Tattvasiddhi

TheTattvasiddhi-Śāstra( "The Treatise that Accomplishes Reality";Chinese:Thành thật luận, Chengshilun;Japanese pronunciation:Jōjitsu-ron,also reconstructed asSatyasiddhi-Śāstra), is an IndianAbhidharmaBuddhist text by a figure known as Harivarman (250–350).^[1]^[2]

It was translated into Chinese in 411 byKumārajīvaand this translation (Taishō number: T1646) is the only extant version, which became popular in China.^[1]^[3]^[4]This text was translated into English by N. Aiyaswami Sastri in 1978.^[5]

Author and school affiliation

What little information exists aboutHarivarmanis from Chinese sources which put him sometime between 250 and 350 CE.^[6]According to Xuanzang's biography, Harivarman was born a Brahmin, ordained with theSarvāstivāda,and became a student of the Sarvāstivāda teacherKumāralāta(possibly the same as the original teacher ofSautrantika) who taught him the "great Abhidharma of Kātyāyana ( già chiên duyên ) with thousands of gāthās" probably theJnanaprasthana.^[7]However Harivarman was unhappy with the Abhidharma teachings and spent years studying the sutras to find the source of the disputes of the differentAbhidharmaschools and after engaged in many debates with various Abhidharma teachers, becoming unpopular among them. Xuanchang says he later took up living among theMahāsāṅghikasand wrote the Tattvasiddhi while living inPataliputra.The goal of this work was to “eliminate confusion and abandon the later developments, with the hope of returning to the origin”^[8]

The school affiliation of the author and his text has been debated for hundreds of years, even the early Chinese sources disagree. Jizang ( cát tàng 549–623 CE) states that various Chinese teachers consider him as being either a Dharmaguptaka, a Sautrantika, a Dārṣṭāntika, an eclectic teacher, aBahuśrutīyaor a Mahayanist.^[9]Three monks,Zhiyi(531–597),Jizang(549–623) and Jingying, labeled it aHinayanaschool; it wasDaoxuan(596–667) who first identified it as Sautrāntika.^[3]

The Japanese scholars Katsura Shōryu and Fukuhara Ryōgon, in analyzing the doctrinal content, maintain that Harivarman is closest to theBahuśrutīyaschool.^[10]This is also the position of A.K. Warder.^[11]Kumārajīva's student Sengrui discovered Harivarman had refused theabhidharmaschools' approach to Buddhist seven times in the text, suggesting a strong sectarian division between them and the Sautrāntikas.^[3]

Qian Lin notes the difficulty of using doctrinal analysis to pin down a specific school affiliation due to the fluidity of said schools and the terms used to refer to them. He cautiously places him among the Dārṣṭāntika-Sautrāntika.^[12]

Content

The Tattvasiddhi is preserved in sixteen fascicles in the Chinese with 202 chapters, it is organized according to the four noble truths.^[13]

I. Introduction ( phát tụ ) (chapters 1–35)

The three treasures of Buddhism ( tam bảo ) (1–12)
Introduction to the treatise and its content (13–18)
Ten points of controversy (19–35)

II. The truth of suffering ( khổ đế tụ ) (36–94)

Form (rūpa sắc ) (36–59)
Consciousness (vijñāna thức ) (60–76)
Apperception (saṃjñā tưởng ) (77)
Feeling (vedanā chịu ) (78–83)
Volitional formations (saṃskāra hành ) (84–94)

III. The truth of origin ( tập đế tụ ) (95–140)

Karma ( nghiệp ) (95–120)
Defilements ( phiền não kleśa) (121–140)

IV. The truth of cessation ( diệt đế tụ ) (141–154)

V. The truth of the path ( nói đế tụ ) (155–202)

Concentration ( định samādhi) (155–188)
Insight ( tuệ prajñā) (189–202)

In the text Harivarman attacks theSarvastivadaschool's doctrine of "all exists" and the Pudgalavada theory of person. TheTattvasiddhiincludes the teaching ofdharma-śūnyatā,the emptiness of phenomena.^[14]This text also mentions the existence of aBodhisattvaPiṭaka.^[15]A central teaching of the text is that dharmas have no substance or substratum, they appear real but they are "like bubbles or like a circle of fire seen when a rope torch is whirled around very quickly."^[16]Harivarman writes:

"All parts being analyzed again and again are reduced to atoms which again being broken become non-existent. All things culminate necessarily in the idea ofShunyata."^[17]

Another important argument covered in the text is on the relationship between mind or consciousness (citta) andmental factors(caitasikas). Harivarman argues against the common Abhidharma idea of "association" (samprayoga) which held that caitasikas and citta were separate elemental constituents of experience which "associate" or join together.^[18]Instead, according to Lin, his view is that "“mental factors” are not actually things different from consciousness but are in their nature precisely consciousness manifested in different modes ".^[19]

The Tattvasiddhi outlines a conception of thetwo truths doctrine,explaining conventional or nominal truth and ultimate truth.^[20]

The Tattvasiddhi also outlines the importance of asamadhiwhich is a "cause of knowledge of things as they are, which is the same as knowledge ofShunyata."^[21]

Chinese sect

The Tattvasiddhi school (Chinese:Thành thật tông;pinyin:Chéngshí zōng;Japanese pronunciation:Jōjitsu-shū) was a sect based on theTattvasiddhiwhich was influential but short-lived in India and had a brief continuation in China and theAsukaandNara periodsof Japan.

