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Indian Buddhism developed greatly from the late Western Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, so the struggle between atheism and Buddhist theism at that time became an important feature in the history of atheism in China. Because Buddhism is a foreign culture, when atheists criticize Buddhist theism, they often criticize from two different cultural traditions in addition to theoretical criticism.
Indian Buddhism was introduced into China in the late Western Han Dynasty. At first, it was attached to China's original "Taoism" and "Fang Shu"; In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, metaphysics prevailed and attached to metaphysics. Since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism has flourished and gradually got rid of the shackles of China's original thought, resulting in contradictions and conflicts between two different cultures. Buddhism in the Eastern Han Dynasty mainly talked about "immortals" and "karma", but little was known about Indian Buddhist philosophy. China has the concept of "immortals", which is manifested as "the theory of ghosts and gods". As for "karma", Buddhism and China have different views, but the concept of "karma" circulated by Buddhism in the Han Dynasty is actually related to China's original "good fortune and bad fortune".
At the end of Han Dynasty, Wei Chu translated more and more Buddhist scriptures, and Buddhism spread in China in two schools. One is Anshi Gaopai, which is Hinayana Buddhism and emphasizes Zen. The second is the Zhiloujia school, which is Mahayana Buddhism and talks about Prajna. There are many Buddhist scriptures translated by An Shigao, among which Ju 'an Sutra and Holding Sutra in Yin are the most influential. The former talks about breathing and guarding the heart, which is similar to China's breathing and breathing skills of Huang Lao Shen. The latter explains the concept of Buddhist nouns, such as the study of chapters and sentences in Chinese classic annotations. The theory of cosmic life is based on the "original energy", that is, the "five elements", and on this basis, it is said that "five yin" was later translated into "five aggregates", that is, color, reception, thinking, behavior and knowledge, and that "five yin" is also the function of "original energy". It can be seen that the Hinayana Zen advocated by An Shigao was obviously attached to the popular Taoist thought at that time, and Buddhism was explained by Taoism.
Gao Jia, a branch of Zhilou, is called Mahayana Prajna, which holds that the most important thing in life is to return the spirit to the skill. It has been seen that it is deeply influenced by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's thoughts. Zhiqian, a disciple of Gao Jia in Zhilou, had translated the Prajna Paramita Sutra into the Infinite Great Light Sutra. As can be seen from the name of the translated scriptures, he made Buddhism cater to metaphysics with Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi as the core at that time. "Prajna" is translated into "Daming", which is taken from Laozi's meaning of "unity of knowledge and action". The translation of "paramita" and "to the other side" is also to achieve the realm of unity with "Tao"
During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, metaphysical ontology based on Laozi and Zhuangzi was very popular. The central problem of metaphysics is "whether there is a book at the end", while the central problem of Buddhist Prajna is "emptiness", which is close to metaphysics. Therefore, Buddhists at that time mostly used metaphysics to explain Buddhism, and the method adopted was called "Geyi" or "Lianlei". The monk said in the preface to Piduo Leaf: "Pimuluo has the largest number among the twelve books, which is similar to Fang Forgetting Sutra and is easy to change because of the wind." It can be seen that the famous monks at that time also realized that the popularity of Buddhism depended on the thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi. At the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there were so-called "six schools and seven schools" among the popular Prajna schools in China, but the question they discussed was still "existence". The so-called "rootless school" of Daoan developed after the "rootless school" of Wang Bi and Yan He. The so-called "no distractions" are mostly close to Ji Kang's Ruan Ji thought. But Zhi Dun's "color wandering metaphysics" and Guo Xiang's "advocating uniqueness" have something in common. Therefore, we can say that Buddhism was still attached to metaphysics until the Eastern Jin Dynasty, so Buddhism at that time could be called "Buddhist metaphysics".
After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the widespread spread of Buddhism caused contradictions and conflicts with the traditional culture of China, in which the struggle between atheism and Buddhist theism became an important aspect.
