What does this research mean for the field?

The accumulation of multiple translation-based meanings in the Chinese term zhiguan ('translation-induced polysemy') enabled divergent medieval Buddhist interpretations of meditation and liberation, transforming it from a procedural practice to a hierarchical concept. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.NOVEL_FINDING. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To investigate how the Chinese Buddhist compound zhiguan evolved from practical breath-meditation instructions into scholastic classifications of concentration and wisdom.

September 2, 2026ReligionsOpen Access

From Technique to Wisdom: Translation-Induced Polysemy of Zhiguan 止觀 Across Chinese Breath-Meditation Texts, the Chengshi lun, and the Dunhuang Commentary Haneda 182 (羽182)

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Authors

ZWZheng WangChina University of Political Science and Law

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Implication

Textual analysis reveals semantic shifts in the meditation term zhiguan across medieval Chinese manuscripts, highlighting how translational polysemy reframed procedural meditation into doctrinal...

Key Points

To investigate how the Chinese Buddhist compound zhiguan evolved from practical breath-meditation instructions into scholastic classifications of concentration and wisdom.
Analyzed early Chinese breath-meditation texts alongside Indic parallels, including the Kongō-ji Anban shouyi jing and an Aṅguttara Nikāya passage.
Examined the exegetical reinterpretation of zhiguan in the Chengshi lun and its Dunhuang commentary preserved in manuscript Haneda 182.
Compared textual and structural formulations with Zhiyi's Xiao zhiguan to evaluate historical transmission lineages and doctrinal convergence.
Demonstrated that the native semantic breadth of zhi ('to cease' and 'to abide') facilitated the conflation of separate Indic concepts (sthāna and upalakṣaṇā) into a single Chinese term.
Showed that redefining zhiguan as concentration and wisdom (dinghui) transformed a procedural meditation sequence into a doctrinal hierarchy contrasting temporary mental suppression with definitive liberation.
Identified manuscript Haneda 182 as an exemplar of localized exegesis integrating Mahāyāna emptiness doctrine with practical breathwork glosses, indicating selective convergence rather than direct lineage transmission.

Cite This Study

Zheng Wang (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a97e2eac562ede874ec760c https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17091024

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Implication

Textual analysis reveals semantic shifts in the meditation term zhiguan across medieval Chinese manuscripts, highlighting how translational polysemy reframed procedural meditation into doctrinal...