The confluence of Buddhism and Taoism promoted the metaphysical process of Confucianism. However, At the same time, it inevitably aroused some people's public opposition to Buddhism. In particular, Buddhist ideas such as reincarnation, karma, and gods are increasingly accepted by the lower class people. To a certain extent, they are competing with Confucianism for belief groups. The fate and future of Confucianism are in jeopardy. For this reason, Sun Sheng wrote in "Yu Luo Jun Zhang Shu": "Today, the number of things that have been transformed into alien shapes is innumerable. It should not be lost, but it has been hidden for many years. But how many transformations are there now?..." I say that the form is powdered and scattered, and the knowledge is the same; it is confused and confused, and turns into foreign objects and other things. This sentient being laments. If so, then you can't masturbate alone. "Sun Sheng's criticism of Buddhism's theory of reincarnation was the first of its kind to debate the death and immortality of gods in the Southern Dynasties.
Buddhism was introduced to my country during the Han Dynasty and reached its peak through the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Since the socioeconomic conditions and cultural structure of Buddhism are different from those in China, in order to gain a foothold in China, it must undergo certain transformations and updates. This is the issue of the Sinicization of Buddhism. There is a popular view that during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Buddhism was dependent on metaphysics. , developed independently in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and completed Sinicization in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The author believes that this view still has room for discussion.
The introduction of Buddhism into China will inevitably conflict with the ideology of China’s inherent ruling class, which is mainly Confucianism and its variants. From Qin Shihuang's "taking officials as teachers" to establish the status of Legalism, to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "deposing hundreds of schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone", the rise and fall of Confucian classics in the Han Dynasty, to the popularity of metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, from Buddhism in the Sui and Tang dynasties to Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties. The ground presents a series of movement changes. The unparalleled success of Buddhism during the Sui and Tang Dynasties was not accidental; it was just a part of this movement. Only by considering it this way can we fully explain the issue of the Sinicization of Buddhism.
1. Looking at the Sinicization of Buddhism from the perspective of the promotion and destruction of Buddhism
The key to whether Buddhism is Sinicized is to see whether it adapts to the development conditions of China's feudal society. The rise of Buddhism was first of all the result of the promotion of the ruling class. However, the development of Buddhism also contradicted the ruling class, so it was often banned.
The contradictions in China's feudal society have always been acute. The extravagant desires of the ruling class often force the people to take desperate measures. The ruling class takes advantage of the desperate psychology of the working people and sells spiritual drugs to the people. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Minister Geng Liang believed that Buddhism "participates in special customs and is eccentric and hybrid", and issued edicts in the name of Emperor Cheng of the Jin Dynasty to restrict Buddhism. Minister He Chong said: "There is a Buddha and there is no Buddha. It is beyond the ability of ministers to determine. However, we can search for his legacy, dig into its essence, and the prohibitions of the five precepts, which can actually help to transform the king! The reputation of the noble and the noble is hidden. "Cao, the virtue lies in forgetting the body and embracing the purity of the mind... There is no evil in it, and there is nothing comparable to the longevity of the divine way." [1] This minister can't even decide whether there is a Buddha, but he wants to. The reason for advocating Buddhism is that Buddhism forbids people's desires, prevents people from having the idea of ??survival, forgets themselves, and serves the ruling class. Therefore, it can control the people ideologically and is conducive to feudal rule. This is why the ruling class vigorously promotes Buddhism.
Most of the emperors in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties advocated Buddhism, which reached its peak during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan. Xiao Yan summarized the reasons for the turbulence of the regime and said: "To build a country, the monarch and the people should establish religion as the first priority" and look for an ideology that suits their interests. While Xiao Yan vigorously advocated Confucianism to maintain discipline, he also wrote books to promote Buddhism. According to the "Book of Liang Benji", Xiao Yan "believed deeply in Buddhism and compiled the Nirvana Plate, Dapin and Sanhui Sutras in hundreds of volumes. He read them in his spare time, that is, in Chongyun Hall and He gave lectures at Tongtai Temple, where famous monks and masters of education had an audience of more than 10,000 people. "He presided over the translation and annotation of more than 5,000 volumes of scriptures. Xiao Yan also sacrificed his life in Tongtai Temple three times and was redeemed by the ministers with large sums of money, raising Buddhism to the same level as Confucius. This act of self-sacrifice, with the participation of Shen Yue and other aristocratic families, formed a countercurrent.
