View source for Cheontae

{{Short description|Korean descendant of the Chinese Buddhist school of Tiantai}}
[[file:Uicheon.jpg|thumb|Uicheon, the founder of the Korean Tiantai school]]
{{Infobox Korean name|
hangul=천태종|
hanja={{lang|ko|天台宗}}|
rr=Cheontae|
mr=Ch'ŏnt'ae}}

'''Cheontae''' is the [[Korea]]n descendant of the [[Chinese Buddhist]] school [[Tiantai]].  Tiantai was introduced to Korea a couple of times during earlier periods, but was not firmly established until the time of  [[Uicheon]] (1055-1101) who established Cheontae in [[Goryeo]] as an independent school.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Buswell|editor1-first=Robert Jr|editor2-last=Lopez|editor2-first=Donald S. Jr.|editor1-link=Robert Buswell Jr.|editor2-link=Donald S. Lopez, Jr.|title=Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism.|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, NJ|pages=912–913|isbn=9780691157863}}</ref>

Due to Uicheon's influence, it came to be a major force in the world of [[Korean Buddhism|Goryeo Buddhism]]. After he returned from [[Song China]] in 1086, Uicheon sought to ease conflict between the doctrinal Gyo ({{lang|ko|教}}) schools and [[Korean Seon|Seon]] ({{lang|ko|禪}}) schools, believing that the Cheontae doctrine would be effective to this end.  Cheontae doctrine holds the [[Lotus Sutra]] as the peak of the [[Buddha]]'s teachings, and postulates the following:

* All things are empty and without essential [[reality]].
* All things have a [[Samvriti|provisional reality]].
* All things are both absolutely unreal and provisionally real at once.

In accordance with the Cheontae doctrine, all experiences in the sensory world are in fact expressions of Buddhist law ([[Dharma]]), and therefore contain the key to [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|enlightenment]]. This explains the extravagant altars and the [[Polychrome|colorful dynamism]] found at Seon temples using [[Dancheong]] coloring, differing from the austere and monochromatic aesthetic of the [[Zen]] school, intellectually predominant in Japan from the [[Kamakura period]] onwards.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://iguide.travel/Guinsa|title=Guinsa}}</ref>

Cheontae as a school has been largely absorbed into the [[Jogye]] Seon tradition, but an independent Cheontae school has been revived and has an estimated 2 million adherents.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cbtour.net/ecb_web/ecb_tour/ew_package_v?id=00224 |title= 충북관광허브사이트|website=www.cbtour.net |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050218153114/http://www.cbtour.net/ecb_web/ecb_tour/ew_package_v?id=00224 |archive-date=February 18, 2005}}</ref> The school's headquarters are at [[Guinsa]] in [[Chungcheongbuk-do]], near [[Danyang County|Danyang]]. The school also funds and operates the Buddhist university, [[Geumgang University]].

==See also==
*[[Zhiyi]]
*[[Uicheon]]
*[[Tiantai Buddhism]]
*[[Korean Buddhism]]
*[[Guinsa]]
*[[Ryongtongsa]]
*[[Geumgang University]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080908064538/http://www.cheontae.org/ Cheontae] (in Korean)
*A. Charles Muller (trans): [https://web.archive.org/web/20140221125844/http://www.acmuller.net/kor-bud/sagyoui.html "Outline of the Tiantai Fourfold Teachings", compiled by the Goryeo Śramaṇa Chegwan].

{{Buddhism topics}}

[[Category:Cheontae| ]]
[[Category:Buddhism in Korea]]


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