What is ‘Buddhism(佛敎)’ in the early Huayan school in East Asia? - with relation to Buddhavacana, Buddhaśāsana, Dharmadhātu and Myself

Park, Boram

doi:10.29213/crbs..9.201106.186

This paper is to explore what is ‘Buddhism(佛敎)’ in the light of the early Huayan school in East Asia. ‘Buddhism’ can have diverse meanings according to historical or theoretical backgrounds but it can be said generally that ‘Buddhism’ has meant Buddhavacana which is Buddha’s speech, or Buddhaśāsana which refers to Buddha’s teaching in the East Asian Buddhist tradition. Thus discussions on the substance of ‘Buddhism’ have been produced in regard to Buddhavacana or Buddhaśāsana. Zhiyan(智儼, 602~668 C.E.) of the Huayan school in Tang dynasty made an acculturation in this duscussions on ‘Buddhism’. He established a new theory about the substance of ‘Buddhism’ by merging Buddha’sspeech with Buddha’s teaching and made it as one way of annotating sūtras. Then, Fazang(法藏, 643~712 C.E.) understood ‘Buddhism’, merged by Zhiyan as dharmadhātu. Due to this, ‘Buddhism’, getting out of the category of the doctrines which teach(能詮敎) or the meanings which are taught(所詮義), was expanded to dharmadhātu(法界). Before him, whatever ‘Buddhism’ is explained, it is speech or meaning but, as for him, ‘Buddhism’ which means Buddha’s speech and Buddha’s teaching is just dharmadhātu itself. Ŭisang(義湘, 625~702 C.E.), earlier than Fazang, explained ‘Buddhism’ which meant dharmadhātu in Fazang as one’s own body. However, it is not just rhetoric phrases which express the possibility of becoming a buddha. My own body which is Tathāgata as originally arisen is Buddha’s speech and Buddha’s teaching as well as dharmadhātu as it is. In Ŭisang’s Huayan doctrine, my each and every action and my single and every word are just Buddha’s teaching and Buddha’s speech and you cannot find dharmadhātu elsewhere.

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