The Notion of Apoha in Chinese Buddhism

In this essay, I investigate how Chinese Yogācāra scholars of the Tang 唐 dynasty explicated and supplemented the theory of apoha (exclusion) propounded by the Indian Buddhist epistemologist Dignāga 陳那, according to which a nominal word functions by excluding everything other than its own referent. I...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inDao : a journal of comparative philosophy Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 283 - 298
Main Author Ho, Chien-hsing
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2022
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Buddhism
Chinese
Cognition & reasoning
Education
Epistemology
Ethics
Non-Western Philosophy
Philosophers
Philosophy
Philosophy of Religion
Religious Studies
Semantics
Translations
Trees
Apoha
遮詮
Dignāga 陳那
Chinese Yogācāra
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:In this essay, I investigate how Chinese Yogācāra scholars of the Tang 唐 dynasty explicated and supplemented the theory of apoha (exclusion) propounded by the Indian Buddhist epistemologist Dignāga 陳那, according to which a nominal word functions by excluding everything other than its own referent. I first present a brief exposition of the theory. Then, I show that although they had very limited access to Dignāga’s theory, Kuiji 窺基 and Shentai 神泰 provide constructive and significant explanations that supplement the theory. I also show that the term zhequan 遮詮 (excluding expression) has been construed in Chinese Buddhism in at least three different senses to mean: (1) an expression that both excludes and signifies, (2) an expression that merely excludes and does not signify, and (3) a negative expression that merely excludes. The notion of apoha is related to the first two senses but not the third.
ISSN:1540-3009
1569-7274
DOI:10.1007/s11712-022-09829-9