Although the Tiantai sect was renowned for its strength in doctrinal studies, it also created a whole set of repentance rituals. Chih-yi’s purpose was to combine these repentance rituals with contemplation practices.
Northern Sung gradually formed a society of commoners and a commodity economy. For the sake of accomplishing religious missions and adapting to the needs of the society, modifications of Chih-yi’s repentance rituals were made and some new repentance rituals were created. Conducting repentance rituals was one of the most frequent activities after the Sung in Chinese Buddhism. Tsun-shih was the most important monk scholar in Sung’s
Chih-yuan belonged to Tiantai’s Off Mountain (Shan-wai) lineage. Maintaining precepts and promoting self-repentance was basic to the practices of the Off Mountain lineage. By leading the life style of a hermit, and not being involved with mundane activities, he upheld the tradition of combining repentance practice with meditative practice. In order to highlight the importance of keeping precepts, he initiated a ritual to pay tribute to the Tang precept master Tao-hsuan. He opposed the
The repentance Ritual of Invoking Kwan-yin was an important ritual in Chih-yi’s system. Chih-yi wrote commentaries on this text. Chih-yuan wrote commentaries on the same text as well. In Chih-yuan’s commentary, besides illustrating Chih-yi’s main points, Chih-yuan also aimed at refuting the
The Kwan-yin Repentance ritual had a special place within the Tiantai sect’s ritual repentance system. Tiantai practitioners either in the
Key Words:
Chih-yi; Chih-yuan; Tsun-shih; Tiantai Sect; Kwan-yin Repentance Ritual