Korean Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

Uisang (625-702), the founder of the Korean Hwaeom tradition, was a contemporary of Fazang (643-712), the de facto founder of the Chinese Huayan tradition. Although Uisang is generally regarded as having advanced a more practice-oriented form of thought than Fazang, thinkers in both traditions developed doctrinal classification systems intended to demonstrate both the superiority and the comprehensiveness of Huayan teaching. These systems therefore comprised two dimensions: distinct teaching, which emphasizes superiority, and common teaching, which emphasizes inclusiveness. In this framework, common teaching indicates that the teaching of the three vehicles functions as an expedient means within, or is encompassed by, the Huayan teaching of the one vehicle.
However, in the thought of Zhiyan (602-668) and Fazang, the concept of common teaching includes not only comprehensiveness but also a directional aspect, namely a movement “from the one vehicle to the three vehicles.” This feature renders the scope of common teaching somewhat ambiguous. In response, Hwaeom thinkers of Uisang’s lineage, in the Beopgyedogi chongsurok, explained the common teaching of the one vehicle either as the mutual interpenetration of the one vehicle and the three vehicles or as a mediating device that leads practitioners toward the distinct teaching of the one vehicle. Although this interpretation did not entirely resolve the theoretical ambiguities left by earlier Huayan thinkers, it carried rich implications for religious practice. By contrast, Chinese Huayan thinkers of the Song period tended to emphasize only the directional aspect of common teaching and to restrict its scope to the perfect teaching, the highest category in the fivefold doctrinal classification. Although this tendency may be understood as an effort to secure greater theoretical clarity, it may also be seen as the result of a concern with sectarian orthodoxy.
Nevertheless, both traditions regarded the distinct teaching of the one vehicle as the final goal. A balanced understanding of East Asian Huayan scholasticism therefore requires attention to both its theoretical and its practical dimensions.