Chōzen 澄禪 (Chéngchán; conventional dates 1227–1307), Japanese Tōdaiji 東大寺 Sanron 三論 monk of the Kamakura period. The DILA Buddhist Person Authority records this person under the graphic variant 證禪 Shōzen (A001909); the zhèng 證 vs. chéng 澄 distinction reflects a stable old variation in Japanese Sanron transmission. His Sanron honorific style was Chūkan 中觀 (“Middle-Vision”), under which he signed his colophons.
He composed his major work, the seven-fascicle KR6m0028 Sānlùn xuányì jiǎnyōu jí 三論玄義檢幽集 (T70n2300), at the Kohata Nan’in 木幡南院 sub-temple of Tōdaiji on the night of Kōan 3 / 11.21 = 15 December 1280, securely dated by the work’s own colophon. The 1280 preface is a striking biàntǐ lament for the decline of the Sanron xuánfēng and is one of the more affecting Kamakura-period Buddhist statements of a sectarian tradition’s incipient extinction. T2300 is the principal Kamakura-period prose-commentary on 吉藏 Jízàng’s Sānlùn xuányì (T1852 = KR6m0026).
DILA Buddhist Person Authority A001909.
Works:
- KR6m0028 Sānlùn xuányì jiǎnyōu jí 三論玄義檢幽集 (T70n2300), 7 fasc., 1280.