The Doctrines of Perfect Teaching in Ch'eng-Kuan's Introduction to His Commentary on the Hua-Yen-Ching

Ch'eng-kuan (738-839), the fourth patriarch of the Hua-yen school devided the introduction -- titled -t'an -- to his commentaries on Hua-yen-ching into ten sections. These sections can be found in his predecessors' commentaries on Hua-yen-ching, but the names and the succesion of the ten sections are different in their works. Ch'eng-kuan made two significant changes in his system: 1. the tripi.taka and the teachings are placed side by side in the second section 2. the division of doctrines is taken from the ninth section to the third, next to the tripi.taka and teachings. Moreover, Ch'eng-kuan was the first who attempted to give reasons for the succesion of ten sections. He starts from the Buddhist teaching in general and arrives at the explication of the text of the suutra. This must be the reason why he placed the division of doctrines right after the discussion of different branches of Buddhist teaching. Ch'eng-kuan discusses the perfect teaching, the teaching of the Hua-yen school in the third section, the division of doctrines. He devides this section into four parts: I. The support of essence and phenomena; II. The reversion of everything to reality; III. The clarification of non-obstruction; IV. Total pervasion and accommodation. These four parts can be related to the four dharma-dhaatus. The first corresponds to the dharma-dhaatu of phenomena, the second to the dharma-dhaatu of principle, the third to the dharma-dhaatu of non-obstruction of principle and phenomena, and the fourth to the dharma-dhaatu of non-obstruction of phenomena and phenomena. In his discussion of perfect teaching he made a synthesis of Discernment of Dharma-dhaatu with Fa-tsang's ten profound principles. In our analysis of the text, we have shed light on his several borrowings from Hui-y n. Despite his strong criticism against Hui-y n, he is, certainly, indebted to him.