Chapter 18: The Monopoly of Confucianism and the Revival of Taoism
Recently, there is a very popular short video, the Taoist mental state is thousands of years ahead, which is particularly interesting.
The main copywriting is: the reason why Taoism has not spread all over the world, the mental state is thousands of years ahead, Taoism: love to believe or not, do not believe in rolling.
Feng Youlan analyzes the formation of Taoism: Taoism arose at the end of the Han Dynasty. Taoism is the Yin and Yang elements that have been purged from Confucianism, combined with Taoism to form a new miscellaneous school, and imitates the organizational form of Buddhism, with temples, clergy, and religious ceremonies, reducing Confucius to an ordinary teacher and revering Lao Tzu as the leader.
Because foreign Buddhism spread too smoothly, it aroused national sentiment and inspired Taoism to become a local religion. Rejecting Buddhism and borrowing from the philosophy of Buddhism.
However, it is also true that Buddhism was introduced to the mainland at the end of the Han Dynasty, and Taoism also arose among the people at this time, and it is difficult for Taoism to be established in imitation of Buddhism. Taoism's organizational form and theoretical closed-loop are not as perfect as Buddhism's, but Buddhism's influence in the late Han Dynasty was not as good as Taoism's, probably because of Taoism's local first-mover advantage. It is likely that there were various Taoist groups in China before Buddhism spread widely in China. Moreover, many Buddhist rituals and supplies are copied from Taoism, and even in order to improve the acceptance of local people, they also engaged in a Laozi Hu Sutra.
Taoism is based on Buddhism. In the form of mystery, there is a lot of similarity between the two. Taoism's "Tao" is indescribable, and Buddhism's "truthfulness" is also unspeakable. It is neither "one" nor "many"; Such a noun term is exactly what the Chinese saying is "thinking about non-non".
There is a cloud in the Buddhist scriptures: "If you say what you say, it is not advisable to say it." Illegal, non-illegal. The so-called Dharma is not the Dharma. Not advisable, that is, not clinging to the Dharma, not to speak, because once you say it, you will deviate from the true meaning. If you don't cling to the Dharma, you can't cling to the non-law, the Dharma is there, the illegality is empty, you can't cling to both sides of emptiness, it's not empty and non-existent, and letting go of ego is the true meaning.
The spirit of Zen emerged. This is the most subtle combination of Buddhist and Taoist philosophy.
Buddhism has contributed to the beauty of "enlightenment" for China, and its method is to "leave blank", that is, to "hold the middle", not to say enough, not to write all the words, not to paint the form, everyone has their own feelings, which is also the unique charm of Chinese aesthetics, with the subtle sense of Taoism.
To sum up, this chapter tells that the modern literary school of Confucianism Dong Zhongshu mixed the elements of Yin and Yang, which was purged by the ancient literary school, and Confucius returned from mythology to sage. These elements of Yin and Yang were mixed with Taoism, pushing Lao Tzu to the altar, borrowing and adopting some forms of Buddhism, thus establishing Taoism. Although Taoism and Buddhism are very different on the surface, Taoism and Buddhism are very similar. The fusion of Taoism and Buddhist philosophy led to the birth of Zen Buddhism. Confucianism lost the possibility of becoming Confucianism and achieved Taoism, and Taoism and Buddhism also have a deep origin, from the establishment of Taoism in order to counter foreign Buddhism, to the similarity of ideas, mutual learning, mutual integration, and common development.