Tiantai

Tiantai
Chinese name
Chinese	天台
Literal meaning	from "Tiantai [Heavenly Tower] Mountain"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Tiāntái Wade–Giles T'ien1-t'ai2 IPA [tʰi̯ɛ́n.tʰǎi̯] Wu Suzhounese Thi-dé Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Tīn-tòih
Korean name
Hangul	천태
Hanja	天台
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Cheontae
Japanese name
Kanji	天台
Transcriptions Romanization Tendai

Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Tiāntái
Wade–Giles	T'ien1-t'ai2
IPA	[tʰi̯ɛ́n.tʰǎi̯]
Wu
Suzhounese	Thi-dé
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Tīn-tòih

Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Cheontae

Transcriptions
Romanization	Tendai

Tiantai (Chinese: 天台; pinyin: Tiāntái) is a school of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam that revers the Lotus Sutra as the highest teaching in Buddhism. In Japan the school is known as Tendai, in Korea as Cheontae, and in Vietnam as Thiên thai.

The name is derived from the fact that Zhiyi, the fourth patriarch, lived on Tiantai Mountain. Zhiyi is also regarded as the first major figure to make a significant break from the Indian tradition, to form an indigenous Chinese system. Tiantai is sometimes also called "The Lotus School", after the central role of the Lotus Sutra in its teachings.

During the Tang dynasty, the Tiantai school became one of the leading schools of Chinese Buddhism, with numerous large temples supported by emperors and wealthy patrons, with many thousands of monks and millions of followers.

Unlike earlier schools of Chinese Buddhism, the Tiantai school was entirely of Chinese origin. The schools of Buddhism that had existed in China prior to the emergence of the Tiantai are generally believed to represent direct transplantations from India, with little modification to their basic doctrines and methods. However, Tiantai grew and flourished as a natively Chinese Buddhist school under the 4th patriarch, Zhiyi, who developed a hierarchy of Buddhist sutras that asserted the Lotus Sutra as the supreme teaching, as well as a system of meditation and practices around it.

After Zhiyi, Tiantai was eclipsed for a time by newer schools such as the East Asian Yogācāra and Huayan schools, until the 6th patriarch Zhanran who revived the school and defended its doctrine against rival schools. The debates between the Faxiang school and the Tiantai school concerning the notion of universal Buddhahood were particularly heated, with the Faxiang school asserting that different beings had different natures and therefore would reach different states of enlightenment, while the Tiantai school argued in favor of the Lotus Sutra teaching of Buddhahood for all beings.

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Wikipedia