Táng hùfǎ shāmén Fǎlín biézhuàn 唐護法沙門法琳別傳
Separate Biography of the Dharma-Defender, the Śrāmaṇa Fǎlín, of the Táng
composed by 彥琮 (Yàncóng, fl. mid-7th c., 撰), Táng disciple of 法琳
About the work
A three-juan biography of 法琳 (Fǎlín, 572–640) — the great Táng-period Buddhist polemicist who defended Buddhism against Daoist attacks at the early-Táng court — composed by his disciple 彥琮 (the Táng 彥琮, not the homonymous Suí translator). The text is one of the principal Chinese Buddhist apologetic-historiographical sources of the early Táng and survives in the Taishō (T50 no. 2051). It is to be carefully distinguished from the translation activities of the earlier Suí monk 彥琮 (557–610) — they share a name but are different historical persons.
Abstract
法琳 was the most prominent Buddhist apologist of the early Táng dynasty. Born in 572 in Yǐngchuān 潁川, he entered the saṃgha and rose to be one of the chief defenders of Buddhism at the Táng court — composing the great polemical treatises Pò xié lùn 破邪論 (“Treatise Demolishing Heresy”) and Biàn zhèng lùn 辯正論 (“Treatise Setting Forth the Correct”), which have been preserved in KR6t0001 and adjacent Buddhist apologetic compendia. His confrontations with the Daoist establishment, especially under Tàizōng 太宗 (r. 626–649), led to repeated imperial debates and eventually to a charge of lèsé majesté in 638, for which he was sentenced to death; the sentence was commuted, and he died in exile in 640.
The biézhuàn by his disciple 彥琮 gives a detailed narrative of 法琳’s life and especially of his polemical career. The composition window is set by 法琳’s death (640) and the disciple’s productive period; a bracket of approximately 640–650 is standard. The work is the principal source for early-Táng Buddhist-Daoist polemic at the imperial court. It records 法琳’s exchanges with 傅奕 (Fù Yì, the Confucian-Daoist anti-Buddhist memorialist), the imperial debates, and the texts of 法琳’s formal defences — making it both a biography and a documentary appendix.
Translations and research
- Thomas Jülch, Bodhisattva of the Frontier and his series of articles on early-Táng Buddhist apologetic literature — the principal Western-language scholarship; uses KR6r0041 as a central source.
- Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Leiden, 1959/2007) — for the broader context of Buddhist-Daoist polemic.
- Stephen Bokenkamp, “Time After Time: Taoist Apocalyptic History and the Founding of the T’ang Dynasty,” Asia Major 7.1 (1994): 59–88.
- Léon Vandermeersch, La voie royale (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1977) — institutional context.
Links
- CBETA: T50n2051