The Tattvasiddhi was initially promoted by three of Kumarajiva's students, Sengrui ( tăng duệ or tăng duệ, ca. 4th–5th c. CE), Sengdao ( tăng đạo 362–457 CE) and Sengsong ( tăng tung date unknown).^[22]Sengdao wrote a commentary on the text and his lineage was centered in Shouchun while the lineage of Sengson was centered in Pengcheng.

Other major expounders of the Tattvasiddhi inChinainclude the group named "Three Great Masters of theLiang dynasty":Sengmin ( tăng mân, 467–527), Zhizang ( trí tàng ) (458–522) and Fayun ( pháp vân, 467–529), who initially interpreted the sect asMahayanain outlook.^[3]The three of them in turn received instructions in this treatise from the monk Huici ( tuệ thứ, 434–490). The three of them also possibly influenced the writing of theSangyō Gisho,a sutra commentary supposedly authored byPrince Shōtoku.

The tradition of the Tattvasiddhi remained strong up until theTang dynasty,up to 24 commentaries were written on the text, all of which are now lost.^[23]The Madhyamaka teacherJizang(549–623) strongly criticized the work as "Hinayana" (lesser vehicle) and possibly due to the rise of new more influential schools such as the Huayan and Tiantai schools, the Chinese tradition of the Tattvasiddhi died out.^[24]

Japan

It was introduced to Japan asJōjitsuin 625 by themonkEkwan ofGoryeo.In Japan, it was classified as one of the three approaches ofEast Asian Mādhyamakainstead of a separate lineage.^[25]East Asian Mādhyamaka(Tam luận tông,Sanron-shū)was one of thesix Nara sects(Nam đều sáu tông,Nanto Rokushū).^[26]

References

^^a ^bBuswell & Lopez 2013,p. 180.
^Takakusu 2002,p. 74.
^^a ^b ^c ^dTakakusu 2002,p. 75.
^Lin, p. 3
^N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, 571 pages.
^Lin, p. 13-14
^Lin, p. 14-15
^Lin, p. 15-16
^Lin, p. 19
^Lin, p. 19-20
^Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism, page 398.
^Lin, p. 23
^Lin, pg 32–33.
^Skilton, Andrew.A Concise History of Buddhism.2004. pp. 91–92
^Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett.Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism.1997. p. 9
^Petzold, Bruno; The Classification of Buddhism 1995, page 441.
^N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 337.
^Lin, pg 10.
^Lin, pg 10.
^N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 334-335.
^N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 361.
^Lin, pg 29
^Lin, pg 30
^Lin, pg 31
^Takakusu 2002,p. 76.
^Buswell & Lopez 2013,p. 547.

Bibliography

Buswell, Robert;Lopez, Donald S.(2013).The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.Princeton University Press.ISBN 978-0-691-15786-3.
Rahder, Johannes."Harivarman's Satyasiddhi-sastra". Philosophy East & West, V. 5 (January, 1956) p. 348.
Shi, Zhangqing (2004).The Two Truths in Chinese Buddhism.Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-81-208-2035-7.
Takakusu, Junjirō(2002).The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy.Motilal Banarsidass.ISBN 978-81-208-1592-6.
Lin, Qian.Mind in Dispute: The Section on Mind in Harivarman’s *Tattvasiddhi,University of Washington

[FOOTNOTEBuswellLopez2013180-1] Buswell & Lopez 2013,p. 180.

[FOOTNOTETakakusu200274-2] Takakusu 2002,p. 74.

[FOOTNOTETakakusu200275-3] Takakusu 2002,p. 75.

[4] Lin, p. 3

[5] N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, 571 pages.

[6] Lin, p. 13-14

[7] Lin, p. 14-15

[8] Lin, p. 15-16

[9] Lin, p. 19

[10] Lin, p. 19-20

[11] Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism, page 398.

[12] Lin, p. 23

[13] Lin, pg 32–33.

[14] Skilton, Andrew.A Concise History of Buddhism.2004. pp. 91–92

[15] Williman, Charles. Dessein, Bart. Cox, Collett.Sarvastivada Buddhist Scholasticism.1997. p. 9

[16] Petzold, Bruno; The Classification of Buddhism 1995, page 441.

[17] N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 337.

[18] Lin, pg 10.

[19] Lin, pg 10.

[20] N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 334-335.

[21] N. Aiyaswami Sastri; Satyasiddhisastra of Harivarman Issue 165 of Gaekwad's oriental series, Oriental Institute, 1978. Length, page 361.

[22] Lin, pg 29

[23] Lin, pg 30

[24] Lin, pg 31

[FOOTNOTETakakusu200276-25] Takakusu 2002,p. 76.

[FOOTNOTEBuswellLopez2013547-26] Buswell & Lopez 2013,p. 547.

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