Chinese Tiantai Doctrine on Insentient Things' Buddha-Nature

本文以荊溪湛然大師的思想為中心，探討無情有佛性的概念。在中國佛教史上，湛然並非此一概念的先河，但卻是天台宗裡的首倡者。根據天台圓教，湛然主張佛性亦擴及有形與無形的非生命存在。本文主在透過探究湛然對無情佛性的論證，揭示他闡發圓教的意向。在湛然看來，佛性的主要特性是「遍」，所以有情與無情物均涵括於佛性中。就「互具」言之，每一法界包含其他九法界。又由於「身土相即」，所以，佛的身土與其他九界眾生的身土亦互融互即。故而，無情之土亦有佛性。再者，「互具」顯示了情與無情的雙向關係，能觀的有情與被觀的現象界因之互換主客地位。由此，筆者認為無情也能於佛道上扮演主動積極的角色。

關鍵字

佛性；無情物；遍；互具；湛然

並列摘要

This essay is an investigation into the concept of insentient things possessing Buddha-nature with a focus on Jingxi Zhanran's thoughts. In the history of Chinese Buddhism, Zhanran was not the originator of such a concept; however, he was the first Tiantai thinker to advocate this idea. He strongly argues that according to the Tiantai Perfect Teaching, Buddha-nature certainly extends to insentient things, which refers to inanimate objects without a nervous system, i.e., tangible or formless nonliving existents. This essay therefore aims at revealing this intent of Zhanran by exploring his argument of insentient things' Buddha-nature. For Zhanran, the key quality of Buddha-nature is all-pervasiveness, and thus naturally, not only animate beings but also inanimate things are imbued with Buddha-nature. According to the principle of mutual inclusion, each dharma realm includes the other nine realms. Also, because body and land are mutually identical, the bodies and lands of Buddhas are interfused with those of the dwellers in the other nine realms. Thus, the inanimate lands also have Buddha-nature. Lastly, mutual inclusion reveals a two-way relationship between the sentient and the insentient, thereby giving the possibility of reversing the positions of the subjective observer and the objective phenomenon. As such, it is conducive to my conclusion that insentient things can also take up an active role on the path of Buddhahood, as Zhanran contends that they inherently possess the threefold Buddha-nature.