The Relationships Between Traditional And Imported Thought

·期刊原文
The Relationships Between Traditional And Imported Thought And Culture In China: From The Standpoint of The Importation Of Buddhism
Tang Yi-Jie
Jourmal of Chinese Philosophy 15 (1988)
pp.415-424
Copyright @ 1988 by Dialogue Publishing Company, Honolulu,
Hawaii, U.S.A.

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P.415

Historically, there were three major occasions when China
imported foreign culture and ideology. The first was the
importation of Buddhism the focus of this paper.
The second cultural incursion was that of western
culture, an event which, for a time, gave rise to debate over
the respective merits of things past and present, Chinese and
foreign. From a philosophical standpoint. this event raised
questions concerning the relationships between western and
Chinese philosophy. Many modern philosophers, whether or not
they were aware of it, were in actuality striving to
reconcile these two vastly different cultures. Before
Liberation, Feng Yu-lan(a) was perhaps most successful in
reconciling the two. His "New Rationalism" may be seen as an
attempt to use western pragmatism to resolve several
traditional Chinese philosophical questions. That he did not
succeed in determining the true course of Chinese
philosophical development can be seen in the fact that, in
practice,he failed to solve China's social problems.
The third event, was the inportation of Marxism, a
European ideology developed in response to European
historical conditions. In order for Marxism to take root in
China, it must also, in a certain sense, merge with
traditional Chinese culture and thought. That is to say, it
must pass through a stage of critical acceptance of
traditional culture.
Chia Yi(b) in his "Kuo Ch'in-lun"(c) (Treatise on the
Failings of Ch'in) quoted an old adage. "The unforgotten
events of the past are teachers of the future." Can we today
learn anything from the contacts between

P.416
imported Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture? I think
we can.
I would like to discuss three important elements which
characterized Buddhism's spread in China.
First, is the fact that when Buddhism first entered
China, it tended to attach itself to native ideologies. Only
later did it gradually develop and begin to influence those
ideologies.
When, during the Han dynasty, Buddhism entered China, it
identified itself with native religious practitioners. During
the Wei-Chin period, Buddhism identified itself with the
"Mysterious Learning"(d)then popular.
During the Han Dynasty, Buddhism was often seen as on par
with the Huag-Lao(e) School. Thus, King Ying of Ch'u is
reported as having "recited the subtle words of Huang-Lao(e)
and respectfully performed human sacrifices to the Buddha",
while Emperor Huan(f) "set up shrines to Huang-Lao and the
Buddha in his palace."
Buddhist disciples of the period even identified
themselves as "practitioners of the techniques of the Way".
The "Li-huo lun"(g)(Treatise on Rectifying Error) of the
Mo-tzu(h) states: "There are ninety six distinct ways, but,
among those worthy of veneration, none is so great as the
teachings of the Buddha." The Sutra in Forty-two
Sections(i)also styles itself "the Way of the Buddha".
At that time the principal tenets preached by Buddhist
missionaries were the immortality of the soul and karmic
retribution; such Indian concepts as the "non-existence of
the self" were simply not understood. The immortality of the
soul was already present in traditional Chinese thought, but
only in the concept of spirits. The Wen Wang Ode of the
Shih-ching(j)says of the former Chou Kings, "The Three
Directors are in Heaven", that is, their souls have ascended.
The "Ching-shen shun" of the Huai-nan tzu(k)asserts that "the
form may be ground away, but the spirit is not transformed".
As a result of these beliefs, Huan T'an(1)held that "when the
form comes to an end, the spirit is easily destroyed," while
Wang Ch'ung(m)argued that "when men die, they do not become
ghosts (spirits)".
That the immortality of the soul or spirit depended
on "refining and nurturing" was also a native Chinese concept.

