From Emperor Taizong to Tang Wuzong, the Tang Dynasty adhered to the policy of paying equal attention to the three religions and teaching more at the same time. Even Wu Zetian, who emphasizes Buddhism, thinks that the tasks of the three religions are the same, making people write about them. During the imperial ceremony, representatives of the three religions were often sent to temples to preach their classics. In the Tang Dynasty, the policy of coexistence of the three religions and the existence of more religions gave people freedom of religious belief.
Due to the policy of rewarding and supplementing the three religions in the Tang Dynasty, the integration of the three religions has become the mainstream in the relationship between the three religions. As far as Buddhism is concerned, Buddhism in the Tang Dynasty is China Buddhism, which has the content and character of China traditional culture in different degrees. Among many sects of Buddhism, Tiantai Sect, Huayan Sect and Zen Sect have the most traditional cultural characteristics of China. Zen, in particular, is a new sect created by China, which is deeply influenced by Confucianism and Taoism. Zen believes that everyone has Buddha nature and can become a Buddha as long as he sees nature clearly. As far as Taoism is concerned, the pure and inaction schools in the early Tang Dynasty, such as Cheng, Wang Xuanlan and Sima, all supported Buddhism, belittled alchemy and seal, and emphasized purity, self-cultivation and self-cultivation. Wang Xuan studied Buddhism, but three generations were empty, and all the methods were new, with extinction as the way. Sima advocates the unity of humanity, and should practice meditation and practice monasticism, so as to forget myself, just like nirvana. Even Buddhism's retribution theory, reincarnation theory and heaven and hell theory are gradually absorbed by Taoism to varying degrees.
As far as Confucianism is concerned, although there are anti-Buddhist Confucians like Yi Fu and Han Yu, more and more Confucians love Buddhism and think that Buddhism and Confucianism are interlinked and can complement each other. In the Tang Dynasty, there were countless Confucian scholars who loved Buddhism. In the social atmosphere of the confluence of the three religions in the Tang Dynasty, it became a trend for the literati class to learn both the three religions and the two religions, and to be keen on making friends with monks and Taoists. At the same time, monks and Taoists make friends with Confucian scholars and court officials, and many people are familiar with Confucianism. At that time, many prime ministers and ministers had close contacts with monks and Taoists. Monks studying Confucian classics, such as Haochu Yi Tong, Cangyu, and Song Yuan, joined Confucianism and dared not forget their filial piety; The trace is high, so let it go. In short, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were accepted by the ideological and cultural circles at that time in the Tang Dynasty and became a major feature of the spiritual life of most multi-believers.
Buddhist culture itself was a star of Tang culture, which had a far-reaching influence on many aspects of social ideology at that time. Therefore, there is no doubt about the important position of Buddhist culture in Tang culture. The socialization and secularization of Buddhist activities made Buddhist teachings and etiquette penetrate into many levels of social life and became one of the important contents of people's spiritual life at that time. Buddhist law societies can be divided into regular and irregular ones. Regular meetings include Buddha's Birthday Meeting, Enlightenment Meeting, Ni Chao Meeting, Lecture Meeting, Menglan Basin Meeting, Tian Zi's Birthday, and national taboos. Irregular meetings include tooth support meeting, fast meeting, Eight Official Pavilion meeting, lecture meeting, etc. There are many Buddhist ceremonies and ceremonies held by the Dharma Association, including chanting and singing. The Fa Conference attracted many people, and the scene was very big.
The influence of Buddhism on Tang literature, especially poetry, lies in the deep immersion of poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty in the spirit of Buddhism's detachment from vulgarity. The so-called model poems that narrate Zen with poems developed greatly in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. For example, Wang Wei, who believed in Buddhism all his life, was good at expressing Zen in his poems, and later generations had posthumous title. His "Luchai" wrote the language of Kongshan people, and Lin's "Xiu" linked the silence of Kongshan people with the impermanence of things. Wang Wei's poem "Stop Living in Cold Mountain" is a Zen poem full of Zen meaning. Another important influence of Buddhism on Tang literature is the variation of prose, which mainly tells Buddhist stories. In the Tang Dynasty, the preservation of rap forms and the transformation of rap content into historical stories and folk stories, that is, the transformation from refined and popular literature to popular literature, such as variations by Wu Zixu, Wang Zhaojun, Yong Dong and Meng Jiangnv, have created several kinds of language literature and vernacular novels for later generations.
