Chinese philosophy

Confucianism triumphed over the other "Hundred Schools" during the Han Dynasty and became the official philosophy of China because it best met the administrative and philosophical needs of the imperial government. The Confucian ideology of piety, humaneness, ritual, support for the hierarchy, and flexibility overcame the rival Taoist philosophy and Legalist tendencies of emperors.

Acta Orientalia Hung. , 1999

Chinese religions or Chinese traditional religions include Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism and popular beliefs derived from and related to these three. Liu Mi, a Chinese elite of the late Song and early Yuan dynasty, said in his essay Sanjiao Pingxin Lun "Buddhism is for the cultivation of mind, Daoism is for the training of the physical body and Confucianism is for the governance of the world." This reflects the roles and functions of the three religions in China in the last two thousand years with Confucianism at the center supported by Buddhism and Daoism. Although there were conflicts and persecutions in Chinese history but harmony and integration were the mainstream as both Buddhism and Chinese thought uphold the open and tolerate attitude of mind. Thus, Ma Xisa, a specialist in Chinese popular religions said that Buddhism heavily influenced Chinese popular religions in their formations and developments.

Over the past twenty years Zen Buddhism has become established as a world religion. "Zen" is actually the Japanese term for the Ch'an school of Buddhism that is said to have been founded in China by the Indian monk Bodhidharma and which swept the country in a craze that reached its apogee during the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907). Its teachings, afterward, had flourished for over four centuries and influenced Sung and Ming dynasties' neo-Confucianism, lending it great importance in a philosophical as well as in a religious sense.

… in Higher Education Management. Singapore: Marshall …, 2006

Asia. Confucian cultures will be discussed, with the majority of the information dealing with China. Confucianism The most important figure in North Asian civilization is unquestionably Confucius (Little and Reed, 1989). The Confucian philosophy of life has had strong influence for more than two thousand years on the cultures of China, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. The resilience of the Confucian way of life in China can be seen in the results of "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", a movement launched in 1966 to remould Chinese society and return to Communist ideals. It resulted in disaster, quickly degenerating into a power struggle between Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party, and his rivals. For many it resulted in a loss of tradition, a loss of their career, loss of hope and loss of trust. Many people lost their lives. A tenet of the revolution was elimination of the "Four Olds", • Old ideas • Old culture • Old customs • Old habits Confucianism was an overarching way of life underpinning the rejected Four Olds. Despite the campaign by the government to minimize the hold of the Confucian philosophy of life on Chinese, the influence remains. Confucianism was adopted as China's state religion during the Han Dynasty (250 B.C.-0, Christian/Gregorian calendar, used hereafter). During the Tang Dynasty (618-906), the Confucian Classics became the basis for the great civil service examinations that provided magistrates and bureaucrats (the "Mandarins") for the Chinese government. Confucianism became the state ideology of Korea during the Choson Dynasty in Korea in 1392. The Korean Choson dynasty's King Sejong the Great (r. 1418-1450), was noted for his mastery of Confucian learning; King Sejo (r. 1455-1468) attempted to abolish Confucian influence on government; and Songjong (r.1469-1494) reinstated it, and Confucian indoctrination was again the order of the day. The influence is still considerable. Confucianism was introduced into Japan via Korea in the year 285. In 1600, the Tokugawa clan succeeded in establishing its supremacy in Japan following over two centuries of civil wars between powerful clans. During this period of the Tokugawa Shogunate Confucianism was adopted as a state ideology. Confucianism was also become an integral part of the warrior or bushido culture Confucianism was introduced into Vietnam in the first century, during the Chinese domination. However, it was after Vietnam achieved independence from China that Chinese influence and Confucianism became important. As a political philosophy favourable to the monarchy, Confucianism was promoted and supported by the government. Vietnam was considered a Confucian state until the mid nineteenth century. In Vietnam official support of the Confucian system of philosophy lost prominence in more recent history, but its practice is still common among government bureaucrats and leaders.