P.417

As for karmic retribution, while the Buddhist conception
did not exactly accord with that of China, it was promulgated
during the Han and was compatible with the Chinese notion
that "good fortune comes to those who are good and evil to
the dissolute." Witness the Wen-yen gloss to the Ch'ien
hexagram of the I-ching(n): "Those who accumulate good deeds
will certainly have an excess of blessings, while those who
accumulate bad deeds will have an excess of calamity."
During the end of the Han and the beginning of the Three
Kingdoms period, as Buddhist translations increased, Buddhism
divided into two main schools. The first was the An
Shih-kao(o) lineage of Hinayana: Buddhism, emphasizing
meditation. The second was the Lokak sema lineage of Mahayana
Buddhism which emphasized prajna.
An Shih-kao translated a number of sutras among which the
most influential were the Anapanasmrti-sutra (T602) and the
Yin-ch'ih ju ching (T1694) .The former emphasizes breath
control, a practice comparable to the "inhalation and
exhalation" (t'u-na) (p) methods of Chinese seekers of
transcendence. The latter explicates Buddhist numerical
categories and may be compared to Han exegetical studies.
With regard to man's place in the cosmos, the theories of
these sutras are based on the concept of "primal breath" and
state that primal breath encompasses the Five Phases which
they equate with the five skandas. It can be seen that the
Hinayana practices expounded by the An Shih-kao lineage were
assimilated to the popular religious practices and thought of
the day and which then used them to explicate Buddhism.
The prajna concept taught by the Lokaksema lineage held
as its most important truth the "return of the spirit to its
original perfection and union with the Way." In this we see
already the influence of the philosophy of the Lao-tzu(q) and
the Chuang-tzu(r)
Chih Ch'ien,(s)the disciple of Lokaksema's disciple Chih
Liang, retranslated the Prajnaparamita sutra as the Ta-ming
tu-wu-chi ching.(t)This title itself betrays the influence of
the Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. His translation of "Grand
luminescence" for prajna probably draws on the phrase, "He
who knows the eternal nature of things appears luminous,"
from the Lao-tzu. The translation "cross to the illimitable"
for paramita

P.418

also means to reach a state of union with the Way, that is
the Illimitable Tao.
Chih Ch'ien's gloss for the first chapter states: "My
Master (that is Chih Liang(u) ) said: "The heart of the
Bodhisattva treads the Great Way. Wishing to embody the Way,
his heart and the way merge. For this reason, the formless
is called the 'empty void' ". This is the same point reached
in Juan Chi's' "Biography of the Prior-born Great Man",
wherein the great man merges with the way. The latter phrase
recalls as well the Lao-tzu statement,"The constant nature of
the Way is formless".
Chih Ch'ien and the others believed that man's heart and
spirit originated in the Tao, but, because of such flaws of
the latter heavens as desire, man can no longer join with the
Tao. For the heart and spirit to escape these limitations,
one must embody one's origin, the Tao, and become a Buddha.
This is undoubtedly a Buddhism assimilated to the thought of
the Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu.
During the Wei-Chin period the ontology of Mysterious
Learning, based on the Lao-tzu and the Chuang-tzu, was very
popular. The central issues discussed in the Mysterious
Learning were questions of fundamental cause and secondary
effects as well as existence and non-existence.Buddhistprajna
studies were fairly similiar to the concerns of Mysterious
Learning, so many monks used it to explain Buddhist
principles. Tao An, (w) for example, wrote in his
Pi-nai-yeh(x)(Prefaceto the Vinaya):

Among the twelve sections of the Tripitaka, the
vaipulya section is the largest due to the fact that
Lau-tzu and Chuang- tzu have spread teachings in this
country similar to the Fang- teng ching and
Prajnaparamita sutra and thus it has been easy to travel
with the wind.

conditional nature of Non-being, there was also the tendency
to glorify the Original substance while neglecting its
expression as Being. This was an internal contradiction in
the thought of Wang Pi.
From just this element of Wang Pi's thought, we can
extrapolate the negation of Being (which was fully realized
in Seng Chao's systerm).
Wang Pi's emphasis on Non-being was further refined by
Hsiang.

P.419

Hsiu(ac)and P'ei Ku(ad)and eventually developed into Kuo
Hsiang's emphasis on Being. According to Kuo Hsiang, all
existence was comprised of individual concrete objects.
Beyond these material objects there was no Original substance
(i.e.no creator).The existence of the ten-thousand things was
based solely on their "self-nature." This self-nature was
self-generated. He wrote "Non-being has no reality and thus
cannot give birth to Being." This direct contradiction of
non-existence contains within it the seeds of (Seng-chao's)
negation of existence.
These two developments fit exactly the Prajna School's
negation of Being and Non-being. So Seng Chao's doctrine of
the Emptiness of the Unreal contiues the philosophical
development begun by Wang Pi and Kuo Hsiang. We may, then,
trace the historical development of Mysterious Learning from
Wang Pi through Kuo Hsiang to Seng Chao. Later, the San-lun
School(ae)(Madhyamika)would develop Seng Chao's doctrine and
Hui Neng(af)of the Ch'an School(ag)would further refine it
and eventually influence the Neo-Confucianism of the Sung and
Ming dynasties.
The reason for this development is that ideologies have
certain set principles of development. Unless interrupted,
later developments always grow out of earlier tendencies.
Also, an ideology often has several possible ways in which it
might develop, so that, if an imported ideology accords in
important respects with one possible line of development, it
can have a very great impact. The imported ideology may then
become a constituent element of the native ideology and, to a
greater or lesser extent, influence the development of the
native culture.
Even the clerics of that time recognized that the
popularity of Buddhism was due to the thought of the Lao-tzu
and Chuang-tzu.
What is the reason for this situation? As Engels has
said: "Tradition is a great conservative force." It seems
that any cultural ideology has its conservative aspects and
will resist foreign culture. Because of this, foreign
ideologies must first adapt themselves to the requirements of
the native ideology, attaching themselves to a native thought
system. Elements of the foreign ideology which are similar or
identical to the native ideology are easily transmitted,
while dissimilar elements seep in only gradually to
eventually change the native ideology.

