Candrakírti
(Tib.,
Zla-ba-grags-pa;
Chin.,
Yüehcheng;
Jap.,
Gessh
). A distinguished Buddhist teacher of the
M
dhyamaka
school who flourished in the 7th cent. CE. Candrak
rti championed the
Pr
sa
gika
form of the M
dhyamaka doctrine in his commentaries on the work of
N
g
rjuna
, the founder of the school, and
ryadeva
, his disciple. According to this, the method of the M
dhyamaka is to reduce to absurdity the position of the opponent through a dialectical process which reveals the internal contradictions of his argument. The alternative interpretation of M
dhyamaka, that of the Sv
tantrika-M
dhyamaka sub-school led by
Bh
vaviveka