Tan-luan

Tánluán(Chinese:Đàm loan;Japanese pronunciation:Donran,476–542) was a ChineseBuddhist monk.He is credited byHōnenas the founder ofPure Land Buddhismin China. He is also considered the Third Patriarch ofJōdo Shinshū,a popular school ofBuddhism in Japan.

Tanluan was originally a Buddhist scholar, but after becoming ill, he studiedTaoismin order to seek theElixir of Life.However, after an encounter withBodhiruci,a Buddhist monk from India, Tanluan became a devotee ofPure Land Buddhismand burnt his Taoist texts.

Tanluan later wrote hisCommentaryon Vasubandhu'sTreatise on the Pure Land.The commentary taught that the all beings could be reborn inSukhavati,thepure landofAmitābha,through sincerenianfo(recitation of a Buddha's name).

Tanluan also had a strong impact onDaochuo,revered as the Fourth Patriarch of the Jōdo Shinshū school, who once visited his temple.

Literature

• Inagaki, Hisao: T'an-luan's Commentary on Vasubandhu's Discourse on the Pure Land, A Study and Translation [T. 40, 1819]; Kyōto, Nagata Bunshōdō, 1998.
• Tanluan: Commentaire au Traité de la naissance dans la Terre Pure de Vasubandhu, texte établi, annoté et traduit par Jérôme Ducor (Bibliothèque chinoise, vol. 31); Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2021; 310 pp. (ISBN978-2-251-45089-6)
• Shinko Mochizuki, Leo M. Pruden,Trans. (2000). Pure Land Buddhism in China: A Doctrinal History, Chapter 7: T'an-luan. In: Pacific World Journal, Third Series, Number 2, 149–165. Archived from theoriginal
• Yukio Yamada (2000). T'an-luan's Theory of Two Kinds of Dharma-body as Found in Shinran's Wago Writings, Pacific World Journal, Third Series, Number 2, 99-113. Archived from theoriginal
• Ryusei Takeda (2000). The Theoretical Structure of "Birth in the Pure Land": Based on the Meaning of T'an-luan's "Birth through Causal Conditions", Pacific World Journal, Third Series, Number 2, 31–60. Archived from theoriginal
• Shoji Matsumoto (1986).The Modern Relevance of Donran's Pure Land Buddhist Thought,Pacific World Journal New Series 2, 36-41