Since the Han Dynasty, a large number of Buddhist scriptures have been translated into Chinese. According to kaiyuanlu, the translation of Buddhist scriptures 1420 volumes and eastern Jin 17 16 volumes during the 250 years from Han dynasty to western Jin dynasty, including the late Qin dynasty, western Qin dynasty, former cool and northern cool in the same period, exceeded the previous 250 years in one hundred years, especially Kumarajiva's Prajna sutra. At this time, not only monks who came to China, but also domestic monks had a relatively correct understanding of some Buddhist teachings. So the question arises, whether to understand Buddhism according to China's original thought or to spread Buddhism in China according to its original meaning. In this way, two different traditional cultures have conflicts. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the conflict between Buddhism and China's original traditional culture was manifested in various aspects, from political thought and philosophical thought to ethical thought and religious thought. Among them, atheism against Buddhist theism is also manifested in many issues, which can be summarized as follows:
First, the relationship between "God" and "Form".
There are all kinds of ghost theories in ancient China, which are closely related to the relationship between "God" and "Form". In the Book of Songs, there is a saying that "after three days, it will be in heaven", and the elves will ascend to distant places. There are many places about ghosts and gods in Zuo Zhuan, so Confucius has the view that "you can't get along with people, how can you get along with ghosts?" He questioned the problem of ghosts and gods. There was a theory of "Qi of life and death" in the pre-Qin period, which was the theoretical basis of atheism. After Qin and Han Dynasties, the struggle between "atheism" and "theism" became more obvious. "Huainanzi Spiritual Practice" said: "Therefore, those who have friction and have never changed their minds should change their ways and try their best to change them before they become extreme." Therefore, Huan Tan said that "all forms are destroyed by God" and Wang Chong said that "people are not ghosts when they die", which criticized the idea of "God is immortal". The atheist Huan Tan or Wang Chong's criticism of "theism" is based on the theory of "life and death gasification", so the thought of "life and death gasification" is still an important weapon in the criticism of Buddhist immortal theory in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Atheists at that time put forward: "When a husband is extremely angry, he tries his best to eliminate his body fluids, but it is different." Although God is a wonderful thing, it is the ear of Yin and Yang. Life, life and death; It is the beginning of gathering and the end of parting. So, push, so we know that god and form are unified, and the original is the same. Fine and rough, always in the same house. The whole house was full of spirit, but the house was destroyed and scattered. Scattering is subject to heaven, and extinction is nothing. Repeated poverty is natural. "(quoted from" Hong Ming Ji "Volume V, Hui Yuan's" On Shaman Disrespecting King ") They think that human life is composed of Qi, life is only once, and there is no afterlife. After death, god is all gone, and there is nothing left. However, in this period, because Buddhism is a more exquisite theism, it is no longer enough to rely solely on the idea of "life and death", so Fan Zhen strongly criticized the Buddhist immortal theory with the views of "the use of form and quality" and "the unity of form and spirit". Fan Zhen's "immortal theory" raised China's atheism to a new height. Opposing "the immortality of God" with "the gasification of life and death" does not fully explain whether there is any problem with the soul after death, but the view of "the god of form and quality" can better solve the dependence of "God" on "form". Explaining the relationship between form and spirit with the relationship between quality and use is obviously influenced by metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties explaining the relationship between "you" and "you" or the relationship between "you" and "you". For example, Zhong Hui's "Lao Zi Zhu" said: "Is there a phase? Nothing can be wasted, so it is beneficial and beneficial; Nothing is useful, but it is empty. " Zhun Yuan's "Nature and Nature": "Sex, as far as its quality is concerned, should be used. "Because Fan Ju used the metaphysical ideas of Wei and Jin Dynasties about" style "and" use "or" quality "and" use "and regarded them as a unity, no use was unfounded and no style was meaningless, so" style and use are the same ". Because "God" can't be separated from "form" and "form" can't be separated from "God", it is concluded that "both form and spirit are destroyed".
