Tiāntái fēnmén tú 天台分門圖
Tiantai Doctrinal-Division Diagram (anonymous Dunhuang manuscript)
About the work
The Tiāntái fēnmén tú (T2824) is a one-fascicle Dunhuang manuscript preserving a diagrammatic / outline presentation of Tiantai 天台 doctrinal categories (fēnmén 分門, “doctrinal division”). The text functions as a study aid — a chart of categories used by Tiantai exegesis — rather than a continuous prose work.
Prefaces
The text is preserved in tabular / outline format with little continuous prose; no preface or colophon survives.
Abstract
The Fēnmén tú genre is a familiar Tang-period Buddhist scholastic genre — diagrammatic charts of doctrinal categories for use in monastic teaching. Tiantai doctrine, with its complex wǔ shí bā jiào 五時八教 (five periods, eight teachings) classification scheme and the yīniàn sānqiān / sāndì / sāncháng triads, was particularly amenable to charting. The Dunhuang manuscript represents the provincial reception of the metropolitan Tiantai tradition, presumably brought to the Hexi corridor by traveling Tiantai scholars.
The text’s placement in this division (KR6i, miscellaneous Buddhist texts) rather than under Tiantai works proper reflects its lack of a settled sectarian-affiliation in the Taishō editorial scheme.
Translations and research
- Pelliot, Paul. Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits chinois. Paris, 1908.