Tiantai
TIANTAI. The Tiantai tradition of Chinese Māhāyana Buddhism is a lineage centered around the writings of the monk Zhiyi (538–597) and his successors. This tradition is characterized by the emphasis it places on the practice of meditation, its exegetical method, and the centrality it accords the teachings of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra (Chin., Miaofa lianhua jing su; abbreviated title, Fahua jing; the Lotus Sutra) and the Da ban niepan jing (Skt., Mahāyāna-parinirvāṇa Sūtra). The Tiantai tradition forms, together with the Huayan tradition, one of the two major academic and doctrinal systems of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism.
Origins
Zhiyi's major meditation text, the Mohe zhiguan (The Great Stilling and Insight; T. D. no. 1911), states that the Tiantai lineage began with Huiwen, who transmitted the essence of his enlightenment experience to his disciple Huisi, who in turn instructed Zhiyi. Later Tiantai church history therefore refers to these monks as the first three (Chinese) Tiantai "patriarchs."
Huiwen
Other than the fact that he was active during the Northern Qi period (550–557), little is known of the life of Huiwen. Even late accounts admit that both his place of birth and his dates are unknown. His importance to the tradition derives from his adumbration of certain key concepts that, in the writings of Zhiyi, would become central to Tiantai thought.
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