Second, the question of "nature" and strict causality.
It turns out that in China's traditional thought, there is a saying called "good or bad luck". I ching, Kun gua, classical Chinese: "If there is a good family, there must be Qing Yu;" If there is a bad family, there will be more disasters. " It is believed that those who do good deeds will be rewarded by themselves or future generations will be rewarded by good deeds; People who do bad things will get bad karma for themselves or for their children. This statement is less deceptive, because people see that people who do good things may not be rewarded, but those who do evil often get wealth and glory.
Buddhism is much more particular about this. They believe that people's suffering is entirely caused by their own ignorance, ignorance and love, and what kind of "cause" will cause the corresponding "result" is inevitable. And the results are late and fast, first and then, and some are the retribution of this world. Some are the "treasures" of afterlife retribution; Some "report after two lives, three lives, a hundred lives and a thousand lives" are called "post-report". Before "liberation" and "nirvana", people will always be reincarnated in the six paths of heaven, man, Asura, hell, hungry ghost and beast. If the wheel keeps turning, it is called "reincarnation" or "six points of karma" If people do good, they can ascend to heaven, and there is still a cycle of life and death in heaven; If people do bad things, they will become animals or fall into hell after death. Therefore, before reaching nirvana, people must be dominated by karma and can only be in the samsara.
In China's traditional thought, there is also the thought of opposing "retribution", and more importantly, the thought of "natural birth". As early as the pre-Qin period, "life and death" has been regarded as a natural phenomenon. For example, there are such words in the book Zhuangzi. For example, the book De Chong Fu says that "life and death are one", and the book Happiness records Zhuangzi's singing when he lost his wife. Hui Shi asked Zhuangzi why, and Zhuangzi replied that life and death are gasification, just like running at four o'clock in spring, summer, autumn and winter. After Qin and Han Dynasties, atheists often regarded "life and death" as a natural process while advocating "the extinction of gods". For example, Wang Chong thinks: "Heaven and earth are in harmony, and dolls are born by themselves. Jewish couples live in harmony and children are born. " The intersection of heaven and earth, human nature; Just like couples get along, children come naturally. People will die naturally as ice melts. "Popsicles are released in winter, and people die in a hundred years." Wang Chong put forward the concept of "self-birth" on the issue of "life and death" in order to oppose the teleology of the unity of man and nature, which is based on his viewpoint of "nature does nothing". The thought of "natural inaction" and "spontaneous" had a far-reaching influence on metaphysics in Wei and Jin Dynasties. In Guo Xiang's philosophical system, the concepts of "nature" and "spontaneous generation" not only occupy an important position, but also have a particularly important impact on opposing the "immortal theory" and "karma theory" of Buddhism in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Guo Xiang's concept of "nature" is very complicated, but it undoubtedly contains the meaning of "contingency". For example, he said, "Everything is natural, and I don't know why." When he talks about "things are born separately", he often uses "sudden", "excavation" and "effective" to explain the state of "things are born separately", indicating that things exist without purpose, without reason and by accident. Guo Xiang's view of "nature" became a powerful weapon for atheists in the Southern and Northern Dynasties to oppose Buddhism. For example, Fan Zhen said:
"Life is like a tree flower with hair, which falls with the wind. It has its own curtains and falls on the mat.
Above, it fell into the dung from the wall of the fence. Your highness is also the one who fell on the mat.
Those who drop dung are also officials. Although the way is different, where is the cause and effect? "
In his view, some people are rich, others are poor, and there is no inevitability. Xiaoliangzi happened to fall on the embroidery table, so he became rich, while Fan Zhen himself fell on the cesspit, so he became poor. Therefore, he said, "Tao Zhen was born in nature, and Rosen was independent. Suddenly he had his own, but he had nothing. He can't resist, he can't catch up when he goes, and it's unreasonable to take advantage of her husband. " Later, Zhu's "nature of sexual law" was also developed by inheriting the views of Guo Xiang and Fan Zhen, as he said:
"Actors don't know their master, and life and death don't know their roots, so they cover nature.
