Cheng Hao: Zen is the most harmful to Confucianism
At the time of the Tang and Song dynasties, Zen Buddhism flourished, from the emperors and generals to the common people, and the wind of Zen pervaded the government and the opposition. The Records of the Divided Lamps of Lay Scholars records fragments of the meditations of Han Yu, Bai Juyi, Pei Xiu, Li Ao, Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi, Fu Bi, Ouyang Xiu, Sima Guang, Shao Yong, Su Shi, Su Rui, Huang Tingjian, Hu Anguo, Zhang Yu, Zhu Xi, and other Confucian scholars.
At that time, some Confucians suffered from the prevalence of Zen, but they went to and from the Buddha with the mentality of "mastering the art of mastering the art of mastery to control The Yi" in an attempt to revitalize Confucianism. However, in the process of learning Zen, Confucians are often assimilated by Zen, which causes concern among orthodox Confucians. The second trip is one of them.
Cheng Hao once recorded his feelings about attending a private meeting of Confucians:
"Yesterday's meeting, a lot of talk about Zen, made people unhappy, and returned to hate those who hated it for a long time. This is said to be the wind in the world, how can it be saved! ”
In the face of confucians talking about Zen into the wind, Cheng Hao is not generally depressed. Cheng Hao also mentioned that among today's scholars, only Fan Zhongyan and Sima Guang are upright gentlemen and do not learn Zen. However, the ideological realm of the two of them is not as good as That of Buddhism, which makes people uneasy. Cheng Yi sighed: "Scholars are all in YiDiyi."
First, the rise of Buddhism and the snub of Confucianism
Buddhism was officially introduced from the time of the Two Han Dynasties to its peak during the Tang Dynasty. During the Wei and Jin dynasties, Hinayana Zen and Mahayana Prajnaparamita were popular in China, and the study of Prajnaparamita once formed the "Six Schools and Seven Sects". By the time of the Tang Dynasty, Zen Buddhism had risen, and Buddhism had formed eight major sects. Buddhism not only imports new ideas into Chinese culture in terms of righteousness, but also brings unique cultural arts and customs, such as Buddhist paintings, stone carvings, sculptures, literature and other artistic achievements, as well as customs and habits such as monasticism, worship, and almsgiving. During the Tang Dynasty, the cultural influence of Buddhism was very strong, the royal family revived the Buddha, the scholar learned Buddhism, and the folk also appeared in the scene of "Family Amitabha, Household Guanyin".
Traditional Confucianism is ethics and political science, which itself lacks the profundity of philosophical speculation and the openness of the spiritual realm. After Confucianism became the official philosophy of the Western Han Dynasty, it was fixed on one statue, and its status was unshakable, and it was even more difficult to innovate, and it could only do some detailed efforts such as annotation, so the collation of literature became the main content of Han and Tang classics. After the complicated development of the Han and Tang Classics ,300,000 Ancient Sayings of the Ancients of The Confucian Classics, he was powerless in the face of Zen Buddhism, which "pointed directly to the heart", resulting in "Confucianism being indifferent, unable to be contained, and all returned to the Shi clan".
Second, the self-help of the Confucians
Faced with the snub of Confucianism, some Confucians began to seek a way out of Confucianism. Han Yu is one of the representatives, and he satirizes the scribes that "Erya injects insect fish, and it is not a person who is not a person." On the one hand, Han Yu put forward the theory of "Taoism" for the inheritance of Confucianism, and on the other hand, he used texts such as "Table of Buddha Bones" and "Original Tao" to dispel Buddhas. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Hu Yu, Sun Fu, Shi Jie,"three gentlemen" and Li Jian and others inherited Han Yu's cause and vigorously attacked The Buddha.
During the Two Song Dynasties, although the imperial court used the three religions in cultural policy, the "confluence of the three religions" also became the consensus of the cultural circles. However, in the face of the crushing advantages of Buddhist culture, it is indispensable for Confucians whose mission is to revive Confucianism, and to criticize Buddhism, especially Zen.
Three major critiques of Buddhism by the Second Journey
Ercheng's critique of Buddhism can be mainly summarized into the following three aspects:
First, the taoist critique. Ercheng succeeded Han Yu and demanded the establishment of a Confucian Taoist system to resist the onslaught of Buddhism in terms of cultural genealogy. The development of Confucianism to the Tang Dynasty gradually lost its vitality, and Confucians mainly focused on the study of scriptures of exhortation, and righteousness was not taken seriously. The theologians of the Northern Song Dynasty took righteousness as the theme of Confucianism, in order to construct the theoretical system of Confucianism and the "Taoist system" of the inheritance of righteousness. In order to establish the authority of Confucianism and establish the "cultural self-confidence" of Confucianism among the scholar-doctor class, it is necessary to find out the weaknesses of Buddhism and attack them in order to weaken the influence of Buddhism.
The Confucian Taoism, Han Yu clearly put forward, that is, the path of benevolence and righteousness inherited by Confucius and Mencius of Yao Shunyu Zhou Gong was most summed up in place with Zhang Zai (Zhang Zai was Ercheng's cousin) in Ercheng's contemporaries, that is, the "Four Sentences of Hengqu": "Establish a heart for heaven and earth, establish a destiny for life, continue to learn from the saints, and open up peace for all the worlds." ”
Second, ethical critique. Buddhism threatens the Confucian system of ethical principles. In the eyes of many Confucians, Buddhist monks can be said to be "unfaithful and filial", neither being officials, nor marrying wives and children, filial piety to parents, and often being extremely destructive to the ethical code. Cheng Hao said:
"Buddhism is probably and perfectly classless, and there is no such reason in the world. And he is about to be born, where to go? And his deeds require monasticism, but those who are in the family are but kings, fathers and sons, and brothers. In dealing with such things, they all think that they are a hermit, so they are loyal and filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness, and they all think that they have no choice. And to the net of toss, to the fool also. ”
The issue of monasticism is a relatively important issue in the debate between Confucianism and Buddhism, and it is also one of the key issues in the criticism of Confucianism in the second process.
Third, value criticism. Cheng Yi believes that Buddhism, because of its sophisticated theory, can most confuse the world, and is more harmful to Confucianism than Yang Zhu and Mozi in history. Cheng Yi said:
"Yang and Mo are more harmful than Shen Han. The harm of the Buddha is greater than that of Yang Mo. ...... Buddha, lao qi is close to reason, and it is not the ratio of Yang and Mo, so this is particularly harmful. ”
The doctrines of Yang Zhu and Mozi were opposed to Confucianism in the Hundred Houses of the Pre-Qin Dynasty, and Yang Zhu's individualism and Mozi's utilitarianism and Confucian ideas of universal unity were incompatible. Cheng Hao believes that Confucius advocated "not knowing life, knowing death", and the important thing is the perfection of personality. Buddhism, on the other hand, uses people's greed for life and death to intimidate people with life and death, showing the narrowness of ethics of "selfishness" and is also a kind of utilitarianism.
Ercheng's critique of Buddhism is mainly based on the political responsibility and social responsibility of Confucians. The object of their criticism is actually a denial of the Buddhist Hinayana Arhat Path, of course, there are some misunderstandings, but this is almost the consensus of the entire Song and Ming Dynasty agents.