Abstract:

As a famous monk in early Chinese Buddhism, Hui Yuan and his thought had an important and farreaching influence upon later Chinese Buddhism. This paper primarily explores two issues. One is that since Hui Yuan accepted Sarvastivada's abhidharma teachings, especially the idea that every dharma was real-bhava, he believed that dharma-nature was real-bhava or unchangeable entity. This thought was different from dharma-nairamya of Nagarjuna's Madhayamaka in India, so he was criticized by Kumarajiva at that time. The other is that Hui Yuan quite appreciated the idea of self in Tri-dharmika-vastra, considering "ego" ("shen", in his words) as something transcending the spiritual and the physical so as to oppose the then doctrine of extinction of soul.

Key words: Hui Yuan, shen, real-bhava, real-atuav, dharma-kaya