Lyu Cheng’s Thoughts on Hetuvidyā and Buddhist Argumentation

Studies in Logic, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2020): 106–116               PII: 1674-3202(2020)-03-0106-11

Xiankun Zeng

Abstract. Studies on Buddhist Logic during the period of the Republic of China have been strongly shaped by the Western logical theories and Japanese Hetuvidyā researches that were introduced into China at that time. Unlike most scholars who endorsed the idea that the threeform reasoning (三支论式) of Hetuvidyā can be identified with the Aristotelian syllogism, Lyu Cheng has argued that Hetuvidyā is indeed a particular kind of Buddhist Logic in the sense of the theory of Pramāṇa (量论), which includes studies on the structure and rules, the epistemological foundation and the applications of Buddhist Logic. Lyu Cheng’s work has set up a new research paradigm for the study of Hetuvidyā that is particularly focused on the logical perspective, and therefore ensured the later developments of Buddhist Logic studies as a discipline. However, since there remains to be a lack of clear conception of logic, Lyu Cheng’s research paradigm has left behind many important issues that are in need of further investigation.