Study On Juelang Daosheng’s Yi-ology

The integration of Yi-ology and Buddhism has been gradually started since Buddhism was introduced into China.Many Zen monks of previous dynasties have participated in it.However,most of them regarded Yi as the method of persuading Confucianism to convert to Buddhism.The purpose was still to promote the ultimate doctrine of Buddhism—transcending the secular.Howere,Juelang Daosheng 觉浪道盛 was one of the Zen masters who intended to learn Confucius’ thought of integration.He had aspirations to integrate five schools of Zen and support the inheritance of Confucianism.He believed that The book of Changes described the substance of the universe and took The Book of of Changes as the core of The Five Classics.Yi-ology occupied a large proportion in his thoughts,and he wrote several monographs on Yi-ology.In Daosheng’s early years(before 19 years old),he was influenced by Zhen Dexiu’s真德秀 theory,devoted himself to Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism for the imperial examination.After becoming a monk(20 years old),he successively inherited Yunqi Zhuhong’s 云栖袾宏 Zen,Xuelang Hongen’s 雪浪洪恩 study of Avatamsaka Sutra,and Caodong’s Shouchang.In the background of the prevalence of Yangming’s philosophy,his thoughts were directly or indirectly influenced by Wang Yangming,Luo Jinxi and Wang Longxi.During his forty years of promoting Zen,most of the people he got along were Yangming school.The experience above made his thoughts unique and complex.His thought of Yi-ology not only had obvious innate characteristics of Yi-ology,but also integrated with Zen,Huayan school and Taoist theory of inner alchemy.Although Daosheng inherited Shao Yong’s innate Yi-ology,he did not base on numbers.Instead,he advocated not to fall into numbers,attached importance to the Yi before painting,and advocated the concept that Yi-principle should not hindered by the appearance of forms and names.He believed that "every hexagram is a big Zen case,and every line is a small Zen case,".Based on Cao Dongzong’s tradition of attaching importance to Li 离 hexagram,Daosheng put forward the idea of taking fire as the noumenen,which not only integrated the cultication of Buddhism and Taoism,but also was influenced by the thought of warming and tonifying medicine.It was Daosheng’s original idea to regard fire as the noumenen.This fire had the characteristics of awareness in nature and dryness and heat in human nature.The inheritance of Buddhist dharma pulse in past dynasties was the heat inheritance.Based on the idea of fire as the noumenen,Daosheng paid attention to the wisdom fire and emphasized the role of karmic fire in cultivating people,which was called "Honglu Daye Zen",The construction of Daosheng’s Yi-ology dod not adopt the way of instructing the text of The Book of Changes,but was based on the Yi-diagram,which contained both profound truth and Inspiration of Zen.The revelation of his Yi-ology ontology and cultivation theory not only involved in the theory of inner alchemy,The Great Learning and The Doctrine of The Mean,but also introduced the ideas of Zen,Huayan and even Tiantai Sect.Of course,the best embodiment of Daosheng’s status as a Zen monk is the integration of Cao Dong’s "Five Junchen 五位君臣”,three falls 三堕 and Yi-ology.The matching of the Eight Diagrams with Bodhisattva and Manjusri was initiated by Li Tongxuan 李通玄.Daosheng developed on this basis,matching Buddha with Taiji,Manjusri with Qian 乾 hexagram,Bodhisattva with Kun 坤,and taking Qianyuan 乾元 as the beginning of Manjusri wisdom,Kunyuan 坤元 as the beginning of Bodhisattva practice.The 53 visits of Shancai boy in Avatamsaka Sutra and the Dragon Girl’s offering beads in Lotus Sutra both had the metaphorical meaning of returning to nature.Daosheng’s congenital Yi-ology focused on the principle of returning to the original.Hetu,Luoshu,Fuxi hexagram 伏羲八卦 and Wenwang hexagram 文王八卦were all used to reveal the theory of noumenon and life.Taiji was used to integrate the sage realm of three religions.Influenced by the theory of inner alchemy,Daosheng regarded the Yang Qi 阳气 in Kan 坎 hexagram as the heart of heaven and earth,and"two uses of Qian and Kun 乾坤二用”as the key to the study of life.In this way,whether it was the immortal way to achieve the cultivation of life or the sage realm of Confucianism,could be included in the model of Yi-ology.There were two tracks in Daosheng’s thought.One was to gather all Buddhism as a Zen monk,emphasizing the harmony between conventional truth and ultimate truth,but he was still based on Cao Dong’s Zen.The other was that he wanted to learn from Confucius and integrate the advantages of three religions,which was not very clear in his early thoughts.In the later period,with the decline of Yangming school,he had the will to carry forward Confucianism.The two tracks of his thought connected well under the idea of integration.Generally speaking,Daosheng’s transcendental consciousness was obviously stronger than his ethical consciousness,so his inclusive thought of Yi-ology was mainly implemented in the study of life.