Abstract

This essay is an exercise in intellectual archaeology in which I seek to show that already in Xiong Shili’s first account of Yogācāra, Weishixue Gailun, we are able to find the first indications of a critical attitude to Yogācāra that would grow in intensity over the following two decades. These critiques served the rhetorical purpose of bolstering the authority of Xuanzang. Before long, however, Xiong even rejected that authority.