The influence of Buddhism on painting in Tang Dynasty lies in the emergence of a group of Buddhist painting masters. Wu Daozi, a painter in the Tang Dynasty, was a famous master of Buddhist painting. He has made Buddhist and Taoist murals in more than 300 houses in Chang 'an and Luoyang, setting up a new style of painting. The famous poet Wang Wei is also a famous painter. There are paintings in poetry, poems in painting, and the style of painting is free and easy, indifferent and unique. Buddhist painting has added gorgeous colors to Tang Dynasty painting. The influence of Buddhism on the sculptures in the Tang Dynasty was first seen in the sculptures of Buddha statues. The statue of Sakyamuni in Dunhuang Grottoes is thin, with infinite compassion and wisdom in his eyes. The Omega supreme color sculptures in the grottoes are all masculine and beautiful. The flying fairy in the mural is even more lifelike. Today, there are many sculptures and paintings in Yungang, Longmen and Dunhuang grottoes, which are the gathering places of fine sculptures and paintings of Buddha statues in the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, Taoist culture, as one of the contents of Tang culture teaching, has a great influence on Tang Wenhua. Some theories in Taoism are related to traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Sun Simiao himself is a Taoist and medical scientist. As for alchemy in Taoism, it promoted the accumulation of chemical knowledge, the invention of gunpowder and the smelting of metals to varying degrees. Taoism pays attention to refining qi and nourishing the spirit, which contains the reasonable content of qigong and has certain positive significance to the way of keeping in good health. According to records in the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao 102 years old and Taoist Ye Fashan 107 years old died. Some Taoists in the Tang Dynasty were mostly philosophers, and their works were part of the philosophy of the Tang Dynasty.
One of the influences of Taoism on literature and art in the Tang Dynasty is that some fairy tales in Taoism formed folk stories and folk literature in the Tang Dynasty. For example, Zhong Liquan, Lv Dongbin and Zhang Guo, Taoist priests in the Tang and Five Dynasties, are all artistic descendants. The folk custom of the Eight Immortals was formed in the Song Dynasty, from which many literary works were derived. Some strange legends in the Tang Dynasty, such as Liu Yichuan, Conan Taishou, Pillow Story, Fairy Cave, etc. , are permeated with some kind of Taoist consciousness. These works later evolved into operas. The immortals and fairyland in Taoist stories have contributed to the development of romanticism in literary works. The second influence of Taoism on the literature and art of the Tang Dynasty lies in that some poems in the Tang Dynasty take the praise of immortal deeds as the theme, or use fairy stories to conceive artistic wood. Li Bai, a romantic poet, believed in Taoism and wrote many poems about immortals, such as Dream of Climbing Mount Tianmu. He himself is also called an immortal poet. Du Fu, a realistic poet, also wrote some poems about immortals. The last part of Bai Juyi's Song of Eternal Sorrow was also completed with the help of Taoist imagination. In painting, Wu Daozi's Born of Gautama Buddha, Eighty-seven Immortals Volume and Yan's Twelve Immortals are all famous paintings with Taoist immortals as their themes.
Poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty is the modernization of poetry in the Tang Dynasty. In the history of literature, it is known as the weather and voice of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It is one of the important contents and symbols of the flourishing culture of Kaiyuan and a great milestone in the history of China literature. According to their life experiences, works themes and artistic styles, poets in the poetry circles in the prosperous Tang Dynasty can be divided into pastoral poets represented by Meng Haoran and Wang Wei and frontier poets represented by Gao Shi and Cen Can.