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佛性論

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Text ID
KR6n0087
Date
558–569
Dynasty
陳

Fóxìng lùn 佛性論

Treatise on Buddha-Nature by 天親菩薩 (Tiānqīn púsà = Vasubandhu, 造, attributed) and 真諦 (Zhēndì = Paramārtha, 譯)

About the work

A four-fascicle Buddhist philosophical treatise on the doctrine of fóxìng 佛性 — Buddha-nature, tathāgatagarbha — translated into Chinese by 真諦 (Paramārtha) in his Chén-period activity, c. 558–569. The catalog attributes the work to Vasubandhu, but the modern critical literature regards this attribution as either pseudepigraphic or as referring to an Indian text now lost in Sanskrit and Tibetan that incorporated Vasubandhu materials with later Tathāgatagarbha doctrine. Four fascicles. The text is one of the most important sources of the Tathāgatagarbha tradition in East Asian Buddhism.

Structural Division

CANWWW does not preserve a structural division for T31N1610. The four juǎn are internally organised into sixteen chapters covering: (1) the establishment of the doctrine; (2) the refutation of opposing positions; (3) the analysis of the substantial subjects of Buddha-nature; (4) the analysis of the trikāya; etc.

Abstract

The Fóxìng lùn is one of the principal Tathāgatagarbha doctrinal texts in Chinese, and the principal source for the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature in the ChénSòngSuí period. The Vasubandhu attribution is doctrinally strained: while Vasubandhu’s authentic late-Yogācāra works are compatible with the Ratnagotravibhāga tradition’s tathāgatagarbha doctrine to a point, the Fóxìng lùn is doctrinally far more developed in its synthesis of Yogācāra ālayavijñāna doctrine with the Ratnagotravibhāga / Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra tradition of tathāgatagarbha / fóxìng than anything in Vasubandhu’s secure corpus. The text is best understood as a Paramārtha-school synthesis of late-Indian Yogācāra and tathāgatagarbha doctrine, possibly drawing on materials Vasubandhu wrote but extensively reworked.

The work is doctrinally close to Paramārtha’s KR6n0061 Shè dàshèng lùn shì and KR6n0079 Sān wúxìng lùn — together they constitute the Shèlùn-school synthesis position on the relationship between ālaya, amala-vijñāna, and tathāgatagarbha. The dating bracket (558–569) reflects standard Paramārtha late-period range. The Fóxìng lùn was extensively cited in the Sui-Tang Tathāgatagarbha-school Chinese commentaries — particularly in the Tian-tai and Hua-yan schools — and remains a foundational text in East Asian Buddhist doctrine.

Translations and research

  • King, Sallie B. Buddha Nature. Albany: SUNY Press, 1991. (Translation and study of the Fó-xìng lùn.)
  • Takasaki Jikidō 高崎直道. A Study on the Ratnagotravibhāga. Roma: IsMEO, 1966.
  • Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Shintai sanzō kenkyū ronshū. Kyoto, 2012.
  • Paul, Diana Y. Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China. Stanford, 1984.

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