This book examines the schemes for the classification of Buddhist texts and doctrines from their beginnings in the fifth century to Fazang (643-712). The panjiao schemes were among the methods Chinese Buddhist thinkers ordered and systematized the diversity of Buddhist thought. The schema appeared soon after the massive and comprehensive translations by Kumarajiva (334-412) and ended, for all intents and purposes, with Fazang. In this book, author Chanju Mun theorizes that there are two styles of panjiao schema: sectarian and ecumenical. Modern scholarship has extensive documentation of the sectarian style of panjiao schema, but little evidence of the ecumenical style. Through citations and allusions to schema in later presentations, this work not only establishes the existence of the ecumenical style; but also suggests that an interactive relationship exists between the two styles in the development and use of the panjiao schema. It is this interaction that is essential to our understanding of the history of doctrinal classification in Chinese Buddhism.
Ven. Chanju Mun (Ordination Name: Seongwon) is the founder and chief editor of Blue Pine Books. He taught East Asian Buddhist Studies at the University of the West in Los Angeles between Summer 2004 and Spring 2007 and is currently teaching Buddhist philosophy at the University of Hawaii - Manoa beginning Fall 2007. He received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2002 and a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Seoul National University in 1991. He has been a researcher at exiled Tibetan Drepung Monastic University in South India and at the University of Tokyo. He published numerous articles and several books on modern Korean Buddhism in particular and East Asian Buddhism in general and edited five serial volumes on Buddhism and peace. He is planning to edit some more volumes in the series and to write several books on modern Korean Buddhism in the near future.
