Since the introduction of Buddhism to China, Confucianism and Taoism have stirred with each other and gradually become one. However, the development process of the unity of the three religions is very long, the situation is also very complicated, and it has shown different characteristics in different historical periods. The Jin Dynasty is an important node in the history of the relationship between the three religions, and compared with the past, the relationship between the three religions in this period has obvious characteristics of the times.
The integration of the three religions is even closer
Confucianism and Taoism are the backbone part of traditional Chinese culture, and since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the three religions have undergone a long-term run-in, forming a pattern of you having me, me having you, complementing each other and developing together. In the Jin Dynasty, the integration between the three religions was closer, and it was highlighted by mutual recognition and mutual affirmation. Li Jun was a Confucian of the Jin Dynasty, and his "Records of The Cultivation of the Great Cloud Temple" began by expounding the principle of the unity of the three religions: "The Shi clan meditates on the meaning of condensation and ignorance, the old clan says that there is no consistency, and the Kong clan uses the disfigurement to say that it sits and forgets." Although the three households are different, they are also one. Li Chunfu was a famous Buddhist layman in the Jin Dynasty, who took it as his duty to safeguard the Dharma all his life, but he also agreed with the unity of the three religions, believing that the three religions "have the same heart, their deeds are different, their paths are one, and their teachings are three." In his view, although the theories of the three religions are different, the mysterious fruits of the evidence are unified, "the Taoist crown Confucianism, the same way to enter the liberation method; The Han Mo articles are all magic games."
Compared with the Confucian and Buddhist schools, Quanzhen Dao's position on the integration of the three religions is more positive. Founder Wang Chongyang took "the unity of three religions" as the principle of establishing a religion, "not the lord is one phase, and there is no one religion." He has also consistently carried out this proposition in his preaching practice. After Da Ding went to Shandong in the seventh year (1167) to preach, he clearly proposed that "all established societies must be named after the three religions", and the Taoist societies established in Wenden, Ninghai, Fushan, Dengzhou, and Laizhou were called the Three Religions Seven Treasures Society, the Three Religions Golden Lotus Society, the Three Religions and the Three Guanghui Society, the Three Religions Yuhua Society, and the Three Religions Equality Society. Wang Chongyang attached great importance to using the three teachings to persuade the Daoists, and the bibliography he advised his disciples to read included the Taoist Tao Te Ching, the Confucian Filial Piety Sutra, and the Buddhist Prajnaparamita Sutra. Regarding the relationship between the three religions, Wang Chongyang also made a vivid analogy, "The three religions, such as the three legs of Ding, are one in body, and there is no two and no three." The Three Sects, do not depart from the True Word. Yu Yue: It is like a tree that grows three branches." His successor inherited the idea of the unity of the three religions, and Qiu Zhiji Shiyun said: "The three ancestors of the Confucian Daoyuan have been the same from ancient to modern times." Ma Yu Yiyun: "Although there are Confucian students as good friends, there is no reunion between the three religions." ”
During the Jin Dynasty, Confucianism and Taoism conformed to the historical trend of the unity of the three religions, emphasizing the commonality of the three religions while emphasizing individuality, and then made certain adjustments to their theoretical system, and this theoretical integration laid a solid foundation for the development of the unity of the three religions.
There is no strong rebuttal to the Buddha
Since the introduction of Buddhism to China, although the unification of the three religions is the general trend, conflicts with each other are inevitable, especially Confucianism, in order to maintain its orthodox status, has sometimes had master-in-law Confucians lashing out at The Buddhist Tao. In the struggle against each other, the crusade at the literal and theoretical levels is still secondary, and the tang Dynasty's three martial arts and one sect destroyed Buddhism and dealt a more severe blow to Buddhism.
There was also a trend of anti-Buddhist thought among some scholars in the Jin Dynasty, and Song Jiujia, who was a scholar of the Huang Dynasty and a Hanlin script, did not like Buddhism, "saying that there were three hatreds in his life, one hated the Buddha's elders who could not speak before Kong's, the second hated the scholars of lexicography who translated the scriptures well, and the three hated the great talents and attacked heresies." The literary scholar Wang Yu believes that "Kong shi can also be a Buddha, and the Buddha is a harm to the world." When Liu Congyi, a literary celebrity, was in the Hanlin Academy, every time he talked about the similarities and differences between Confucianism and Buddhism, "it was difficult to meet and fold". It can be seen that the Confucian class of the Jin Dynasty did have a trend of thought that rejected the Buddha, and the question is whether this trend of thought is universal? How much influence did it have on the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism? More importantly, did the rulers pursue a policy of exclusion of the Buddha?
There are not a few dignitaries and dignitaries of the Jin Dynasty and even the royal imperial family who believe in Buddhism, and there are also many Confucians like Li Chunfu and Yuan Haowen who speak out for the survival and development of the Buddha. On the contrary, the voice of confucians rejecting the Buddha is relatively weak, and even from the existing historical books, it is impossible to see representative figures and schools of thought. From this, it can be seen that the anti-Buddhist remarks of the Confucians of the Jin Dynasty were individual and temporary.