2013

Chinese challenges to Buddhism Buddhist interactions with Confucianism and Daoism; and Chinese Mahāyāna by Piya Tan ©2008 (2 nd rev), 2009 (3 rd rev) There are means by which the linguistic genius of a nation defends itself against what is foreign by cunningly stealing from it as much as possible. Karl Vossler, The Spirit of Language in Civilization, 1932 2.1 FACTORS THAT CHALLENGED BUDDHISM IN ANCIENT CHINA When Buddhism began entering China shortly before the Common Era, she was an ancient and wellestablished culture with her own indigenous philosophy and religion [1.1]. As such, Buddhism faced these special conditions following its introduction into China: (1) Daoism was China's own popular religion, but it did not have the rational and philosophical depth that gave Buddhism greater prestige. (2) Confucianism emphasized family values, obedience to authority and social stability. Confucian scholars constituted the most influential sector of society. They generally disapproved of-barbar-ian‖ religions. (3) Antecedents. Confucianism and Taoism had long provided the Chinese people with a vocabulary and philosophy of something beyond the daily grind. The cultural and intellectual bedrock helped Buddhism tremendously to express itself by means of contextualization. (4) The discipline and standard of moral virtue of Buddhism, as exemplified in the early Buddhist missionaries inspired the thinking Chinese. But, on a general level, the ancient Chinese were attracted to what they perceived as the magical powers of these missionaries. 2.2 DAOISM IN CHINESE BUDDHISM 2.2.1 How the early Chinese viewed Buddhism. When Buddhism first arrived in China in the 1 st century (or earlier), it remained within the community of foreign traders, and had no significant impact on the Hàn Chinese. Around 150 CE, translators such as Ān Shìgāo 安世高 (?-170) 1 began to produce Chinese translations of Buddhist texts. Most of his translations were of the Hīnayāna,-inferior vehicle‖ (a Mahāyāna term for the early Indian scripture and system), and as such served more as a curiosity and diversion for the leisurely elite, but had no impact whatsoever on the common people, who were mostly illiterate, anyway. Almost all of the Buddhist texts translated into Chinese were philosophical (eg the Wisdom texts), legalistic (the Vinayas) or mythical (the Lotus Sutra), and with the sidelining of early Buddhist teachings and meditation-and with the dominant influence of indigenous philosophies and beliefs-the Buddhism that grew on Chinese soil and filled the Chinese mind was effectively a Chinese religion. Whalen Lai, in-Buddhism in China: A historical survey,‖ for example, notes: For the Han Chinese, the doctrine of karmic rebirth entailed the transmigration of the soul-a presumption they could not do away with even when they accepted the doctrine of emptiness. Since nirvana was seen as a return to a pure origin, it was believed to be achieved by discarding the defilements. Refining one's inner self was thought to be a process of attaining a sublime shen (spirit) that would realize nirvanic immortality or nondeath. (2002:10 digital ed) 1 Ān Shìgāo was a prince of Parthia (ancient Iran) who renounced his claim to the throne to become a missionary monk. In 148, he arrived in China at the Luòyáng (洛阳), the Hàn capital, where he set up a centre for translating Buddhist texts. He translated 35 texts, mostly from the early Pali texts. Ān Shìgāo is the first Buddhist missionary to China to be named in Chinese sources. Another Parthian monk named Ān Xuán 安玄 is said to have joined Ān Shìgāo at Luòyáng around 181 CE. 2 SD 40b 2 Chinese Challenges to Buddhism http://dharmafarer.org 24 2.2.2 The Huàhú controversy: Lǎozi vs the Buddha. Around 300, Wáng Fú 王浮, a Daoist, fabricated the Huàhú jīng 化胡經 (Classic on the Conversion of the Barbarians) in which they claimed that the Buddha was a reincarnation of Lǎozi, or that he went to India and became Shakyamuni (or the teacher of Shakyamuni). 2 The Buddhists responded with the Qīngjìng fǎxíng jīng 清淨法行經 (Sutra to Propagate the Clear and True Teaching), 3 wherein the Buddha sent out his three disciples, 4 namely, Confucius (the bodhisattva Judō), his chief disciple Zhāng Yànyuǎn 張彥遠 (the bodhisattva Kōjō) 5 and Lǎozi (Mahā Kaṥyapa), 6 to instruct the Chinese, claiming this to be the true interpretation of the Daoist classic, Qīngjìng jīng 清淨經. [2.5; 2.6.3] Some 200 years later, in 520, in Luòyáng 洛陽, 7 there was a court-sponsored public debate between the Daoists and the Buddhists over the huàhú 化胡 thesis: did Lǎozi leave China and reappear in India as Buddha? Or, did Buddha will his own rebirth in China as Lǎozi? This debate was a product of the Hàn perception of Buddha and Lǎozi as equal sages, and each side sought to absorb the other. (Around the same time, in India, the Hindus were claiming that Vishnu had masqueraded as a heretical-Buddha‖ in order to deceive and weaken the demonic hosts.) In the process of the debate, the Chinese Buddhists and Daoists pushed the relative dates of their respective founders farther and farther back until Buddha was said to have died in 1052 BCE. The Buddhists won the 520 debate, but that also moved the date of the demise of the dharma, set by one popular count as coming 1,500 years after the Buddha's death, which would move the beginning of the last age to 552 C.E. After a debate in 520, was a period when Buddhist and Daoist scholars forged Classics and Sutras, both to prove that their respective founders were anterior to the other. In 552, the prophecy self-actualized, as it were. A civil war raging in Luòyáng, burnt down its temples. One of the darkest hours for Chinese Buddhism was the anti-Buddhist persecution of 574-577, launched by emperor Wǔ of Northern Zhōu [7.4.1]. Yet, out of this trial by fire, the Buddha dharma rose like a phoenix, and a result would be the Chinese Mahāyāna schools that flourished in the Sui and the Táng dynasties. The mature Chinese Mahāyāna synthesis was not like the earlier-concept-matching‖ or géyi 格義 syncretism [2.2.3]. The period of digesting Indian subtleties had ended; a time of independent creativity had begun. But before we consider a philosophical analysis of the Chinese Mahāyāna schools, we need to consider the building blocks of that edifice. 2.2.3 Dàoshēng 道生 (c360-434). Early Buddhism is a gradual teaching. 8 But in China, the dominant schools adopted the official view of-sudden awakening‖ [4.1.27; 5.3.1]. Why did this happen? The Chinese Buddhist theory of sudden awakening was first proposed by the ultra-liberal monk Dàoshēng, who was also remembered for asserting the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature [2.3.2, 4.2.2.3]. Let us exam-2 Also called Lǎozi huàhú jīng 老子化胡經-Lǎozi Converted the Barbarians‖ or Lǎozi kātiān jīng 老子開天經,-Classic of Lǎozi Opening Heaven.‖ According to another such apocryphal account, Siddhartha, on meeting Lǎozi could not understand his philosophy, and as a result the former taught what we know as Buddhism! 3 The extant version prob dates from the 6th cent Northern Celestial Masters (Tiān Shī Dào 天師道). The text is honorifically known as the Tàishàng Língbǎo Lǎozi huàhú miàojīng 太上靈寶老子化胡妙經,-The Supreme Numinous Treasure's Sublime Classic on Lǎozi's Conversion of the Barbarians‖). A copy of the Huàhú jīng was found in the Mògāo Caves near Dūnhuáng. Liu Yi (1997) believes the original text dates from around late 4th or early 5th cent; see International Dunhuang Project Newsletter 7, 1997: http://idp.bl.uk/archives/news07/idpnews_07.a4d. 4 Sānshèng pàiqiǎn shuō 三聖派遣說. 5 Yányuān 顏淵, Confucius' foremost disciple as the bodhisattva Kōjō. 6 Móhē Jiāyè 摩訶迦葉. 7 Located about 300 km east of Xī'ān 西安, the other ancient capital of China.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2019

