UC Berkeley

This dissertation presents a study of the writings and thought of the controversial Chinese Buddhist teacher Xinxing (ca. 540–594 C.E.). It also charts the reception of Xinxing’s writings after his death and the development of his teachings by his followers, often called the Three Levels movement. Drawing on recently discovered manuscripts by Xinxing, I present a new interpretation of his intellectual aims. I argue that Xinxing’s primary concern was to achieve certainty in scriptural interpretation. To that end, he developed a unique conception of how and for whom Buddhist scripture was authoritative, suggesting that the interpretation of scripture must be governed by the explicit instructions of the Buddha as transmitted in scripture itself. In Xinxing’s view, one of the primary injunctions conveyed by scripture was that parts of scripture should only be read, used, and interpreted by the audience for whom the Buddha intended them. This conception led Xinxing to compile passages of scripture according to a complex set of interpretive criteria, yielding a set of mature writings meant to function as a reduced Buddhist canon for his followers. I argue that Xinxing’s attempt to modify and delimit the corpus of authoritative Buddhist scriptures was unique and controversial in the context of sixth- and seventh-century China. I show that, in many cases, the writings of Xinxing’s later followers center around attempts to defend Xinxing’s authority to make such a modification. I conclude by suggesting that the projects of Xinxing and his followers constituted important interventions in a broader debate over the nature and identity of authoritative scripture in sixth- and seventh-century China.