With the vigorous promotion of the ruling class, Buddhism in the Southern Dynasties flourished unprecedentedly. Huan Yun said: "The capital is extravagant and licentious, the glory and glory are in the court and city, the heaven is in love with it, and the famous utensils are in filth and obscenity. The people in the capital are in white and black, and even thousands of people in a county have become villages." [2] There are thousands of people in one county. This was only in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. During Xiao Yan's period, the country's financial resources were indeed in such a state that "the world is overwhelmed by them". A single redemption could amount to 100 million!
The strong monastery economy weakened the population and land controlled by the feudal state, which was not conducive to feudal rule and caused the treasury to be empty of wealth. Feudal countries also banned Buddhism many times and restricted its unrestricted development. Among them, Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and Emperor Shizong of the Zhou Dynasty were the largest.
Emperor Taiwu believed in Taoism and listened to the advice of his minister Cui Hao and severely destroyed Buddhism. "During the Later Wei Dynasty, Emperor Taiwu conquered Chang'an. He found that many ascetics violated Buddhist laws and gathered in filthy and disorderly groups. He ordered officials to kill them all, burn the Buddha statues, and the monks in Chang'an were temporarily wiped out. Since Yu Zhengzhen, Yu Wen According to the edict, the number of people who can be exempted from hiding is 11 or 2. This attack caused heavy losses to Buddhism. It was only because of the protection of dignitaries that all the monks were not killed. But what was the result? Except for Emperor Taiwu, all the emperors of the Northern Wei Dynasty believed in Buddhism. In the hands of his son, the power of Buddhism began to be restored. During the reign of Emperor Taiwu, there were only about a hundred monasteries in Pingcheng, 6,478 in all directions, and a total of 77,258 monks and nuns. They were not very powerful. Half a century later, during the reign of Emperor Xuanwu, there were 13,727 temples in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which doubled. At the end of the Wei Dynasty, there were more than a thousand temples in Luoyang alone, and there were more than 2 million monks and nuns in the country for more than 30,000 years.
〔4〕The entire population at that time was less than 20 million. Emperor Taiwu's extermination of Buddhism and the huge power of the temple economy just illustrate the huge power of Buddhism in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
From the end of the Wei Dynasty to the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Western Wei Dynasty, the power of Buddhism was hit by wars, but the turmoil also strengthened the expansion of Buddhism on the other hand. Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty continued to carry out a series of reforms to consolidate the feudal country and announced a ban on Buddhism again, this time liberating three million people.
The above two incidents of extermination of Buddhism occurred during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. After Emperor Taiwu, the power of Buddhism increased sharply, exceeding its original value several times. After Emperor Wu of Zhou Dynasty destroyed Buddhism, in the first year of Emperor Yang Jianjian's reign, he "generalized the imperial edict to the whole world, allowing anyone to become a monk. He still ordered Jikou to pay for the construction of scriptures and statues, and the capital, Bingzhou, Luozhou and other large cities also wrote official All the sutras are placed in the temple, but not written down, and hidden in the secret pavilion. People all over the world will lose them due to the wind. The number of folk Buddhist sutras is a hundred or ten times greater than that of the Six Sutras." [5] Just imagine, Buddhism is not suitable for China's situation. How can it be that maintaining the appearance of India has existed for hundreds of years with continuous momentum and continued to rise, and it has endured large-scale bans and destruction orders by the ruling class? This shows that Buddhism reflects the painful wishes of kind people and became sinicized after the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
After the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism actually became a tool to create theoretical basis for the ruling class, ranking above Confucianism. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty himself did not know much about Buddhist scriptures, but he said that "Buddhism is mysterious and sacred miracles can be learned." [6] Monks began to enjoy special gifts from Taizong, such as walking to welcome Xuanzang, and Empress Wu riding in the same chariot with Shenxiu. It was something that the "great Confucians" at that time looked up to and could not reach.
Tang Wuzong was superstitious about Taoism and built the Nine Heavens Altar in the palace. He personally received the Taoist priest Zhao Guizhen's talisman seals. Instigated by Taoist priest Liu Yunjing and others, he issued an edict: "I heard that three generations ago, there was no talk of Buddha. After the Han and Wei dynasties, "Buddhism came to an end. It was during this period that Buddhism was banned due to the spread of this strange custom" (7). 265,000 monks and nuns returned to secular life, and tens of millions of hectares of land were harvested. This was the victory of the feudal state over Buddhism.
