The Hua － yen 華嚴 Buddhism formed in T ' ang dynasty China is shared with Korea , and has recently taken on a universality , being compared with the ideas of Whiteheadian process metaphysics , quantum physics , chaos theory and ecology . Yet the Hwaôm 華嚴 of Korea , beginning with Ûisang 義 相 ( 652 － 702 ) , has been described as possessing particular characteristics , especially the “ mutual identity of principles " 理 理 相卽 . This theory has been described as an extension of the teachings of Ûisang ' s master , Chih － yen ' 智嚴 ( 602 － 668 ) , but the source text by Chih － yen , the I － sheng shih － hsüan men 一乘十玄門 , used to argue for this , is thought to have been contaminated by later interpolations . Kojima Taizan has thus denied that " the mutual identity of principles " is a distinctive feature of Korea Hwaôm , at least as noticed by Kyun ' yô 均如 ( 923 － 973 ) , for he claimed such thought can be found in the works of Ch ' eng － kuan 澄觀 ( 738 － 839 ) , which was brought to Silla by Pômsu 梵 修 ( 799 ) . Kim Chi ' gyôn thinks that rather the I － sheng shih hsüan men was an expansion of a section of the “ Shih － hsüan yüan － ch ' i wu － ai i " 十玄緣起無碍義 of the Hua － yen wu － chiao chang 華嚴 五敎章 by Fa － tsang 法藏 ( 643 － 712 ) , which in turn was derived from Ûisang ' s commentary to the Ilsûng pôpgyedo . The “ mutual identity of principles " is found in the commentary attributed to Ûisang , which predates the work of Ch ' eng － kuan , and appears to have been Ûisang ' s independent creation , although it can not be ruled out that this was an extension of the elderly Chih － yen ' s thought . However , Ishii Kôsei asserts that “ the mutual identity of principles " was not a special characteristic of Ûisang ' s doctrine , and that it was not the aim of his teaching , which was rather concentrated on the realization of buddhahood in practice and reality ( 事 ) . Yet the full expression of the “ mutual identity of principles " probably originated with Ûisang and is a particular expression of his more universal thought , which was grounded in the teachings of Chih － yen .