P.420

The second element involves the reason why Buddhism, as a
foreign importation, was able to have such a strong impact on
Chinese culture. In addition to the fact that it met certain
social needs, it often accorded with the natural development
of Chinese thought.
The Mysterious Learning of the Wei-Chin period developed
from Wang Pi(X)and Ho Yen's(Y)emphasis on Non-being as the
source of all existence through Kuo Hsiang's(z)emphasis on
Being ("The ten-thousand things are born of themselves"), to
Chang Chan(aa)of the Eastern Chin, who contended that "in
being suddenly born of themselves, the Source of all things
resides in Non-being". Finally there was Seng Chao,(ab)who
held that "the Emptiness of the Unreal" consisted of a
negation of both Being and Nonbeing. Why was the Mysterious
Learning of the Wei Chin period summed up in Seng Chao's
prajna inspired doctrine? Precisely because this was one
possible outcome to which this philosophical system tended.
Beginning with Ho Yen and particularly Wang Pi,
Mysterious Learning was much engrossed with the relationship
between Being and Non-being, which was explained in terms of
substance and function. It was held that "Non-being may not
be understood in terms of Non-being, (so)it draws its name
from Being." Thus Non-being was held to be the Original
substance, which expressed itself as Being so that its
substance and function were as one. However, since Wang Pi
emphasized the un-
Thirdly, the reason that Buddhism was able to work such a
lasting influence on Chinese thought and culture, was that,
in certain respects, it was superior to native Chinese
systems of thought. In this way it was able to act as a
stimulus in the development of Chinese culture.
The question of the Indian Buddhist prajna doctrine's
superiority to native Chinese modes of thought is one that
must be examined closely from every angle before a conclusion
can be reached. This we are not able to do here, so we will
only examine the prajna system's resolution of the
contradiction inherent in the doctrine of the negation of
Being and Nonbeing. Despite the fact that, like the thought
of Wang Pi and Kuo Hsiang, this doctrine is an instance of
idealism, it is undoubtedly superior to theirs in that it can
be used to analyze problems from two opposite directions.
Even though Seng Chao's doctrine of the "Emptiness of the
Unreal"

P.421

can be seen as an extension of Wang Pi and Kuo Hsiang, it
goes beyond their systems in that it accords fairly well with
the Indian prajna system.
In my opinion, after its absorption into Indian Buddhism,
the idea of a creator or a spiritual entity which fashioned
heaven and earth never again occupied an important position
in China's idealism. This was replaced by such abstract
concepts as the Confucian li(ah)(the"natural pattern")and
Tao(ai)("theWan"), which, as first principles, detemined
human existence in the universe. Sometimes "Heart mind"(aj)
was made a first principle; it was held that "the heart is
the natural pattern" or that "the natural pattern merges in
the heart." This is a feature of Sung and Ming dynasty
philosophy. As this sort of idealism developed, it became the
most important form of Chinese traditional philosophy.
However, even for a relatively superior foriegn ideology
to influence another culture it must, in addition to
satisfying certain economic and political conditions, also
meet the first two requirements we have discussed. If it does
not, then even a superior ideology will fail to take root in
the host country. For example, the "Treatise on (the
Completion of Ideation Only" (Wei-shih lun) (ak) brought in
by Hsuan Tsang(al) and Hetuvidya (Yin-ming hsueh(am) )are
both fairly lofty constructions, but, despite Hsuan Tsang's
reputation, they were not influential in China and failed to
become a constituent of Chinese philosophy.
I think that the above three points are significant
phenomena attending Buddhism's importation into China. With
these in mind,I would like to bring up a question of current
concern: can Marxism merge with traditional Chinese thought
and culture. This is a large and difficult question.
Predictions are hard to make, but it can be explored. In the
abstract, most people respond that they wish for a merger of
the two, but the question is whether this is possible and how
it could be achieved.
Here I wish only to discuss a few thoughts drawn from the
second of the points above: If Marxism is to take root in
China, continuing lines of development begun in traditional
Chinese thought and culture, the chief issue is to find
points of convergence between the two so both Chinese
philosophy and Marxism will progress.
Marxism is undoubtedly a superior ideology. Moreover, it
developed in the West so that there are great differences
between it and traditional Chinese thought. It is also a vast
system of thought,so that it is difficult to know just where
to search for points of convergence. Naturally, I

