The three dogmas. The "middle" school ofTiantai says 空, 假. 中 i.e. 就是空, 假, 中; (a) by 空nyais meant that things causally produced are intheir essential nature unreal (or immaterial) 实空无; (b) 假, though thingsare unreal in their essential nature their derived forms are real; (c) 中;but both are one, being of the one 如 reality. These three dogmas arefounded on a verse of Ngrjuna's-- 因缘所生法, 我说是空 亦是假名, 亦是中道义 "All causally produced phenomena, I say, areunreal, Are but a passing name, and indicate the 'mean'." There are otherexplanations-- the 圆教 interprets the 空 and 假 as 中; the 别教 makes 中 independent. 空 is the all, i.e. the totality of all things, and is spokenof as the or 实 true, or real; 假 is the differentiation of all thingsand is spoken of as 俗 common, i.e. things as commonly named; 中 is theconnecting idea which makes a unity of both, e.g. "all are but parts of onestupendous whole." The 中 makes all and the all into one whole, unifying thewhole and its parts. 空 may be taken as the immaterial, the undifferentiatedall, the sum of existences, by some as the tathgatagarbha 如来藏; 假as theunreal, or impermanent, the material or transient form, the temporal thatcan be named, the relative or discrete; 中 as the unifier, which places eachin the other and all in all. The "shallower" 山外 school associated 空 and 中 with the noumenal universe as opposed to the phenomenal and illusoryexistence represented by 假. The "profounder" 山 school teaches that allthree are aspects of the same.
