Topic summary
Chinese Buddhist
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Chinese Buddhism.
Doctrine and texts
Chinese Buddhist philosophy contains various doctrinal traditions, the most important being the Tiantai, Huayan, Sanlun, and Weishi schools of thought. These doctrinal traditions developed their own scriptural commentaries and treatises and also various doctrinal classifications (panjiao), which hierarchically ordered the mass of Buddhist scriptures in order to advance their school's hermeneutical worldview. For example, according to master Zhiyi's "eight teachings and five periods" classification, the final and supreme teaching of the Buddha is found in the Lotus Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra. According to Huayan masters such as Fazang, the Huayan Sutra contains the supreme teaching, while the Weishi school held that the Yogachara texts are where the "third turning" of the Dharma can be found, and thus, represent the final and ultimate teaching of the Buddha.