Project

Jizang's (549-623) "Meaning of the Two Truths" in East Asian Madhyamaka—The Three Treatises Tradition

Program

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Translation Grants in Buddhist Studies

Department

Asian Humanities

Abstract

"The Meaning of the Two Truths" by Jizang (549-623) is an influential text shaped by an exegetical tradition in medieval China that based its interpretations of Buddhist doctrinal literature from India on the "Three Treatises" attributed to the early Madhyamaka masters Nagarjuna and Aryadeva. The project focuses on the translation of this work of Jizang, who developed his understanding of the two truths by discussing and refuting other positions and interpretations of his time. The result of the translation shows the Western reader the philosophical diversity in the Chinese Buddhist debates of the sixth century.