The three principal religious denominations of China, referred to in English as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, all share a concern with self-cultivation. Of these so-called “Three Teachings” (Sanjiao), Confucianism situates the self hierarchically within a social order, Daoism attempts to free the self from society and realign it with the more fundamental natural order, and Buddhism ultimately strives to liberate the self by dissolving any and all order. The two indigenous traditions of Confucianism and Daoism have roots in the same cultural environment from which the residual category of Popular Religion also emerged, and the two have long existed in a symbiotic relationship with local cults of worship. After the introduction of Buddhism to China, it too became deeply immersed in this interactive dynamic between more unified denominations and the locally diverse forms of worship of spirits, saints, and sages. Though Popular Religion does not represent a unified ideology or a consistent corpus of self-cultivation practices, its ubiquitous rites of spirit possession similarly relate to the self: by allowing the presence of certain gods to displace individual selves, these rites play with the need to suspend socio-individual identity from time to time, instead allowing the sacred embodiment of lineages, villages, or even entire regions to take precedence.

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions, 2012

T oo often the Ru tradition, which is known to Westerners as Confucianism, is presented as a parade of philosophers, such as Confucius, Mencius, Dong Zhongshu, and Zhu Xi. Since the historical record does not have much information about many of these figures, most of what we know about them comes from the philosophical texts that either they or their disciples composed; hence, where the historical man ends and the philosophical text begins is hard to discern, Many accounts of Confucianism are thereby based on a collection of texts rather than flesh-and-blood people, Little wonder that most Westerners view Confucianism as stodgy and dry. Since scholars are principally concerned with the tradition's most prominent advocates, they have largely ignored those periods of the Confucian tradi tion in which there were no major thinkers-a number of accounts make a huge leap from the end of the Eastern Han (25-220 CE) to the Song (960-1279) Dynas ties, as if the Ru tradition was in hibernation during the medieval period, This chapter will argue that Confucianism was much more than its prominent thinkers and texts-it was often promoted and articulated through popular tales, history books, community compacts, images of exemplars, morality books, and ritual prac tices, Moreover, the Confucian conceptual framework was flexible enough that it was always possible to incorporate opponents' ideas and practices.