The Rise of the Lotus Sutra
The Three Northern and Southern Schools

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Northern and southern centers of political, scholastic and artistic power emerged during the fifth and sixth centuries. While the remnants of the Eastern Chin Dynasty established the Southern Dynasty, descendents of the five barbarian tribes founded the Northern Dynasty. Thus, the period from 420 to 589 is called the Southern and Northern Dynasties period.

The Song founded the Southern dynasty in 420, but in time, the Qi, Liang and Chen successively seized and lost power in the south.

In the north, the Northern Wei unified North China in 439, but ultimately, internal strife allowed the Northern Zhou to gain the upper hand. The Northern Zhou were in turn annexed in 581 by the Sui, who unified the whole of China in 589 after eliminating the Chen Dynasty in the south.

Within the world of Buddhism, the Southern and Northern Dynasties period was a time of intense research, comparison and evaluation of the Buddha’s various teachings. Ten schools of Buddhist thought emerged in China during this period, each with its own established doctrines. Using the Yangtze River as the dividing line between north and south, there were three teachers with schools in the south, and seven teachers with schools in the north, which is the origin of the term Three Southern and Seven Northern Schools. Although there were minor differences between the teachings of these various schools, in the main, the consensus was that among all of the Buddha’s teachings, the Flower Garland (Kegon) Sutra ranks first, the Nirvana Sutra second, and the Lotus Sutra third.

However, when the Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai appeared during the Chen Dynasty, the last of the Southern dynasties, he thoroughly repudiated the beliefs of the Three Southern and Seven Northern Schools and established the Lotus Sutra as the Buddha’s supreme doctrine. Great Teacher T'ien-t'ai

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