Buddhist Philosophy between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun

As part of a Starting Grant funded by the European Research Council (ERC) devoted to the study of Chinese Buddhist philosophy, an international conference on ‘Chinese Buddhist Philosophy: From Three Treatises to Five Schools’ is scheduled to be held at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA), part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (OEAW), in Vienna on 7-8 August 2025.

The research project of which this conference forms parts is titled The Ethics of Empty Beliefs: Chinese Buddhist Philosophy in the ‘Period of Disunity’ (ChinBuddhPhil). Centrally concerned with the Sanlun 三論 school most closely associated with Sengzhao 僧肇 and Jizang 吉藏, the project intends to study Sanlun’s contributions to Chinese Buddhist philosophy in historical and systematic manner, with an especial focus on the ethics of belief. In so doing, the project hopes to transform the conventional understanding of philosophically valuable traditions by demonstrating that Chinese Buddhist philosophers merit consideration not only as historical artifacts but as genuinely interesting and insightful contributors to live philosophical problems. It likewise aims to redress the preponderant exclusion of Chinese perspectives from philosophically oriented scholarship in Buddhist studies, and to do so in a manner that bridges it with philologically oriented Buddhology.

This conference will be devoted to Sanlun in conversation with Chinese Buddhist philosophy broadly speaking. More particularly, the aim is to study the extent and manner in which Sanlun ideas and arguments persisted into later Chinese Buddhist philosophy, with especial attention devoted to unearthing and evaluating the influence of Sanlun thought upon the Chan 禪 , Huayan 華嚴, Jingtu 淨土, Tiantai 天台, and Weishi 唯識 systematic schools of Chinese Buddhist thought and practice following the hitherto largely assumed effective demise of Sanlun at the death of Jizang.

Schedule

Day 1: Thursday 7 August 2025

08.30-08.45 Registration

08.45-09.00 Welcome and Introduction (Rafal K. Stepien)

Panel 1: Conceiving Sanlun

09.00-09.30 On the Notion of a Three Treatises School in Chinese Buddhism (Jackson Macor)

09.30.10.00 Jizang Under Discussion: Positionings of Jizang and About Him (Carsten Krause)

10.00-10.30 Is Jizang Creating a Straw Man? An Examination of Jizang’s Sectarian Consciousness through the Case of the Chengshi-shi (Xueni Lin)

1030-11.00 Coffee Break

Panel 2: Positioning Sanlun

11.00-11.30 On the Meaning of “Jiaming kong” 假名空 in Zhou Yong’s 周顒 Sanzong lu 三宗論 (Sangyop Lee)

11.30-12.00 Ji in the Treatises of Sengzhao (Chu Kwan Chan)

12.00-12.30 In Search for Emptiness: The Role of Dazhi Dulun (大智度論) in Yinshun’s Project of Buddhist Revival in 20th-Century China (Paweł Zygadło)

12.30-14.30 Lunch (for speakers)

Panel 3: Contesting Sanlun

14.30-15.00 When Chan Meets the Logicians: On Miyun Yuanwu (1566-1642)’s Defense of the Chinese Madhyamika theory of No-Motion (Chen-kuo Lin)

15.00-15.30 The Fear of Tigers: From Sengzhao through Zhaoming to Zhiyi (Shad Gilbert)

15.30-16.30 Coffee & Snack Break (for speakers)

16.30-17.00 Deconstruction (po 破) and Construction (li 立) in Tiantai’s, Sanlun’s, and Huayan’s Interpretations of Madhyamaka (Hans-Rudolf Kantor)

17.00-17.30 From Epistemology to Ontology: Tracing “The True Characteristics of All Dharmas” from Early Indic Mahāyāna Buddhist Thought into Huayan Philosophy (Ernest B. Brewster)

17.00-19.00 Break

19.00-21.00 Dinner (for speakers)

Day 2: Friday 8 August 2025

08.30-09.00 Registration

Panel 4: Between Sanlun and Tiantai

09.00-09.30 An Analysis of Jizang’s Interpretation of the “Three Truths” (Henry C. H. Shiu)

09.30.10.00 From the Two Truths to Three Contemplations and then to the Three Thousand Realms in a Single Thought: Bridging Contemplative Visions with the Infiniteness of Reality (Polina Lukicheva)

10.00-10.30 The Bright Moon Unveiled: Jizang and Zhiyi on the Ineffable Reality (Hsun-Mei Chen)

1030-11.00 Coffee Break

Panel 5: Between Sanlun and Chan

11.00-11.30 A Study of Sengzhao’s Thoughts on Ethics and Their Influence on Later Vinaya Tradition (Haishan Zhang)

11.30-12.00 From Dialectics to Awakening: The Influence and Creative Adaptation of Sanlun Two Truths in Chan Buddhism (John Zhao)

12.00-12.30 Jizang’s Interpretation of “Non-attainment” and Its Influence on Chinese Chan Buddhism (Fachi Shi / Shangyuan Yang)

12.30-14.30 Lunch (for speakers)

Panel 6: Sanlun Between India and Japan

14.30-15.00 From Emptiness to the Mere Act of Being Conscious-of (唯識 vijñaptimātrā): Xuanzang’s Indebtedness to and Divergence from Kumārajīva and Jizang (Jan Vihan)

15.00-15.30 Tanluan and the Madhyamaka (Jérôme Ducor)

1530-16.30 Coffee & Snack Break (for speakers)

16.30-17.00 In Defense of Beliefs: Kûkai’s arguments against Jizang (Paulus Kaufmann)

17.00-17.30 Medieval Sanron: From Survival to Revival (Michael Kinadeter)

17.30-17.45 Concluding Remarks (Rafal K. Stepien)

17.15-19.00 Break

19.00-21.00 Dinner (for speakers)

Website

For further information regarding the workshop, please see:

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/fileadmin/project/chinbuddhphil/doc/Sanlun_Conference_2_Poster.pdf

For further information regarding the project overall, please see:

https://www.oeaw.ac.at/projects/chinbuddhphil

Registration

Scholars and members of the public interested in auditing the conference are kindly requested

to contact the project administrator via e-mail by 1 August 2025 at [email protected].

Contact Information

Rafal K. Stepien

Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia

Austrian Academy of Sciences 

Contact Email [email protected]

URL: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/projects/chinbuddhphil/conferences