Influenced by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, Su Shi, a famous writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, formed a unique outlook on life, values and world outlook. Under the comprehensive influence of these three cultures, he has different life realms at different stages of his life. These changes have much to do with the culture accepted by Su Shi, which is influenced by his cultural background and the result of his thinking about life.
Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are three cultures that cannot be ignored in China culture. Although their origins are different, they have exerted great influence on the history and culture of China. Many literati in China are influenced by it, and the comprehensive influence of the three cultures is getting bigger and bigger, and the relationship is getting closer and closer. The comprehensive influence of these three cultures reached its peak in the Northern Song Dynasty, and most of the literati and thinkers in the Northern Song Dynasty were influenced by these three cultures, forming a unique outlook on life, values and world outlook. Su Shi, a famous writer in the Northern Song Dynasty, is one of them. Under the comprehensive influence of these three cultures, he has different life realms at different stages of his life, and each life realm is closely related to the comprehensive influence of these three cultures, even though one culture will become the dominant ideology at each stage. Next, this paper analyzes Su Shi's life realm and the cultural background behind it from three stages of his life experience.
First, aspiring young people are full of ambition to govern the country.
This period is a period in which Confucianism is dominant. At this stage, Su Shi not only has the feelings of governing the country, but also has the enthusiasm of serving the country, which is also the embodiment of Confucianism's thought of being born and "helping the world at the same time". This has a lot to do with Su Shi's education since childhood. When Su Shi was a child, his parents taught Su Shi the Confucian classics he was studying at that time, so that he had a grand blueprint of "fighting for the future" as soon as possible. Under the influence of his parents and Confucianism, Su Shi also aimed at "ruling the country and leveling the world", enjoying Confucian classics and studying the skills of statecraft.
Su Shi's inheritance of Confucian classics and Confucianism can be found in his book "The Theory of Good and Evil in the Spring and Autumn Period for Bachelor Examination".
"Husband" Spring and Autumn Annals ",courtesy is seen in the cause. Confucius said that the prosperity of three generations must be due to the success of ceremony, and its decline must be due to the gradual abolition of ceremony. The minister and his son are up and down, and they are determined by courtesy. Think that politeness is innate and rudeness is dead ... "
The content mentioned above is the "ritual" culture actively advocated by Confucianism. Confucius, a master of Confucianism, devoted himself to the spread of "rites" all his life. Su Shi's remarks are a profound explanation of the question of rites, which embodies Su Shi's research on Confucian culture and the influence of Confucian culture on Su Shi. It is mentioned in the article that Su Shi believes that the success of a person's career is determined by "ceremony", and that "ceremony" people succeed in their careers and "ceremony" people fail in their careers. This principle can also be applied to countries. Politeness leads to the prosperity of the country, rudeness leads to the destruction of the country, and the relationship between people is also maintained by politeness, such as a father-son home, between the monarch and the minister. To further extend this view, even strangers need politeness, which shows the importance of politeness.
Su Shi's admiration for Confucius reflects the influence of Confucian culture on him. In On Confucius, he regarded Confucius not only as a saint, but also as a talented and noble minister. Su Shi not only respected Confucianism and Confucian scholars, but also practiced Confucianism's active participation in the WTO, which can be seen in his works. For example, Su Shi's concern for the fate of the country and people can be seen from the word Nanxiangzi.
The word reads like this:
Banners are everywhere,
Zhao Fajian built 110,000 ships.
The pen-throwing general is pedantic because he laughs at me.
Pashou broadsword is her husband.
Pink tears and resentment leave home.
The happy son hung down the window to announce the good news.
How about Fu Bo's 30,000 words?
A popular pearl for a green pearl.
The words "Ying Xiao Wo, a pen-throwing general, is pedantic and elegant, and a pickpocket's broadsword is his husband" are full of lofty sentiments, and his patriotic feelings can be seen. Su Shi's ci, which best embodies the combination of Confucianism and patriotism, is the famous Hunting in Jiangchengzi Mizhou, which is regarded as the masterpiece of Su Shi's bold and unconstrained work by scholars who study Su Shi. Full of lofty aspirations to serve the country, which is exactly what aspiring young people should have.
The above is the first stage of Su Shi's life, full of love for the country and sympathy for the people.
Second, an important turning point-Wutai Poetry Case
Wutai Poetry Case is an important turning point of Su Shi's life realm. The Wutai poetry case dealt a great blow to him and also brought him an insult to his personality. From then on, Su Shi's official career began to decline and was relegated. This incident also enlivened the hidden Buddhist thought in his mind and became the dominant thought at this stage.
Su Shi studied in many monasteries when he was young, which was the embryonic period of his Buddhist thought. He began to read Buddhist scriptures at the age of thirteen and began to associate with monks at the age of twenty-two. When traveling in Chengdu, Su Shi made friends with Wei Du and Wei Jiancheng, and established lifelong friendship. The other two were very helpful to Su Shi's way of learning Buddhism. According to statistics, there were about 130 monks in Su Shi's life. Most of them have poetic contacts with Su Shi, and most of these monks are famous monks, which have a great influence on Su Shi's life realm.
Su Shi's creation is naturally inseparable from the shadow of Buddhism. Su Shi often uses images such as dreams, emptiness and water in his works, which are inextricably linked with Buddhism. For example, the image of "dream", Su Shi's creation often appears the view that life is like a dream, which is similar to the view that life is like a dream in Buddhist thought. The formation of Su Shi's life realm is closely related to the Wutai poetry case he encountered, and his Buddhist thought was also formed in this event. Secondly, Su Shi's view that life is like a dream involves nothingness, which is similar to the Buddhist view that "color is empty, and emptiness is color". This is Su Shi's disillusionment after suffering from life hardships, and it is also his ideological realm of absorbing the essence of Buddhism. The representative poem in this respect is "The Hall of the Moon on the Xijiang River", in which Su Shi wrote about his association with Ouyang Xiu, expressing his gratitude to Ouyang Xiu, but also revealing the feeling that life is like a dream. And the phrase "life is like a dream, a bottle is like a moon" is Su Shi's perception of life as a dream, which has become a famous sentence through the ages.
