Tianren Jiang

This project examines the doctrinal synthesis of Tathagatagarbha and Yogacara, tracing its origin in Indian Buddhism and its transmission to China. It investigates why this synthesis became widely influential and gained ascendancy over “orthodox” Yogacara schools, such as Faxiang, which maintained a strict separation between Tathagatagarbha and Yogacara. Using philological and intellectual-history methods, the project addresses two gaps in the study of Buddhist thought: the unclear Indic origin of this synthesis and the reason for its eventual dominance in China.