After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the society was in turmoil and Zen Buddhism developed. During the reign of Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, in order to strengthen the country's wealth and population, the development of Buddhism was restricted in the name of "frugality". Sejong's destruction was the most generous of several large-scale extermination campaigns against Buddhism. More than 10,000 temples with royal plaques were preserved. However, Sejong's achievements in exterminating Buddhism were unexpectedly great. After the founding of the Song Dynasty, Taizu Taizong vigorously promoted Buddhism and compiled Buddhist scriptures. Zen Buddhism did not play a dominant role in the official ideology as it did during the Tang Dynasty. Although the number of monks was large, it was only 300,000. Buddhism suffered a setback and never recovered. From the perspective that Zen Buddhism has completed the sinicization of Buddhism and adapted to China's conditions, how could the sinicized Zen Buddhism give way to the later Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty when the economic foundation had not changed at all? From here, we can prove that the Sinicization of Buddhism in the Sui and Tang Dynasties did not exist.
The introduction of Buddhism and the large-scale translation of Buddhist scriptures caused a shock at the time, which affected the cultural fields (ideology, politics, economy, literature, painting, architecture, music, customs, etc.) and classes (from emperors to common people) extremely wide. Just from the construction of Buddhist temples, we can see the great influence of Buddhism. Many of the ancient and famous temples that exist today were built in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as Ganlu Temple, Lingyin Temple, Yungang Grottoes, Shaolin Temple, Hanshan Temple, etc. In the Liang Dynasty, there were 2,846 temples with more than 82,700 monks and nuns; Jiankang (now Nanjing) alone had more than 700 large temples. At the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were more than 30,000 monasteries and more than 2 million monks and nuns (see Volume 3 of Tang Falin's Dialectics and Volume 120 of Tang Daoshi's Fayuan Zhulin). During the Northern Qi Dynasty, there were more than two million monks and nuns under the jurisdiction of monk officials, and there were more than 40,000 monasteries (see Volume 8 of Tang Daoxuan's "Extended Biography of Eminent Monks" "Fa Zhongzhuang"). So many ancient temples, grottoes and cliffs fully prove the prosperity of Buddhism during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. From the perspective of the relationship between Buddhism and politics, most of the emperors of the Southern Dynasties believed in Buddhism, and Emperor Wu of Liang was particularly devout and even sacrificed his life to enter the temple four times. Huiyuan, a famous monk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, had contacts with many dignitaries. Although there was a ban on Buddhism in the Northern Dynasties, it seems that the emperors of all dynasties still supported Buddhism. It can be seen from this that Buddhism has created a new cultural atmosphere and cultural soil for the literature of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The close relationship between literati and Buddhism is also worth noting.
However, Li Jiji of the Northern Qi Dynasty has already said in the "Preface to the Jue of Phonology": "When you go up to the level, you go out to the Lu, Shen Yue takes the harmonious sound, and the Lu Lu Xianghe." It seems that the folk have already distinguished the four tones before. Chen Yinke's "Four Tones and Three Questions" believes that the discovery of the four tones is related to the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Although some scholars have questioned whether the details are accurate and need further research, from the perspective of the larger cultural background, the two things are still connected. of.
4. Vocabulary expansion. With the large-scale translation of Buddhist scriptures, a large number of words reflecting Buddhist concepts have also entered Chinese, enriching the Chinese vocabulary. Some of them use original Chinese characters to translate Buddhist concepts, giving them new meanings, such as "karma", "realm", etc. Some are transliterations of foreign words, such as "Buddha", "Bodhisattva", "Shaman", "Bodhi", etc.
5. Diversification of literary concepts. The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were a period when literary concepts departed from the political and religious center emphasized by Confucianism and underwent major changes. This has a lot to do with metaphysics, and the concepts of truth and emptiness, the concept of mind, the concept of realm, the concept of image and the outside of image, and the discussion of form and spirit in Buddhism have also enriched literary concepts.
Talk about your own understanding and ideas. If there are any unreasonable things, please ask the teacher and classmates to help correct them.
Teacher Luo gave a very profound lecture on the discovery of nature. The meaning of nature may be much greater than we imagined. Regarding the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, what impressed me most was the sentence "Leave the honor to teach and let nature take its course." This should be said to accurately summarize the character and temperament of the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. I once read an essay "The Distant Silence" by Yu Qiuyu, which specifically wrote about Ji Kang and others. I personally feel that it is quite good. Among them, I very much agree with him when he said that when it comes to the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the word "wind" is always inseparable. The elegance, style, and character are fully displayed in the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. It seems to be the patent of that era and that group of people. The style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties that I understand can be said to be that the temperament of the scholars at that time was like the wind. They followed their own will, were not bound to things, and did not conform to the customs. It was a completely free and easy life state. I think this is consistent with "nature".