Third, detachment after demotion to Linghai
After the Wutai Poetry Case, Su Shi's official career began to decline and he was relegated to remote areas. At this time, Su Shi's life realm has also undergone great changes, from Confucianism to paying more attention to his own value, from caring about the country and people to caring about his own destiny, from caring about the outside world to paying more attention to his inner feelings and spiritual enjoyment. At this time, he was far away from political struggle, immersed in mountains and rivers, and began to feel the detachment and nature of Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy. This is the result of Su Shi's repeated thinking about his life. After being demoted, his pursuit of fame and fortune gradually faded, and he showed a tolerant and open-minded attitude towards the unsatisfactory life. His change was also influenced by the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi.
Su Shi's attachment to Taoism also occurred in Su Shi's childhood. He studied under Zhang Daoshi when he was young. Zhang Daoshi had a great influence on Su Shi, and he was also the enlightener of Su Shi's acceptance of Taoism. Since then, Su Shi has come into contact with many Taoist priests on the road of growth. According to statistics, Su Shi has visited countless Taoist temples, and making friends with local Taoist priests has become Su Shi's habit and hobby, just as he makes friends with many monks. Su Shi's Taoist friends all became Su Shi's enlighteners when he suffered hardships in life. Their relaxed Taoist style made Su Shi feel a little relaxed in the difficult life, and at the same time found a spiritual partner. After Su Shi was demoted to Linghai, he had an infinite yearning for the carefree life of Taoist priests and began to think about life. Finally, he entered the natural Taoist world, creating a broad-minded and heroic mind, and his unconstrained works are all related to this.
Su Shi's inheritance of Taoist thought is not only influenced by Taoism, but also related to his own study of Taoist classics. After being demoted to Huangzhou, Su Shi began to study Taoist classics behind closed doors, seeking peace of mind. His thoughts and life realm have also taken a big step forward, from the previous pursuit of life value to his own value, gradually internalized and paid more attention to his own heart. Coupled with my own experience, I can understand the mystery of Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy in a deeper level.
Su Shi also showed his admiration for Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy in his works. He admired Tao Yuanming's spirit of "five buckets of rice don't bend over" and pursued Tao Yuanming's philosophical seclusion. In the word Linjiang Xian, he expressed his desire to live in seclusion in the countryside. Su Shi's longing for the countryside is not only his dissatisfaction with real life, but also his yearning for nature. And nature also gave Su Shi a lot of creative inspiration, and his representative word Dingfengbo showed the charm of nature and the enlightenment from it. "If you don't listen to the leaves in the forest, why don't you sing and walk slowly" and "Let's live in misty rain" have created an open-minded and free-spirited image facing the storms of nature or the ups and downs of life, which has become a classic in the history of China literature and spread all over the world. The charm of nature and the essence of Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy also made Su Shi find a place of peace of mind in the world.
Four. conclusion
Even at different stages of Su Shi's life, different thoughts dominate his outlook on life, which leads to different life realms, but the reasons for these changes are closely related to the culture he accepted, and these changes are all under the influence of his cultural background. Su Shi's cultural background is related to his childhood education and his own choices. When he was young, his education was influenced by the outside world and he accepted different cultures of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. When he became an adult, his choice was to listen to his inner decision, especially Su Shi's choice of different thoughts and cultures in the three important stages of his life. This is determined by Su Shi's own subjective consciousness, and it is also the result of his thinking about life and life.
However, it is not that in the three important stages of Su Shi's life, only one kind of ideology and culture influenced the formation of his life realm, but the result of the interaction of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Only one of them is outstanding, which guided Su Shi's life realm at this stage and made a different Su Shi. The combination of the three is also a major feature of the Northern Song Dynasty, when many literati were influenced by it.
The most obvious manifestation of Su Shi's integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is the consideration of life and death. His view of life and death also changes with different stages of life. The appearance of this obvious change is still an Wutai poetry case that has a great influence on Su Shi. After being tortured by prison, he gradually began to think about life and death, which is the most important topic in life and the most worth thinking about in the world. When Su Shi was in prison, he had suicidal thoughts, which was a manifestation of his abandonment of life and the weakening of Confucianism in Su Shi's thought. After he was released from prison, he began to think more deeply about life and death. His continuous demotion made him rethink the proposition of life and death and found a spiritual pillar to support him. Finally, he found liberation between Taoism and Buddhism, but he was still an official in North Korea. It can be seen that he did not give up Confucian culture. Perhaps because of the profound influence of Confucian culture on Su Shi, or perhaps because of his habit, he still insisted on his official position. Perhaps he, like Lian Po, is waiting for the opportunity to serve his country, which shows that he still has hope for the imperial court and the possibility of defending his country.
The integration of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism still exists in today's society, which shows that the influence of these three cultures on China society is extensive and profound. Su Shi still exists in the long river of China literature, emitting fresh breath and heroic brilliance. His broad-minded outlook on life and heroism inspired us a lot and inspired many people. I can't forget him wearing a hemp fiber and flapping leaves alone in the rain. There is also some sadness in this free and easy life. This loneliness also injected Su Shi's disillusioned dream. What is the answer? We don't know, we can only quietly appreciate and taste the literary enjoyment brought by this great writer.