conditions and needs of beings (i.e. when it is an evil act). This differentiates the Tiantai view from the view that the ultimate principle is only the pure mind as Suchness, which may manifest as good and evil function, but does not include evil function. This emphasis on "identity" is central to Zhili's explanation of the Dharma-gate of Inherent Evil (xing e fa men 性惡法門) which is articulated by the maxim "cultivated evil is identical to inherent evil" (xiu e ji xing e 修惡即性惡). For Zhili, the Tiantai doctrine of "identity" means that the presence of cultivated evil (the afflictions and saṃsāra) are themselves the inherent evil of the ultimate principle. Through this practice, one can recognize the identity of the afflictions and Buddha-nature which is identical to the "poison of principle" which Zhiyi had described as "the undefiled itself is also defilement". Zhili thus criticized the Shanwai faction for arguing that the poison of principle is not identical to the ultimate principle, but that it was the ultimate principle combined with ignorance. Instead, Zhili argues that "since the poison is identical to the nature, the poison itself is that which has the ability to destroy [the poison]. Since the poison is that which can destroy poison, it is absolute in its present entity—then who can say that there is the destroyer and the destroyed."

Zhili used the idea of "inclusion" as the basis for asserting Tiantai's superiority as the supreme Round Teaching over other schools, including Huayan and Chan, and their related factions like Shanwai. He criticized these schools for not fully understanding "inclusion" and for promoting the idea of a pure True Mind that does not include evil, which he saw as dualistic or representing a lesser teaching. As Brook Ziporyn comment, for Zhili, "there has never been a time" when the ultimate principle or true essence was undefiled. Zhili engaged in tough debates to remove the influence of Huayan and Chan thought from Tiantai, powerfully insisting that inherent evil is part of Buddha-nature. His focus on "inherent evil" through the lens of "identity" created a distinct boundary between Tiantai's complete teaching and the understandings of other schools. His theory on the "poison of principle" further solidified this position and influenced later Tiantai thinkers.

Pure Land Buddhism Zhili was a Pure Land devotee and he played a significant role in integrating Tiantai doctrine with Pure Land Buddhist practice, which focused on the recollection of Buddha Amitabha as a means of attaining birth in his pure land of Sukhavati.

Zhili's main theoretical exposition of Tiantai Pure land thought is found in his Commentary on the Subtle Doctrine of the Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra (Guan-jing-shu Miao-zong-chao 觀經疏妙宗鈔). This is a sub-commentary to Zhiyi's commentary to the Amitāyus Contemplation Sūtra (modern scholars question its attribution to Zhiyi). His Pure Land writings focus on interpreting the Contemplation Sutra as a meditation text which belongs to the perfect teaching of Tiantai. According to Zhili, all sixteen meditations taught in the sutra are meditations on the absolute principle (liguan). This is in contrast to how the sutra was interpreted by other Tiantai masters like Zhiyuan, who argued that only the ninth contemplation was a meditation on the absolute principle, while the others were contemplations of the sensory phenomenal aspects of the pure land (shiguan). For Zhili, the Buddha and the pure land are also inherent in sentient beings and in all phenomena, as their inherent enlightenment or buddha-nature (which is identical with the all-pervasive Dharmakāya) and it is precisely because of this that pure land practice is efficacious. When it comes to practice, this means that the meditations on the Buddha taught in the Contemplation Sutra are also a way of meditating on the mind (guanxin) and vice versa. According to Zhili's method of "meditating on Buddha by means of mind" (yuexin guanfo), the meditator contemplates Buddha Amitabha, his characteristics and pure land without seeing them as being outside the mind. However, this contemplation is not idealistic, since it does not claim that Amitabha and his pure land arise solely from mind (as Zhili rejects Huayan style idealism) or exist only in a subject's mind. Instead, this practice is based on the doctrine of the mutual inherence of all phenomena.

