Hui Yuan And The Development Of Early Chinese Buddhism

The Eeastern Jin Dynasty is a very important period in the history of Chinese Buddhism. As a foreign religion arising from a cultural tradition markedly different from China's, Buddhism became understood and accepted by the Chinese people gradually, but influenced profoundly Chinese politics, society, philosophy and other cultural elements. During this process, its learned and philosophically oriented monks, i.e. got into contact with the Chinese learned and culturally oriented gentry-elite first.. It would be hard for the spread of Buddhism if there were no such eminently learned monks, like Zhu Dao Qian(竺道潜),Zhi Dun(支遁),Dao An(道安),Hui Yuan(慧远),convincing kings and the gentry-elite with their wisdoms and esteemed demeanor.Among these eminently learned monks, Hui Yuan may be the most important one. His importance lay in his perceptie discerning of the issues fracing the Eastern Jin ruling dynasty and the elite gentry society, as well as Buddhism as a religion. In researching him, one needs to analyze the social, political, intellectual, as well as the religious grounding of Buddhism vis-a-vis the Zeitgeist of the time.Before Hui Yuan, Buddhism was viewed and understood by the Chinese cultural-social-political elites as in the mold of "Pure Conversation"—an sophistic escapist, non-commital, or negativistic Taoistic attitude toward the mundane world. After the loss of northern China to the intruding frontier tribesmen, and the move to the Jin court to central and southern China in the 4th century (hence the beginning of the Eastern Jin dynasty), the Emperors Yuan Di(元帝)and Ming Di(明帝),the leading court officials Wang Dao(王导),Yu Liang (庾亮),etc. were all adapts of such "Pure Conversations". Then many eminent monks in the central and southern China joined in. with the Buddhist themes of Sunyata(性空emptiness of nature/human nature), giving rise to the flourishing of the "Six Schools and Seven Sects" of Buddhism (Liu Jia Qi Zong六家七宗)"..Such Taoistic "Pure Conversation" mold of south Chinese Buddhism had its advantages but also its shortcomings. The advantage was that many famous Chinese may readily understand Buddhist teaching through their nativistic Chinese Taoistic "Pure Conversation" mold. The shortcoming was that it missed much of the religious essence of Buddhism. The second shortcoming was that most of the Buddhist teaching was focusing on the Prajna(般若original truth) pyshologics-metaphiscs, but not on the Buddhist religious commandments nor on monastic rules ---leaving many so-called Buddhists engulfing themselves in mundane affairs—court politics, or even sexual scandals during the later period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.Hui Yuan was the first eminent monk to turn Buddhism away from mere metaphysics-psychologics, to keep an exemplarily high and upright religious character, and dared to defy the pressure from the kings. He stayed reclusively in Lushan for more than 30 years to uphold his conviction to advance the development of the three Buddhist precepts of disciplines(戒),mental concentration(定),and enlightened wisdom(慧)and made the Chinese Buddhism more complete as a religion.In chapter one of this dissertation, Hui Yuan's life will be examied and providing the clue to the change of Buddhism in that time, and Hui Yuan's Buddhist thinking.In chapter two,. the development of the Eastern Jin Buddhism and the change of the Chinese elie-gentry's attitude toward Buddhism will be discussed in more details, especially the personage and support given to Buddhism by people like Wang Dao(王导),Xie An(谢安),Yin Hao(殷浩),Wang Tan Zh i(王坦之),Wang Mi(王谧),Chapter three will discuss the events concerning the organization of the famous Donglin Society (Association of the Eastern Forest,东林结社)in which Hui Yuan was deeply involved, to the point tht he was even praised to be the remote ancestor of the Japanese martial art of Jodo. This revealed the general trends in the change of Buddhism in the later days of the Eastern Jin, i.e. from the primary attention to the metaphysical issue of Prajna, to the emphasis on devotion to Buddhism religious and disciplines.Chapter four will discuss the events concerning the debates whether "Shaman (Buddhist monks) should worship the worldly King(沙门敬拜王者)" which arose in the last years of the Eastern Jin dynasty, and analyze Hui Yuan'ss role in the controversy.. This was because that due to the increase number of monks, there were many malfeasant Shaman, who even influencing court politics. Huan Xuan attempted to change this situation. But then the court promulgate the order to "cleanse out he Shaman" and "requiring Shaman to worship the King" which led to heated debates. Hui Yuan held different attitudes towards the two decrees; he quite agreed with the order of "cleansing the Shamans ", but firmly opposed the order "Shaman should worship the King". Hui Yuan repeatedly explained the reason of "Shaman does not worship the King", and also wrote the famous essay entitled "Shaman shouldn't worship the King theory".Chapter five will discusses the Hui Yuan's deas about the relationship between the human body and spirit(形神思想).In existing research, the "deity(神)"is interpreted as:Pudgala(补特伽罗);Soul; Dharmakaya(法身);Buddha-nature(佛性); Heart, cognition/Spirit, and so on. Thus the analysis of the theory that the "deity can't be extinguished" is a necessity in Buddhist theology. Therefore in this chapter, the origination and evolution of the debate on this theme will be examined.In chapter six, Hui Yuan's theory of "karma" and "how people could be Buddha" will be discussed. Personages in the Eastern Jin were influenced by the Taoist metaphysics in the thought on the theme that "the self-so nature can't to be changed(自然之性不可移)",''sainthood cannot be achieved by learning/study(圣人不可学不可至)"They thus doubted the Buddhist teachings that "all men can become Buddha. Powerful and influential persons like Dai Kui(戴逵)and Huan Xuan(桓玄)even questioned Hui Yuan concerning the basis of this metaphysics theory. Hui Yuan replied to the questioning one by one as it affects the fundamental tenet of Buddhism. What he did hleped Buddhism get rid of its early adherence to the Taosit metaphysics and it also contributed to encouraging people to do good in Buddhit conducts. This chapter will trace the origins and change of the theory, " nature can't to be inflected", " sainthood can't to be attained by study", through the dialogues between Hui Yuan and Dai Kui/Huan Xuan to about "constant efforts changing one's nature"(积习移性)",and the ideas of "seventh abiding and sudden enlightenment"(七住顿悟)".Hui Yuan and the study of Prajna will be discussed in Chapter Seven. Owing to the similarity of Sunyata and the Taoist metaphysics, the study of Prajna was the most popular one in the Eastern Jin. Both the Buddhist monks and the lay personages all studied the isues of Prajna, but lacking the direction fromthe original master, there were diverse kinds of theories called "Liu Jia Qi Zong". The study of Prajna cannot be ignored because it was related with Hui Yuan's whole life work. Mainly, Hui Yuan(慧远)'s Prajna thought was part innovation and part inheritance, compared with the "Liu Jia Qi Zong". According to Hui Yuan's emphasis on the problem of common Buddhist faith, such as the karma and that "deity/spirit will not perish", his "Theory of Dharma (《法性论》)" was quite different from that of the Medial Vision school (Madhyamika中观学派).It may be noted that Hui Yuan's thought showed the characteristics of the study of the Buddha-nature Treatise, and can be considered as the beginning of the'localized'study of the Buddha-nature Treatise.