三论宗

The Sanlun, Mādhyamika, or Middle School, founded in India by Nāgārjuna, in China by 嘉祥 Jiaxiang during the reign of 安帝 An Di, Eastern Jin, A.D. 397-419. It flourished up to the latter part of the Tang dynasty. In 625 it was carried to Japan as Sanron. After the death of Jiaxiang, who wrote the 三論玄義, a northern and southern division took place. While the Mādhyamika denied the reality of all phenomenal existence, and defined the noumenal world in negative terms, its aim seems not to have been nihilistic, but the advocacy of a reality beyond human conception and expression, which in our terminology may be termed a spiritual realm.