The Debate over the authenticity of the Mahāyāna Awakening of Faith (Dàshéng qǐxìn lùn zhēnwèi biàn 大乘起信論真偽辯) was an argument that broke out in the mid 1920s, primarily between Tàixū 太虛, and his confederates and students at the Wǔchāng Buddhist Seminary 武昌佛學院 on the one hand, and Ōuyáng Jìngwú 歐陽竟無 and his confederates and students at the Chinese Inner Studies Institute 支那內學院 in Nánjīng 南京. At issue was whether the important Chinese Buddhist text the Awakening of Faith 起信論 was written by Aśvaghoṣa in India as the tradition states, or was in fact written in medieval China.
The debate began with a lecture given by Ōuyáng Jìngwú at the Inner Studies Institute, later published as Wéishì juézé lùn 唯識抉擇論 (Selected Discourses on Consciousness-Only), which contained statements doubting the Indian origin of the Awakening of Faith. Tàixū responded with his Fófǎ zǒng juézé lùn 佛法總抉擇論 (General Selected Discourses on the Buddha Dharma). After this exchange, Liáng Qǐchāo 梁啓超 weighed in with Dàshéng qǐxìn lùn kǎozhèng 大乘起信論考證 (Evidential Analysis of the Awakening of Faith). At this point Oūyang's student Wáng Ēnyáng 王恩洋 and Tàixū's colleague Táng Dàyuán 唐大圓 both published articles on the topic, with Wáng supporting the idea of a Chinese origin for the text, and Táng supporting the traditional position.
Erik Hammerstrom