The Sanjiejiao ( "Three degrees religion") or Pufazong ( "Popular faith religion") was a religious movement based on the teachings of the

Chan Buddhist Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit '' dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century CE onwards, becoming especially popular during the Tang and So ...

monk Xinxing (, 540-594).

Teachings

Xinxing taught that in the last of the

Three Ages of Buddhism The Three Ages of Buddhism, also known as the Three Ages of the Dharma (), are three divisions of time following Shakyamuni Buddha's death and passing into Nirvana in East Asian Buddhism. Three Ages The Three Ages of Buddhism are three divisi ...

, Buddhists must learn all the Buddhist teachings. He taught

tapas A tapa () is an appetizer or snack in Spanish cuisine. Tapas can be combined to make a full meal, and can be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or hot (such as ''chopitos'', which are battered, fried baby squid, or patatas bravas). In some ...

(ascetic practices), begging for food, eating only one meal daily, worshiping all living things as Buddhas based on the doctrine of the

Buddha-nature Buddha-nature refers to several related Mahayana Buddhist terms, including '' tathata'' ("suchness") but most notably ''tathāgatagarbha'' and ''buddhadhātu''. ''Tathāgatagarbha'' means "the womb" or "embryo" (''garbha'') of the "thus-gone ...

, building public charity "treasure houses" () for monastics and laypeople alike, and

sky burial Sky burial (, "bird-scattered") is a funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds. It is a specific type of the ...

upon death.

History

Based in Hua Du monastery (化度寺) in

Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin Shi ...

, the movement was very popular in 600-700 CE. The monks lived in the Sanjiejiao house, or Sanjieyuan (三階院) inside Buddhist monasteries and built endless treasure houses. Its practices faced heavy criticism from many Buddhists and restriction by Buddhist

Emperor Wen of Sui The Emperor Wen of Sui (; 21 July 541 – 13 August 604), personal name Yang Jian (), Xianbei name Puliuru Jian (), alias Narayana () deriving from Buddhist terms, was the founder and the first emperor of the Chinese Sui dynasty. The ''Book of ...

and

Wu Zetian Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the ''de facto'' ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empres ...

as unorthodox teachings.

Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (; 8 September 685 – 3 May 762), personal name Li Longji, was the seventh emperor of the Tang dynasty in China, reigning from 712 to 756 CE. His reign of 44 years was the longest during the Tang dynasty. In the early ...

ordered the destruction of the Wujinzangyuan, the Sanjieyuan and the school's texts, sparing only the treasure houses. Bhikkhuni Zongjing (總靜) in the Zhixin monastery(直心寺) was a known practitioner who died in 831. Some texts, such as part of the three stages teachings (三階教法) were preserved in Japanese monasteries. Some were also found in

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

texts and grottoes. Charles Muller, East Asian Apocryphal Scriptures: Their Origin and Role in the Development of Sinitic Buddhism
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Notes

Readings

*矢吹慶輝 (Yabuki Keiki), 三階教の研究 (Sangaikyō no kenkyū) (Studies on the Teaching of the Three Stages). Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1927. *西本照真 (Nishimoto Teruma), 三階教の研究 (Sangaikyō no kenkyū). Tokyo: 春秋社(Shunjusha), 1998. *Hubbard, Jamie, Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood: The Rise and Fall of a Chinese Heresy. University of Hawaii Press, 2001. *Hubbard, Jamie
Mo Fa, The three Levels Movement and the Theory of the Three Periods
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 19 (1), 1-17, 1996

External links

*Hubbard Jamie

* ttp://tripitaka.cbeta.org/W09n0076_001 三階教文獻綜述第1卷br> 三阶教研究论著目录
{{Authority control Schools of Buddhism founded in China Chan Buddhism