By Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia, 2009)
The Tengyur’s next major section begins here: Central Way philosophy (དབུ་མ་, dbu ma, madhyamaka). Placed immediately after the section on the Perfection of Wisdom, the Central Way section contains 158 works (D.3851-D.4008) and spans 17 volumes.
As is the case in many of the Tengyur’s sections, the internal organization here largely follows author chronology first, with subject-matter being the second-most important rubric, and translators the third. Thus, for instance, Nāgārjuna holds pride of place in the Central Way section, with seventeen works (D.3851-D.3867) beginning the section, and Āryadeva (D.3871-D.3878), Bhāvaviveka (D.3881-D.3984), and Candrakīrti (D.3887-D.3895) following him. Nāgārjuna’s famous Verses on the Central Way (དབུ་མ་རྩ་བའི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ་, dbu ma rtsa ba’i tshig le’ur byas pa, madhyamakakārikā) begins the section, and commentaries upon this work by the above-mentioned authors and others follow shortly upon Nāgārjuna’s works (D.3869, D.3880, D.3881, etc.). Subsequent works by minor writers and commentaries are grouped by topic, except in the case of major late writers such as the tenth/eleventh-century scholar Atiśa with sixteen works (D.3974-D.3989). A minor work by the twelfth-century figure Śākyaśrībhadra (D.4008) concludes the section.