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cannot here discuss the problem in its entirety. I merely
wish to raise a few examples.
The dialectical methodology of Marxism centers on the law
of the unity of opposites, and takes actual practice as the
only standard of determining truth. This I believe to be
correct. If related principles can be found among those
fundamental to traditional Chinese philosophy, then cannot
Marxism be sinified and become a further development of
Chinese philosophy?
The central problem of traditional Chinese philosophy as
defined by ancient philosophers and historians is the
question of the relationship between man and heaven. The
traditional answer to this question, in most cases, has been
that heaven (that is the natural world, or the way of heaven)
and man(society,or the way of man)are one. From this unity
derives the unity of thought and action and,in art, the unity
of subjective feeling and objective expression. (This is what
Wang Fu calls the interface of emotion and scene.)
These three unities of man and heaven, of thought and
action, and the unity of subjectivity and objectivity are
questions of "truth", "goodness" and "beauty". Chinese
philosophy, then, emphasizes unity, a fact which may have
something to do with Chinese thought processes or social
conditions. Confucian thought has always emphasized the Grand
Unity and the Way of the Mean, and opposed excess.
If we correctly understand this unity and do not regard
it as inflexible, then it is easy to see it as an active
unification as in the I-Chuan phrases "giving birth without
cessation" and "Heavens movements enduring while the
Chun-tzu"(an) never ceases in expanding himself."
Would it be wrong, then, to see struggle,
(or"movement") as the traditional technique of Chinese
philosophy by which union was achieved, with the unities of
heaven and man, knowledge and action, subjective and
objective as the goals of this striving? If so, then this is
a point of convergence between traditional Chinese philosophy
and Marxism. From one standpoint, the Marxist law of the
reconcilation of opposites is a superior summation and more
scientific continuation of traditional Chinese philosophy.
From another,absorbing Chinese ideas of unity would enrich
Marxism.
Another special characteristic of Chinese philosophy is
that it has never separated its theories of knowledge from
questions of moral cultivation. Thus questions of knowledge
and action are at once epistomological and moral. To know one
must be able to put something into practice.

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The unity of thought and action, then, is an important
concept.
From the point of view of the development of thought, it
is proper and even necessary to separate epistomoligical and
moral questions. The failure to do so may have been a
shortcoming. Looked at from another angle, however, the
traditional Chinese concept of putting moral theories into
action has a great significance.
"Practice" in Marxism primarily denotes production
struggle, class struggle and scientific experimentation. Of
course, such things as the "struggle against Japan", an
example of social practice, also included moral practice. "Is
it not meaningful, then, to emphasize moral practice? "
I think that such an emphasis would have two important
results: first, it would raise our self-evaluations and cause
us to view ourselves as moral human beings; second, it would
cause us to pay attention to the results of our actions.
I think that if we can overcome the confusion of
traditional Chinese philosophy with respect to practice and,
moreover, refine it through reference to Marxist views, we
can make it more scientific and more correct.
This would serve both to advance traditional Chinese
philosophy and to sinify Marxism. The moral emphasis on the
unity of thought and action in practice would also enrich
Marxism. If this is so, then here is yet another point of
convergence between traditional Chinese philosophy and
Marxism.
Undoubtedly Marxism must develop, thus it must be an open
system, and not a closed one. If it is to develop in China,
then it must resolve the question of its merger with
traditional Chinese culture. Naturally, the convergence of
two such extremely different entities is difficult, but the
need to advance Chinese philosophy requires that we strive to
do so.
The advancement of Chinese philosophy depends on
Marxism's union with the better elements of that philosophy.
The modern generation of philosophers are faced with this
responsibility. I myself am without special abilities. I can
only express my feelings through an old adage. "Though I
cannot achieve it, I aspire to do so."