Fazang

Fazang (Chinese: 法藏; 643–712 CE), also known as Fa-tsang, was a Chinese Buddhist monk and a leading figure in the Huayan school (Flower Garland). He is traditionally regarded as the third patriarch of Huayan in China, following Dushun and Zhiyan. Fazang's scholarship helped articulate and systematize Huayan doctrine during the Tang dynasty.

Born in 643, Fazang became a monk in his youth, studying under Dushun and later teaching at major temples in the Tang realm. He produced influential commentaries on the Avatamsaka Sutra (the Huayan Sutra), most notably the Huayanjing Yishu, which elaborate the school's central claims: the interpenetration and mutual containment of all phenomena, the unity of ultimate truth and conventional experience, and the concept of one vehicle realized in many ways. Fazang sought to harmonize Madhyamaka and Yogacara modes of thought within a Huayan framework.

Fazang's writings shaped later East Asian Huayan thought and influenced Buddhist scholasticism in China, Korea, and Japan; his ideas contributed to the development of the Japanese Kegon school. He died in 712 CE. His legacy endures in the emphasis on interconnectedness and the dynamic interdependence of all phenomena in Huayan philosophy.