Teacher Luo said that in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, people had a strong anxiety about life and death. At this time, they hoped to re-establish a noble and eternal spiritual world. Talking about the anxiety about life and death reminds me of the relationship between scholars and Buddhism. Nan Huaijin once mentioned in his works the close connection between Chinese scholars and Zen Buddhism. There were many ancient literati who devoutly believed in Buddhism, used the spirit of Zen to liberate themselves, escaped from the secular world, and wandered in the mountains and rivers. In addition to suffering from political darkness and ill-fated official careers, they also have thoughts about life and death. Precisely because life is short, many scholars accepted Zen Buddhism. Seeing through life and death can be regarded as a kind of transcendence in life. Their willfulness and willfulness are not unlike those of the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, in that they both pursued nature and true self. However, one problem is that the scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties did not seem to have turned to Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced to China at the end of the Western Han Dynasty and flourished greatly in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. However, there does not seem to be much mention of the specific relationship between people such as the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove" and Buddhism. Teacher Luo also said that life is short, so people are born with a religious tendency, but I feel that what the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties embody is not a strong religious atmosphere or belief, but a pure human character. It seems that they He is born to be so different. Their pursuit of the value of life and their willfulness are entirely their own life instincts, rather than relying on the support of external things. For more than two thousand years in ancient China, people only highly praised the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, because they were unique and outstanding not only in that era, but also in the entire feudal history. They were unprecedented. , is also unprecedented. Although there were later generations of literati who were noble and refined, they were not able to achieve the same perfection as the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.
Nature is a broad and deep concept. Scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties not only paid attention to the objective existence of nature, but also paid more attention to personal nature, that is, the expression of one's own nature. They just want to live a free, magnanimous, free and dignified life, and will not give in even if they die. Such a grace and pride are admirable and admirable in any era.
When it comes to the style of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove", and Ji Kang's "Guangling San", people always have a kind of yearning and regret, because that kind of character is gone and because we can't have it. Perhaps the lives of scholars in that era were still filled with irreversible depression and sadness, but we still want to say: That kind of life was so happy!
The Wei and Jin Dynasties were a paradise for scholars. The scribes "abandoned the classics in favor of Lao Zhuang and Zhuangzi, despised etiquette and worshiped liberalism." While drunkenly drunk and talking while picking up lice, they resolved one by one the entangled conflicts between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which were competing for the position of cultural leaders. As a result, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism The Tao merges into one, and everyone is happy. Form a tripartite, integrated and complementary traditional culture with Chinese characteristics.
The biggest breakthrough for the scholars of the Wei and Jin Dynasties to achieve this fruitful result was their courage to break through the classics and break the shackles of "following the classics and keeping numbers". Before the Han Dynasty, all important works were called "jing", such as the Four Books and Five Classics, and the Tao Te Ching. Today it is considered a classic. Even if someone dares to speak arrogantly, he can only call himself "theory", unlike today's Baijia forum where demons dance around without rules. "Wen Xin Diao Long·Lun Shuo": "The narration of scriptures is called theory. The commentator is ethical; if ethics are not clear, the holy meaning will not be understood." In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, scholars pursued the joy of life, let themselves go, and challenged all decent things. When it came to the classics, they were "doctors' family methods and then became discarded" and "explained what they meant", so there was Wang Sugan Falsifying the scriptures, Du Yu dared to misinterpret the "Zuo Zhuan", Wang Bi used Lao and Zhuang to annotate the "Yi", and He Yan and Huang Kan used Xuanxu to interpret the "Analects of Confucius". The dignity of classics, baptized by conversation, has a peaceful mind and the possibility of integration.
