Shandao’s Construction and Innovation of the Pure Land Doctrinal System: A Study Centred on the Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra

As a pivotal patriarch of the Pure Land school, Shandao 善導 (613–681) played a decisive role in shaping Pure Land Buddhism and the broader history of Chinese Buddhism. A direct disciple of Daochuo 道綽 (563–645), he championed the dual framework of Dingshan 定善 and Sanshan 散善 practices together with Nianfo 念佛 (Skt. buddhānusmṛti), especially Chiming nianfo 持名念佛 (vocal recitation of Amitābha’s name). Existing scholarship has already demonstrated that Shandao was not a master concerned exclusively with vocal recitation but also a systematic exegete of Guanfo 觀佛, visualisation, and samādhi. This article therefore does not present that recognition as its own innovation. Instead, it reconstructs the internal architecture by which Shandao’s Guanjing si tie shu 觀經四帖疏 (Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra in Four Fascicles) integrates contemplative practice with three doctrinal commitments: the efficacy of ‘birth through ten recitations’ against the Yogācāra charge of Bieshi yi 別時意 (Skt. kālāntarābhiprāya, the identification of Amitābha’s land as a reward land, and the thesis that ordinary beings (Skt. pṛthagjana) may enter that land. Drawing also on the Guannian Amituo fo xianghai sanmei gongde famen 觀念阿彌陀佛相海三昧功德法門 (Method of Contemplating Amitābha Buddha’s Ocean-like Marks in Samādhi and Its Meritorious Virtues) and the Wangsheng lizan 往生禮讚 (Liturgy of Praise for Birth in the Pure Land), the article argues that Shandao’s originality lies less in any single doctrine than in the way these doctrines mutually support one another as a coherent programme of exegesis, practice, and Pure Land soteriology.