Zhiyi
538 CE–597 CE · Jingzhou
538–597 CE
Zhiyi was the great systematizer—effectively the founder—of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism, active 538–597 CE. From his base on Mount Tiantai he built a comprehensive synthesis centered on the Lotus Sūtra, including the 'three truths' (empty, provisional, and the middle), a sophisticated meditation system, and a classification scheme ordering the whole of the Buddha's teachings. He is one of the best-documented figures of Chinese Buddhism, and his work shaped later East Asian thought, including the Japanese Tendai school.
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Jingzhou
What they did here
Birthplace of Zhiyi.
About Jingzhou
Jingzhou, in the area of modern Hubei province, China, was the birthplace (in 538) of Zhiyi, the sixth-century master regarded as the de facto founder of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism, who later settled on Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Zhiyi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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Works
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