Toward a New Image of Paramartha: Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha Buddhism Revisited (Bloomsbury Studies in World Philosophies)

Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha are often regarded as antagonistic Indian Buddhist traditions. Paramartha (499-569) is traditionally credited with amalgamating these philosophies by translating one of the most influential Tathagatagarbha texts in East Asia, the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, and introducing Tathagatagarbha notions into his translations of Yogacara texts. Engaging with the digitalized Chinese Buddhist canon, Ching Keng draws on clues from a long-lost Dunhuang fragment and considers its striking similarities with Paramartha's corpus with respect to terminology, style of phrasing, and doctrines. In this cutting-edge interpretation of the concept of jiexing, Keng demystifies the image of Paramartha and makes the case that the fragment holds the key to recover his original teachings "Yogacara and Tathagatagarbha are often regarded as antagonistic Indian Buddhist traditions. Paramartha (499-569) is traditionally credited with amalgamating these philosophies by translating one of the most influential Tathagatagarbha texts in East Asia, the Awakening of Faith in Mahayana, and introducing Tathagatagarbha notions into his translations of Yogacara texts. Engaging with the digitalized Chinese Buddhist canon, Ching Keng draws on clues from a long-lost Dunhuang fragment and considers its striking similarities with Paramartha's corpus with respect to terminology, style of phrasing, and doctrines. In this cutting-edge interpretation of the concept of jiexing, Keng demystifies the image of Paramartha and makes the case that the fragment holds the key to recover his original teachings"-- Provided by publisher Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations and Convention Introduction Chapter 1: Two Competing Readings of the Notion of Jiexing 解性 Chapter 2: Doubts about the Connection between the Awakening of Faith and Paramārtha Chapter 3: A Philological Investigation of Dunhuang Fragment T2805 Chapter 4: Doctrinal Coherence between T2805 and the Works of Paramārtha Chapter 5: Two Shelun Lineages and How the Awakening of Faith Came to Be Attributed to Paramārtha Chapter 6: What Exactly Is Jiexing? Chapter 7: Paramārtha as a Successor to Vasubandhu Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index