PARAMĀRTHA

Paramātha (Zhendi; 499–569) was one of the most influential translators of Buddhist philosophical texts in China. Born Kulanātha in Ujjain in north central India to a brahmin family, Paramārtha traveled in 545 to Funan (modern Cambodia), where there was active support for Buddhism. He was brought to Nanhai (modern Canton) in 546. From there he was summoned to the Liang capital at Jiankang (modern Nanjing) by Emperor Wu, a great patron of Buddhism. Shortly after his arrival, the capital was sacked and Emperor Wu was overthrown. Paramārtha fled the chaos, traveling southeast to Fuchun in modern Zhejiang province, where his translation career appears to have begun in earnest. He translated the Shiqi di lun (Treatise on the Seventeen Stages [of the Bodhisattva Career]) in 550 with the assistance of over twenty monks. Two years later he returned to Jiankang, now under the newly inaugurated reign of Emperor Yuan, and translated the SuvarṆaprabhĀsottamasŪtra (Golden Light Sūtra), again with the help of over twenty monastic assistants. A number of additional sūtras and treatises are attributed to Paramārtha and his associates, including the Mile xia sheng jing (Sūtra on Maitreya's Descent [from Heaven]), the Renwang jing (Humane Kings SŪtra), and the Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun). The latter two texts are widely believed by modern scholars to be apocrypha, that is, texts produced in China but claiming legitimacy as authentic discourses of the Buddha.

Paramārtha's most notable contribution is in being the first person to widely disseminate YogĀcĀra school thought in China. To this end he translated several important treatises by the Indian founders of this school, asaṄga (ca. 320–390) and Vasubandhu (fourth century c.e.). These include Viṃśatikā (Twenty Verses), Triṃśika (Thirty Verses), Madhyāntavibhāga (On Distinguishing the Extremes from the Middle), and Mahāyānasaṃgraha (Compendium of Mahāyāna). Scholars have long noted, however, that Paramārtha was no mere translator; by all appearances he added much of his own commentarial exegesis. In particular, Paramārtha attempted to synthesize Yogācāra and tathĀgatagarbha thought into a single philosophical system. One of Paramārtha's most notable contributions in this regard is the positing of a ninth level of consciousness (the amalavijñāna, immaculate consciousness), which transcends the evolutionary consciousness and storehouse consciousness posited by the Yogācāra school. For Paramārtha, this immaculate consciousness is the true source of all reality, the means to overcome the defilements that afflict the lower levels of consciousness, and thus it is identified with the tathāgatagarbha, the sine qua non for enlightenment.

Despite a prodigious teaching and translation career, Paramārtha deeply lamented the chaotic conditions of sixth-century China, culminating in a thwarted suicide attempt in 568. The death of his closest disciple later that same year further debilitated Paramārtha; he died in February 569. Nonetheless, Paramārtha's work laid the philosophical foundation not only for the Faxiang (Yogācāra) school in China, but for the intellectual developments of the Huayan, Tiantai, and Chan traditions of the Sui and Tang dynasties as well.

See also:Chan School; Consciousness, Theories of; Faxiang School; Huayan School; Tiantai School

Bibliography

Demiéville, Paul. "Sur l'authenticité du Ta Tch'eng K'i Sin Louen." Bulletin de la Maison Franco-Japonaise 2, no. 2 (1929): 1–78. Reprinted in Choix d'études bouddhiques, 1929–1970. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1973.

Paul, Diana Y. Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramārtha's "Evolution of Consciousness." Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1984.

Daniel Boucher