The dispute between Confucianism and Taoism is nothing more than a dispute between religion and nature. That is, the relationship between social norms and human nature. Confucianism emphasizes the establishment of names (rituals) to regulate human nature, while Taoism advocates following nature and following the nature of things. The Confucian theory of fame was practiced until the end of the Han Dynasty and was full of abuses. It was a tool for some deceitful and cunning people to gain fame and deceive the world. Taoism, especially the Zhuangzi school, believed that individual people are higher than social people. They advocate following nature and following the nature of things, that is to say, one should develop freely according to one's natural nature. The emergence of social etiquette systems and norms just proves the continuous self-loss of human natural nature. Taoist natural theory has its rationality and positive significance in paying attention to personal character and will. However, over exaggerating the contradiction between personal will and social norms and trying to separate individuals from society is obviously one-sided. The free and easy life attitude of the scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties destined them to admire Lao and Zhuang, and affirm the fundamentality and rationality of human nature. However, they did not reject the normative role of Mingjiao. They advocated taking nature as the basis and Mingjiao as the ultimate (use), emphasizing With the end of the original tradition and the use of the original, the original is not separated from the end, and the use is not different from the original. We strive to reconcile the contradiction between the nature of nature and the norms of famous religions, make them harmonious and unified, and regard Taoism and Confucianism as the two pillars of human heart and society. The levels are interdependent and mutually restrictive. Perhaps this is also a source of the duality of the Chinese people.
Another important means by which scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties created miracles was the cognitive theory of "forgetting images (speaking) with contentment". In the early days of the introduction of Buddhism, translations focused too much on diction and ignored its ideological meaning, which made it difficult for people to understand and accept it. The free and easy spirit of scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties opposed fragmented and cumbersome explanation methods, emphasized that when demonstrating issues, attention should be paid to grasping the meaning and principles, and opposed to being obsessed with words and images. He proposed the methods of "forgetting the words when you are proud" and "letting the words reveal the meaning", which greatly affected the translation method of Buddhist scriptures. As Tao Sheng, a famous monk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, said: "The image is used to express the meaning, and the image is forgotten when the meaning is achieved. The words are used to interpret the reason, and the meaning is expressed after entering the reason. Since the classics flowed eastward, translators have encountered many obstacles, mostly clinging to stagnant prose, and rarely seeing complete meanings. "If you forget to catch fish, you can talk about it!" In addition, the famous monk Seng Zhao in the Eastern Jin Dynasty was deeply familiar with Lao Zhuang and metaphysics. His book "Zhao Lun" used the words and style of Lao and Zhuang metaphysics to discuss the idea of ??prajna in the sky! . In using traditional Chinese nouns and diction to express Buddhist theories, he has reached a very advanced level and deeply understands the purpose of forgetting words and being content. Therefore, metaphysics has a profound influence on Buddhism, and it plays an important role as a bridge between Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture.
Under the influence of Chinese Confucianism, Taoism and Metaphysical thought, many characteristics of the original Indian Buddhism have undergone significant changes.
For example, Indian Buddhism's complex and cumbersome analysis of names and forms has gradually been replaced by the traditional way of thinking that is simple and forgetful of words; Indian Buddhism's emphasis on the liberation method of asceticism has been transformed into a liberation method based on wisdom and enlightenment; The transcendent spirit of Indian Buddhism has been replaced more by the secular spirit and even the active worldly spirit, etc. In theory, it has widely absorbed various ideological theories such as Confucianism and the Doctrine of the Mean, Taoist natural inaction, and even Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, becoming an organic part of the entire Chinese culture that can stand side by side with Confucianism and Taoism.
The world of Wei and Jin Dynasties liked to talk about everything, and at the same time attached great importance to communication, which was also an important opportunity for the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. In the academic debates among scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, oral talks and article debates were the main ways and forms. In order to show their talents and gain the upper hand in conversation, the scholars rushed to read a lot of books and had spontaneous thoughts, which triggered many new viewpoints. People with new perspectives will "explore the subtleties of mysteries" with others, "quote wonderful words", and "forget about meals at dusk, and the truth is uncertain." Some people are not good at "controlling others with their words", so they turn to putting their thoughts into writing and engage in pen battles with their opponents. This intense and wise thinking behavior not only elaborated the essence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, but also integrated various views through mutual communication and formed the complex personality spirit of the scholars in Wei and Jin Dynasties. For example, Zhang Rong of the Southern Qi Dynasty ordered that when he was buried after his death, he should hold the "Book of Filial Piety" (Confucianism) and "Laozi" (Taoism) in his left hand, and the "Xiaopin (Prescription)" (physicians) and the "Lotus Sutra" (Lotus Sutra) in his right hand. (Buddhism); and Tao Hongjing also ordered that after his death, he should be buried with the figurines of Taoist priests and monks, which can be said to be "a Confucian crown, a monk wearing a Taoist shoe". It can be seen that Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism had been perfectly integrated among them at that time.
Some are copied, and some are written by myself ~ I hope the poster will accept it