Sage Fazang (AD 643-AD 7 12), with a common surname of Kang, was born in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan of Emperor Taizong, and died in Dajianfu Temple in Chang 'an on November 14th of the first year of Xuanzong (AD 7 12), with a life span of 70. My ancestral home is Kangju in the western regions, so I take Kang as my surname. He is the third ancestor of Huayan Sect in China, a wise-headed mage, and the first mage in China. The world knows Master Xianshou, Master Xiangxiang, Master Guo Yi and Master Kangzang. He completed the combination of Buddhism and Tibet and the ideas of Du Shun (AD 558-AD 64 1 year) and Zhi Yan (AD 602-AD 668), the founder of Huayan Sect, and established Huayan Sect.
Fazang's great-grandfather and great-grandfather successively served as prime ministers of Kangju, while his grandfather moved to Chang 'an and became an expatriate in China. His father's name is Mi, and he is the left assistant minister of Emperor Taizong. Fazang loved Buddhism since he was a child. At the age of sixteen, he burned his fingers in front of the stupa of Famen Temple in qi zhou, vowing to achieve Buddhism and Taoism. At the age of seventeen, I went to Taibai Mountain to seek dharma and read various Buddhist scriptures. Later, because his mother was ill, he went down to his home. He listened to Zhiyan's lecture on Huayan Sutra in Yunhua Temple for many years and learned the doctrine of Huayan. He is very appreciated by Ji Yan and regards Fazang as his successor. Before he died, he deliberately entrusted his 26-year-old (but still a layman) collection to Daocheng (the year of birth and death is unknown) and Chen Bo (. Two years later, in the first year of Xianheng, Tang Gaozong (AD 670), Wu Zetian wanted to do good for her dead mother, so she donated her house to Taiyuan Temple, and accepted the joint recommendation of Daocheng and Chen Bo, so that 28-year-old Fazang became a monk in Taiyuan Temple and was sworn by Misha to become the abbot of Taiyuan Temple. Later, she gave speeches on Hua Yan Jing in Yunhua Temple and Taiyuan Temple. In the same year, the marquis of Wu ordered the top ten monks in Beijing to give Fazang a foot ring and named it "Xianshou". Since then, Fazang has extensively lectured and written works, and at the invitation of Wu Zetian, he was invited to give lectures at the palace Dojo at any time, and actively participated in activities such as translating scriptures and promoting Buddhism.
Fazang worshiped Huayan Sutra all his life, and took it as his duty to explain the meaning of Huayan Sutra. He translated many classic works in his life, especially the study and translation of Hua Yan Jing. In view of the incomplete translation of Hua Yan Jing (known as "Sixty Hua Yan" in the world) at that time, there were some missing articles in Ru Fa, and he deeply hoped to get the complete version of Hua Yan Jing. In the first year of Yonglong (AD 680), Divākara (AD 6 13- AD 687), a Samoan from China, went to Chang 'an with Brahma, and Fazang made a detailed collation with him. Sure enough, he found two missing words, so he asked Divā Kara to translate them and make them up, which is the entry of Hua Yan Jing of Dafang Guangfo.
After Wu Zetian acceded to the throne, she sent messengers to Khotan to obtain the Sanskrit version of Huayan Sutra, and invited Siksananda, a Samana in Khotan, to retranslate Huayan Sutra in the year of Shengyuan (AD 695). Fazang was ordered to be the pen receiver (responsible for writing down the translation), and this work lasted for five years until the second year of Li Sheng (AD 699). Although the Tathagata, Samadha of Pu Xian, Huayan World, Shi Ding and other products (9,000 poems) have been added, two classics were supplemented by Shipo Shiro in that year, so the French collection supplemented them, and the two versions of Jin and Tang Dynasties were carefully compared with Brahma's version, so that the new version of Huayan Classic was smooth and fair. For more than 30 years, Fazang has been engaged in the translation of Buddhist scriptures day and night, which has made great contributions to the translation and filling of Huayanjing, and can be said to be an important translator of Buddhist scriptures in the Tang Dynasty.