Take good care of it. The so-called unnatural person. It's nature. "
Say it again:
"If the warm wind turns to China, the snow is cold, and there are tired jade steps under the dung.
Above. The wind is careless, Hua Yue has the way of filth and cleanliness, and Heaven has no intention.
Love and hate, but live in poverty. "
Zhu believes that people's wealth, poverty, life and death are like snowflakes in the cold wind, some of which fall in the soil and some on the jade steps. This is not caused by mysterious forces or karma, but naturally.
Third, the question of "being" and "being".
Metaphysics, which was popular in Wei and Jin Dynasties, was divided into two schools: "Ignoring" and "Advocating". The question they discussed was "Is there anything at the end of the story?". The "Gui Wu" faction said: "If there is something, there is nothing, and if there is something, there is nothing." They believe that "being" exists according to "nothingness", and "nothingness" is the ontology of existence, so things between heaven and earth are only the expression of noumenon "nothingness", and the school of "nobles without" developed to Zhang Zhan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. According to this theory, he laid a theoretical foundation for people to "transcend life and death and get rid of life and death". He said in the Preface to Liezi: "His book generally shows that people are even fictional, and all kinds of things are tested by extinction. ..... But all I know is related to Buddhist scriptures, all of which belong to Laozi and Zhuangzi. " Why does "group living" take "absolute emptiness" as "Sect"? This is because Zhang Zhan must affirm that there is a surreal absolute existence outside reality, so that it is possible to "live beyond life and death", or that people can have a surreal destination. Since "everything" will be "destroyed", how can people be free? Zhang Zhan believes that although the "Wanjing" has birth and death, it has gathering and dispersion, but the qi that constitutes everything has no birth and death. Life is just the gathering of qi, and death is the dispersion of qi, which does not turn into nothing but returns to "emptiness". If people can understand their origin and destination, come from "too empty" and return to "too empty", they can be integrated with "too empty", so that individual people will be born and die. Zhang Zhan's view is similar to that of Prajna Paramita Buddhism at that time.
Buddhism Prajna Paramita was introduced to China from the end of Han Dynasty. Lou Jiagu's early translation of Daoxing Jing is "without essence" and holds that "all laws have no self-nature", which is different from the metaphysical school's "without foundation", but it can be combined with the collateral of Buddhism dissemination. At that time, some Buddhists often explained "Prajna" with the thought of "sublime nothingness" in metaphysics. For example, at the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Daoan said that "nothing is the beginning of all things". Especially after the translation of Great Sense, Zhong Lun, Baijing and Twelve Men Lun, which explain the Prajna Sutra, the Buddhist theory of "all laws have no self-nature" became more popular at the end of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, holding that everything is caused by karma and has no self-nature. If people realize that "all laws have no self-nature" and don't cling to anything, the spirit can get rid of the bondage of reality and reach the nirvana realm of absolute emptiness, so Hui Yuan said: "The gods are desperate, so they are called mud." It can be seen that the "emptiness" theory of Buddhism at that time was related to its "immortal spirit" and the purpose of transcending the cycle of life and death and reaching nirvana. Therefore, to criticize Buddhism's theory of immortality, karma and samsara, we have to criticize its theory of emptiness.