Furthermore, according to the off mountain interpretations, while the first three types of pure lands taught in Tiantai's system include form, the supreme kind of pure land, the Land of Eternal Quiescence and Light, was formless and without any characteristics. However, for Zhili, this view contradicts the teaching of mutual inclusion and thus he argued that the supreme pure land has form, and so does the Dharmakaya. The nianfo society was run by lay "assembly heads" who would be in charge of groups of 48 members and would issue nianfo calendars for keeping track of the recitation of the Buddha's name (the main practice taught in the society). Each member would sign up to recite the Buddha's name 1000 times per day, as well as for repenting of their transgressions and for reciting the bodhisattva vows. They would also pass out the nianfo charts or calendars (nianfo tu) to the members, a feat which was completed using woodblock printing technology.

Zhili's society was one of the earliest such lay focused Pure Land societies, a phenomenon which become very popular during and after the Song dynasty. As such it served as a model for similar later Pure Land groups. The society also shows the growth in popularity achieved by Buddhism among the populace during the Song. Instead, Zhili stressed contemplation of the absolute principle and promoted meditation on the mind as the means to realize the Pure Land. He also rejected the idea that Pure Land should be understood as a literal place in space and time. Zhili's approach in these texts was clearly intended for practitioners of higher spiritual aptitude, as he did not address the traditional Pure Land concern of how ordinary beings might attain rebirth there. While some have interpreted Zhili's subcommentary as a correction to misunderstandings about Pure Land within his school, his perspective may also have stemmed from concerns arising from popular practices which deviated from classic Tiantai meditation and ritual teachings in favor simple recitation of nianfo.

Influence This tension between the Tiantai contemplative model of Pure Land practice and the common practices embraced in Pure Land societies became evident in the debates that Zhili's subcommentary sparked throughout the Song period. In the eleventh century, figures such as Yu-yen (d. 1101) and Tse-ying (1055-1099), followers of Pen-ju, composed treatises that minimized Zhili's emphasis on contemplating the absolute principle. Instead, they stressed concrete practices such as nianfo recitation and visualizing Amitabha and his Pure Land. Although influenced by Tiantai doctrine, Yuanzhao, in his commentary on the Contemplation Sutra and other writings, strongly rejected Zhili's approach. He maintained that Pure Land practices and Tiantai meditation methods should remain distinct.

While Zhili's position faced significant opposition during the eleventh century, it experienced a revival in the twelfth century through figures like Tao-yin (1090-1167) and Tao-ch'en, who defended this contemplative emphasis while also acknowledging the value of concrete Pure Land practices. The issue of how these contrasting approaches could be reconciled within Tiantai remained unresolved. When Zongxiao inherited these debates toward the end of the twelfth century, he chose not to attempt a synthesis but instead presented materials from both perspectives in his anthology, the Compendium of the Land of Bliss. Zongxiao's decision to compile these differing viewpoints may reflect his recognition that Pure Land belief and practice could not be fully resolved in any one way.

Works Some of Zhili's key works include:

Commentary on the Essentials of the Ten Gates of Non-Duality (Shibuermen zhi yaochao 十不二門指要鈔), the main work which criticizes the Huayan influenced "one mind" theories of the time. The Book of Ten Meanings (Shi yishu 十義書) Two Hundred Questions on Contemplating the Mind (Guanxin erbai wen 觀心二百問) Commentary on the Subtle Doctrine of the Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra (Guanjingshumiao zong chao 觀經疏妙宗鈔) Record of Recovered Expositions on the Profound Meaning of the Golden Light Sūtra (Jinguangmingxuan yishi yiji 金光明玄義拾遺記) Record of the Sentences of the Golden Light Sūtra (Jinguangmingwen juji 金光明文句記) Record of the Profound Meaning of Guanyin (Guanyinxuan yiji 觀音玄義記) Record of the Commentary on the Meaning of Guanyin (Guanyinyi shuji 觀音義疏記)