traditional Chinese
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays ...
: 護法,
pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese fo ...
: Hùfǎ) (530–561 CE). A
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
scholar, he was one of the main teachers of the Yogacara school in India. He was a contemporary of Bhavaviveka (清辯, c. 490-570 CE.), with whom he debated.
Xuanzang
Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...
, the famous Chinese pilgrim, tells that Dharmapāla was born in Kanchipuram,
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...
. He was a son of a high official, and betrothed to a daughter of the king, but escaped on the eve of the wedding feast, entered the order, studied all views, from
Hinayana
Hīnayāna (, ) is a Sanskrit term literally meaning the "small/deficient vehicle". Classical Chinese and Tibetan teachers translate it as "smaller vehicle". The term is applied collectively to the ''Śrāvakayāna'' and ''Pratyekabuddhayāna'' p ...
as well as
Mahayana
''Mahāyāna'' (; "Great Vehicle") is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices. Mahāyāna Buddhism developed in India (c. 1st century BCE onwards) and is considered one of the three main existing br ...
, and attained to reverence and distinction. He studied in
Nalanda
Nalanda (, ) was a renowned ''mahavihara'' (Buddhist monastic university) in ancient Magadha (modern-day Bihar), India.Dignāga. Later he succeeded him as abbot of the University. He spent his last years near the Bodhi tree, where he died.
Dharmapāla developed the theory that the external things do not exist and consciousness only exists. He explains the manifestation of the phenomenal world as arising from the eight consciousness.
Through the teachings of his disciple Silabhadra to Xuanzang, Dharmapāla’s tenets expanded greatly in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
.
According to Chinese sources, Dharmapala wrote four works. One of these is a lost work on grammar. The other three, which only survive in Chinese, are the following commentaries:Edelglass, William; Harter, Pierre-Julien; McClintock, Sara (2022). ''The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy'' (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy), pp. 361-362.
* ''A Commentary on the Four-Hundred Verses'' (''Dasheng guang bailun shilun'' 大乘廣百論 釋論; T1571, in 10 fascicles): a commentary on the ''Four-Hundred Verses'' (''Catuḥśataka'') of Āryadeva (c. third century).
* ''Jewel-Arising Treatise on the Establishment of Consciousness-Only'' (''Cheng weishi baosheng lun'' 成唯識寶生論; T1591, in 5 fascicles), a commentary on Vasubandhu’s ''Twenty Verses'' (''Viṃśikā'').
* ''A Commentary on the Investigation of Cognitive Objects'' (''Guan suoyuan lun shi'' 觀所緣 論釋; T1625, in 1 fascicle;), commentary on Dignāga’s ''Investigation of Cognitive Objects'' (''Ālambanaparīkṣā'').