From the national level, the simultaneous use of the three religions was an important policy of the Jin Dynasty ruling clique. Take, for example, Kim Sejong, who had been in power for the longest time, during his reign he built up schools, opened keju, and revered Confucianism, but his respect for Confucianism did not mean contempt for Buddhism. On the contrary, it was an important stage in the development of the Buddhist path in the Jin Dynasty. As far as Buddhism is concerned, at the beginning of Sejong's reign, in order to raise funds to cope with military and political expenses, the road to surrender was widely opened, and the quota of degrees, divisions, and temples were all sold, and this policy played an important role in creating temples, expanding the ranks of monks and nuns, and expanding the power of Buddhism. As far as Taoism is concerned, the three sects founded by Jin Chu, Taiyi, Daodao, and Quanzhen, were further developed during this period, and their important manifestation was that Sejong repeatedly summoned representative figures of Taoism, for example, in the seventh year of Dading, Liu Deren, the founder of the Dao Sect, lived in the capital city of Tianchangguan and gave him the title of Dongyue Zhenren; in the twenty-seventh year of Dading, he summoned Wang Chongyang's disciple Wang Juyi to the inner temple, gave Sanpin Feng, and gave him the crown jian purple clothes; in the twenty-eighth year of Dading, he summoned Changchun Zhenrenqiu to enter Beijing and gave him a middle robe. The reason why Sejong treated the Buddha so kindly is because the ideas preached by the Buddha, such as loyalty to the monarchy, benevolence and self-suppression, reporting of imperial favors, and lower capital and state blessings, fundamentally help to consolidate the rule of the Jurchens. In this regard, the function of the Buddha is exactly the same as that of Confucianism, and it is precisely because Emperor Sejong saw this that he "has every opportunity to spare time and worship the three religions."
To sum up, although there were some Confucians rejecting the Buddha in the Jin Dynasty society, this was only limited to the level of generalization, and did not form a situation in which the Tang and Song dynasties strongly attacked the Buddha's Tao. Because the ruling class pursued a religious policy of combining three religions, there were no extreme events similar to the three martial arts and one anti-Buddha and the destruction of Buddhism in the Jin Dynasty.
Confucianism is dominant
The unity of the three religions means that Confucianism and Taoism are closer in theoretical systems and have more harmonious relations with each other, but this does not mean that the status of the three is completely equal. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, through the admiration of successive rulers and the advocacy of many great Confucians, Confucianism has gradually become an unshakable mainstream theory. Although the trend of the unity of the three religions has gradually become one since the Wei and Jin dynasties, it has not changed the basic pattern of Confucian domination of the relationship between the three religions, and the Jin Dynasty was the same.
Thanks to the addition of the True Path, the jin dynasty's three-sect unity trend was particularly eye-catching. Wang Chongyang, Ma Yu, Qiu Chuji, and others vigorously advocated the unity of the three religions, and although they had the rationality of conforming to historical development, they were not just an expedient measure adopted in the face of the strong pressure of the two religions of Confucianism and Buddhism. In fact, Wang Chongyang and others advocated the unity of the three religions in order to serve the survival and development of Neo-Taoism, and the ultimate purpose was to promote Neo-Taoism to be above Confucianism. In their view, "Confucianism is broad and widowed, and the Tao is simple and easy to do, but it is quiet and inactive, and the highest multiplication is also", therefore, Wang Chongyang's so-called "I will make the four seas teaching style a family in the future", "one family" is just a Taoist, and the unity of the three religions should be the unity of the three religions under the leadership of Taoism.
In the struggle for the status of Confucianism and Buddhism, Buddhism is certainly not far behind. Buddhism developed to the Jin Dynasty, has nearly a thousand years of deep historical accumulation, enough to compete with Confucianism, the famous monk Wan Song Xingxiu believes that Buddhism is higher than Confucianism, "Wumen Xianzhi, why ashamed of the "University" chapter", since the Buddhist scriptures are not inferior to Confucianism, Buddhism is naturally inferior to Confucianism. Therefore, in the view of the Buddhist people, the so-called unification of the three religions in the Buddhist family is "the mysterious essence of the rationality of the three saints, and ultimately refers to the Buddha", that is, the three religions of the Buddhist family are one under the leadership of Buddhism.
In the face of the competition and challenges between Buddhism and Taoism, can Confucianism continue to maintain its exclusive status? Will Confucianism continue to dominate the historical process of the unity of the three religions? The Jin Dynasty Confucians replied in the affirmative, firmly believing that Confucianism was far superior to Buddhism and Taoism. Liu Qi at the end of the Jin Dynasty once made a detailed comparison of the three religions, in his view, Taoism is nothing more than the art of alchemists, Buddhism is the religion of the West, only Confucianism, such as "the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon illuminate, the mountains and rivers are grass and trees, during which the monarchs, fathers and sons, brothers, and couples, the etiquette is clear, and the governance of the country is organized." Rewards and punishments are immediate, honor and disgrace are poor in life and death." In Liu Qi's view, the Buddhist Tao talks a lot about the cycle of cause and effect, but its past and present lives, hell and heaven are unknowable and unexamineable; only Confucian learning can cultivate oneself and govern the country and the family, and its clear understanding and achievements are remarkable, which is not comparable to the false theory of the Buddhist Tao. In the eyes of the Confucians of the Jin Dynasty, although the two religions of Buddhism and Taoism have something to learn from, they are not the same as the learning of Confucius, "In the teachings of the saints, if the hungry must eat, the cold must be clothed." Among the three religions, only Confucianism is the fundamental self-cultivation and the cure for the world. Because of this, despite the development of Buddhism and the prosperity of Taoism, Confucianism in the Jin Dynasty has always been dominant.
To sum up, on the one hand, the Jin Dynasty inherited the three-religion unity trend of thought since the Wei, Jin, Sui, and Tang dynasties, and on the other hand, it presented some new characteristics of the times, enriched and developed the internal orientation and external rationale of the three-religion ideological trend, thus forming a new landscape of Chinese social and ideological history.
(This paper is a phased result of the National Social Science Foundation project "Research on Buddhism in the Jin Dynasty" (12bzj006))
(Author Affilications:School of History, Liaoning University)