Fazang wrote more than 100 volumes in his life, and there were nearly 20 kinds of works about Hua Yan Jing. As a descendant of Huayan Sect, Fazang not only inherited the thought of Zhiyan Monk, but also absorbed the theoretical theories of Tiantai Sect and Zhishi Sect, founded Huayan Sect, and classified various Buddhist ideological systems into five religions and ten sects. It advocates that Hua Yan Yi organization is the ultimate Buddhist theory, and creatively explains and develops it from the fundamental standpoint of harmony, thus constructing Hua Yan Zong's ideological system with "the origin of legal circles" as its main feature. He devoted his whole life to the expansion and reform of the translated version of Hua Yan Jing and the teaching of righteousness, and preached it more than 30 times. His works, such as Exploring Yan Jing, Five Chapters of Hua Yan, and Revising Yan Ao in China, are all important works of Hua Yanzong and have made great efforts for the prosperity of China.
Fazang tried to integrate various Buddhist theories by logical methods, and regarded the development of Buddhist theories as a logical development process from small to large, from beginning to end, from slow to sudden, from partial to round, and integrated the different thoughts of emptiness and duality with Hua Yan's theory, thus establishing a Hua Yan ideological system with China characteristics, including four legal circles (legal circles; Legal profession; Directors do not interfere in the legal profession; Everything does not hinder the dharma world), six-phase integration (total phase, heterogeneous phase, same phase, heterogeneous phase and bad phase), ten mysterious doors (with corresponding doors at the same time, one-to-many compatibility with different doors, all dharma doors are free doors, Indra's pure realm doors, refined compatibility doors, implicit introduction, all treasures are pure and miscellaneous, and the ten-time separation method is different, and the heart turns. On the basis of "judging teaching" (that is, judging or formulating the significance and position of various classics mentioned by the Buddha), he put forward his five teaching theories of "small, beginning, end, sudden and round", namely Hinayana teaching, Mahayana teaching, Mahayana teaching, Mahayana teaching and Mahayana teaching, and made the following judgments on Hua Yanzong's theory.
French-Tibetan teaching makes good use of some teaching AIDS and metaphors, which makes complicated and obscure teaching easy for listeners to master. On one occasion, he invited Wu Zetian to give a lecture on Huayan Sutra in the Palace of Eternal Life. The marquis of Wu couldn't understand the meaning, so Fazang pointed to the golden lion metaphor in the town hall. After hearing this, Wuhou was at a loss and praised it greatly. Disciples from France and Tibet recorded and sorted out this lecture, which is the existing Hua Yan Golden Lion. Because the content recorded in this chapter is the mature thought of Fazang in his later years, it has become the most famous one in Hua Yanzong.
Although Fazang was a master of the Five Emperors (after Emperor Gaozong, Wu Zetian, Zhongzong, Zong Rui and Xuanzong) and was well received by the imperial court, he was never arrogant and did not admire Rong Chong. He always takes discipline as the way to treat others, and carries forward Hua Yan's thought first. Famous disciples include Hong (unknown year of birth and death), Wen Chao (unknown year of birth and death), Guang Zhi (unknown year of birth and death), Zong Yi (unknown year of birth and death) and Hui Yuan (673-? ), Huiying (the year of birth and death is unknown) and other six people. The greatest achievement of his life is to establish a harmonious philosophy system with "reason" and "thing" together with Hua Yan. It will integrate the teachings of various schools of Buddhism and the essence of China traditional culture, shortening the distance between the ideal realm of Buddhism and the real society, thus being believed by the world, having an important impact on the emergence of Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties and becoming an indispensable theoretical link in the transition from Buddhism in the Sui and Tang Dynasties to Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties.
From the macro perspective of religious communication, his thought of Hua Yan spread to Silla (present-day South Korea) through his classmates and to Japan through his disciple Shen Xiangshi. The increasing number of believers eventually led Emperor Shengwu to build a magnificent Dongda Temple for Huayan Sect in 743 AD (15th year of Tian Ping), which is still revered by Japan and its people. It can be said that this is Faxian's great contribution and historical influence to the cultural exchanges between China, South Korea and China and Japan.