Sengzhao

Sengzhao ( Chinese  僧肇 , Pinyin Sēngzhào , W.-G. Seng-chao ; Japanese 僧肇 , Sōjō ; approx. 374 - approx . 414 ) was a Buddhist monk scholar and philosopher who lived at the time of the Sixteen Kingdoms . His greatest achievement is the collection of essays Zhao lun ( 肇 論 , Zhàolùn  - “ Tracts of Zhao”) that he wrote, in which the philosophical mysticism of Madhyamaka was presented for the first time in Chinese . Heinrich Dumoulin , who considered Sengzhao to be the forerunner of the Chan school, judged him: "The heyday of Buddhism in China at the turn of the 5th century did not produce a brilliant representative [...]".

Life

Usually biographical descriptions of the life of Sengzhao refer to the Gaoseng zhuan from the year 519. After that he came from a poor family in Jingzhao ( 京兆 , Jīngzhào ) and worked as a copyist at a young age , which enabled him to work with the works of Zhuangzi and Laozi was trusted. However, after reading the Vimalakirti Sutra , he turned enthusiastically to Buddhism and became a monk. In the following years he joined the famous Kumārajīva , with whom he intensively deepened his understanding of Buddhism as a personal student and whom he helped with the translation of the Indian scriptures of Buddhism into Chinese.

The preferred subjects in Sengzhao's own writings are Prajna , Shunyata, and Nirvana . He interpreted these Indian terms with terms from traditional Chinese philosophy and contemporary Neo-Daoism , such as B. Wu wei (non-action). He adopted the principle of non-differentiation from Taoist scriptures, which he adopted in his interpretation of the Indian scriptures.

Web links

• Literature by and about Sengzhao in the catalog of the German National Library
• Jeffrey Dippmann:  Sengzhao. In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinrich Dumoulin: History of Zen Buddhism. Volume I: India and China. Francke-Verlag, Bern 1985. p. 74.