Buddhism's theory that the "self-nature" of all things is "emptiness" was first questioned by a Buddhist named Huilin, who pointed out in "On Black and White" that objective things actually exist and will not become non-existent because of analyzing them. He Chengtian, an atheist at the beginning of Liu and Song Dynasties, also criticized the Buddhist thought of "things are empty" from many aspects in his discussion with Buddhist believer Zong Bing. In his book Answering a layman, he pointed out that if something really exists, as you said, it can be proved that it is really empty, that is, things are always empty, and "empty" and "being" become the same thing. If there is really no difference between "emptiness" and "being", then why should everyone distinguish between "emptiness" and "being"? Then He Chengtian also exposed the hypocrisy of "nothingness" in Buddhism. He believes that although Buddhists say "nothingness" verbally, they are actually not "nothingness". They are not only infatuated with love, but also very afraid of "reincarnation of life and death" and "karma". Isn't it because they regard all this as "reality"? Although He Chengtian failed to criticize strongly from the height of philosophy, he made a meaningful analysis of the "emptiness" of Buddhism based on common sense. It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that Zhang Zai made a profound philosophical criticism on the "emptiness" of Buddhism.
Fourth, the question of "life" and "life".
Compared with Indian Buddhism, the greatest feature of China's ancient thought is China's traditional thought, especially Confucianism, which has always been aimed at "ruling the country and leveling the world", so its spirit is "joining the WTO", while Buddhism believes that the world is suffering and requires detachment from the real society, so its spirit is "born". Hongming Collection is a collection of works compiled by monks and nuns in Liang Dynasty to promote Buddhism. There are many articles about whether Samoans should respect the king and be filial to their adoptive parents. It includes not only articles by monks on this issue, but also articles criticizing Buddhists on this issue.
In Volume 12 of Hongming Ji, there are articles such as Yu Bing's Shaman Should Not Respect Jin as Emperor and Huan Qian's Reply to Huan Xuan on Shaman's Respect. The former points out that it is against Zoroastrianism for Buddhists not to bow down to the monarch. The latter pointed out that it is against the filial piety of raising relatives for Buddhists to cut their hair as monks. The reason why Huan Xuan ordered the shaman to be destroyed by sand is: "The imperial capital is extravagant, and its glory lies in the city; The land of abundance is everywhere. The famous vessels are filthy, and the escape clock is in a hundred miles, and the surplus is caught in the temple. "Buddhism persuades people to become monks, in fact, it tells people to evade national taxes, military service and other labor, thus affecting national income and armed forces. In the debates among He Chengtian, Zong Bing and Yan Yanzhi in the third and fourth volumes of Hong Ming Ji, Buddhism was also criticized from the aspect of "being born". He believes that the sages such as Duke Zhou and Confucius adopted an inclusive attitude towards the unpredictable things in the outside world and asked people to pay attention to things in real life, which is correct. He spoke highly of Confucius' attitudes of "how to know death if you don't know life", "how can you be a ghost if you can't do things for people" and "don't talk about Machamp's confusion". He criticized Buddhism for advocating heaven and hell, three generations of reincarnation, karma and so on. , are illusory, absurd, unverifiable preaching, the pursuit of the impossible. China's traditional Confucianism advocates that the scholar-officials should pay attention to making a name for themselves, practice Kong Zhou's moral education and do something beneficial to the country and the people, so as to realize the ideal of "ruling the country and leveling the world". At the end of Answer to Yan Guanglu, He Chengtian said: "A gentleman works for a new day, and an official teaches him what his former king taught him ... why should he delay accumulating good deeds and hope that there will be no experience in the afterlife; It's really happy to be born back in those days, tired and frustrated, it's a catch in the wind, not the beauty of the mean; Mu Yi bewitched the devil and went against people's wishes. "If China's traditional Confucianism is anything worthy of recognition compared with Buddhist teachings, He Chengtian's positive attitude of" finding a new career for others and applying the method of being the first king for others "should be affirmed.
The feudal "ethics" and its ideal of "ruling the country and leveling the world" fundamentally served the feudal rule. However, the spirit of "joining the WTO" combined with feudal ethics and a sense of responsibility for the real society had to be admitted at that time, which still had its positive significance. On one hand, China's traditional spirit of "joining the WTO" is to draw people's attention to the real society and ask people to pay attention to real life, which is beneficial to the development of atheism.