Kuiji

Kuiji on the DRL

Classical Chinese Authors

窺基

English Phonetics	Kuiji
Sort Name	Kuiji

Dates

Birth:	632
Death:	682

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Biographical Information

Kuiji. (J. Kiki; K. Kyugi 窺基) (632-682). Scholar-monk of the Tang dynasty, commonly regarded as the founder of the Faxiang zong of Chinese Yogācāra Buddhism. Orphaned as a boy, Kuiji was ordained as a teenager and assigned to the imperial translation bureau in the Tang capital; there, he emerged as one of the principal disciples of Xuanzang, under whom he studied Sanskrit and Indian Buddhist abhidharma and Yogācāra scholasticism. He participated in Xuanzang's numerous translation projects and is closely associated with the redaction of the Cheng weishi lun, which included extensive selections from ten Indian commentaries. Kuiji played a crucial role in selecting and evaluating the various doctrinal positions that were to be summarized in the text. Kuiji subsequently wrote a series of lengthy commentaries on Dharmapāla's doctrinally conservative lineage of Vijñaptimātratā-Yogācāra philosophy. His elaborate and technical presentation of Yogācāra philosophy, which came to be designated pejoratively as Faxiang (Dharma Characteristics), contrasted markedly with the earlier Chinese Yogācāra school established by Paramārtha. Because he resided and eventually died at Daci’ensi, he is often known as Ci’en dashi (J. Jion daishi; K. Chaǔn taesa), the Great Master of Ci'en Monastery. Kuiji commentaries include the Chengweishi lun shuji and the Dasheng fayuan yilin zhang. (Source: "Kuiji." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 450. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Abhidharma generally refers to the corpus of Buddhist texts which deals with the typological, phenomenological, metaphysical, and epistemological presentation of Buddhist concepts and teachings. The abhidharma teachings present a meta-knowledge of Buddhist sūtras through analytical and systemic schemas and are said to focus on developing wisdom among the three principles of training. The Abhidharma is presented alongside Sūtra and Vinaya as one of the three baskets of the teachings of the Buddha.