Taehyŏn

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Taehyŏn(b. ca. 8th century - ) 

Taehyǒn. [alt. T ’aehyǒn] (C. Daxian/Taixian; J. Daiken/Taigen XS/XS) (d.u.; fl. c. mid-eighth Century). In Korean, "Great/Grand Sagacity"; Silla-dynasty monk during the reign of king Kyǒngdǒk (r. 742-765) and reputed founder of the Yuga (Yogācāra) tradition in Korea; also known as Ch’ǒnggu Samun ("Green Hill [viz., Korea] śramaṇa" ) and often referred to as Yuga cho, "Patriarch of Yogācāra," due to his mastery of that school's complex doctrine. As one of the three most productive scholars of the Silla Buddhist tradition, Taehyǒn is matched in his output only by Wǒnhyo (617-686) and Kyǒnghǔng (fl. c. eighth century). Although renowned for his mastery of Yogācāra doctrine, his fifty-two works, in over one hundred rolls, cover a broad range of Buddhist doctrinal material, including Yogācāra, Madhyamaka, Hwaǒm (C. Huayan zong), and bodhisattva-precept texts. It is presumed that Taehyǒn was a disciple of Wǒnch’cūk's (613-696) student Tojǔng (d.u.), and that his scholastic positions were therefore close to those of the Ximing school, a lineage of Faxiang zong thought that derived from Wǒnch’ūk; their connection remains, however, a matter of debate. Taehyǒn’s Sǒng yusik non hakki ("Study Notes to the Cheng weishi lun [*Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra]") (six rolls), the only complete Korean commentary on the Cheng weishi lun that is still extant, is particularly important because of its copious citation of the works of contemporary Yogācāra exegetes, such as Kuiji (632-682) and Wǒnch’ǔk. Taehyǒn appears to have been influenced by the preeminent Silla scholiast Wǒnhyo, since Taehyǒn accepts in his Taesǔng kisin non naeǔi yak tamgi ("Brief Investigation of the Inner Meaning of the Dasheng qixin lun") Wǒnhyo's ecumenical (Hwajaeng) perspective on the "Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna." Although Taehyǒn never traveled abroad, his works circulated throughout East Asia and were commented upon by both Chinese and Japanese exegetes. His Pǒmmang kyǒng kojǒkki ("Record of Old Traces of the Fanwang jing" ), for example, was widely consulted in Japan and more than twenty commentaries on Taehyǒn’s text were composed by Japanese monks, including Eison (1201-1290) and Gyōnen (1240-1321). Unfortunately, only five of Taehyǒn's works are extant; in addition to the above three texts, these are his Yaksa ponwǒn kyǒng kojǒkki ("Record of Old Traces of the Bhaiṣajyagurusūtra" ) and Pǒmmang kyǒng posalgyebon chongyo ("Doctrinal Essentials of the Bodhisattva's Code of Morality from the ‘Sūtra of Brahmā's Net'"). (Source: "Taehyǒn." In The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 886–87. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)

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