On The Communication Between Confucianism And Buddhism In The New Theory Of Consciousness-Only

Xiong Shili considered communication as a key of learning. "Communication between Confucianism and Buddhism is good for both, or else will be bad for each other." His book, The New Theory of Consciousness-Only, aims for communication between Confucianism and Buddhism. In this book Mr Xiong assimilates much theories of Buddhism, especially, while reforming the theory of consciousness-only in a critical way, merges them with the theories of Confucianism to form his new philosophical system. As its idea is intermediate between Confucianism and Buddhism and brings wide controversy, the research on communication of Confucianism and Buddhism in The New Theory of Consciousness-Only is very important in the development of modern Buddhism. This paper focuses on this book’s thought of communication between Confucianism and Buddhism to illustrate its value and influence from a view of history of thinking development. In detail, the structure of this paper is roughly as follows:Introduction:to explain the object of this paper and the purpose of the study and the research methods.Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the background of The New Theory of Consciousness-Only, especially from the historical source of modern Buddhism development and the source of Xiong Shili’idea to see the birth of this book and its main idea of communication.Chapter Two to Five show the contents of communication between Confucianism and Buddhism in The New Theory of Consciousness-Only, The New Theory of Consciousness-Only constructs the theory of Communicating Confucianism and Buddhism through four aspects.Chapter Two is ontology aspect, which builds a monistic noumenon to integrate object and consciousness on the base of the Consciousness-Only school’s idea that both object and consciousness are not true. Moreover, the meaning of Kong(空)remains and is added the dynamic vitality to make the noumenon originative. In fact, this changes the law of dependent origination of Buddhism, because it supposes there is an inner active cause by noumenon itself to create everything including spirit and matter from the constant actions of Xi (翕)and Pi (辟).And Xiong shili synthesizes the basic qualities of noumenon in Confucianism and the ones in Buddhism, as a result, he emphasizes noumenon is not quiet but also humane. In a word, the concept of a creative noumenon and a monistic way of thinking are the superior feature in his theory.Chapter Three is the theory of Xin-Xing aspect, it bases on his criticisms and reforms of the Consciousness-Only school. He keeps the notions of seeds (种子) and habit energies (vasana习气)in Consciousness-Only school, but considers that Alaya consciousness (阿赖耶识)is a stream of latent energy and can’t be the origin of university as its impurity. So he establishes an immaculate notion Ben-Xin(本心)to distinguish it from Xi-Xin (习心).Ben-Xin is equivalent to noumenon, also named Zhenru (Tathata,真如)Xin, while Xi-Xin is the emergence of habit energies. And his description of Xi-Xin is neither like Confucianism nor Buddhism. Because of his much reference to the Chinese Chan school, his theory is more similar to the form of Rulai cang (Tathagatagarbha,如来藏)school’s Xin-Xing theory.Chapter Four is about the method of essence-function aspect. Xiong synthesizes essence-function paradigm in Buddhism and the theory about noumenon and phenomenon in west to establish his essence-function theory. He criticizes the duplicate noumenon in Consciousness-Only school, and furthermore, assimilates the notion of form in Buddhism and merges it into Yong(用).He also separates Yong into two parts, the one is consonant with noumenon and the other is not. The part of Yong which is consonant with noumenon can be named Pi(辟)in his book, which means that Yong is the function of noumenon and the function accords with the nature of noumenon. On the contrary, the Yong which is not coherent with noumenon names Xi(翕)and is according as the concept of phenomenon in western philosophy. Xiong Shili emphasizes the integration of Ti (体)and Yong. In his opinion, the relationship between Ti and Yong is that acknowledging Ti through Yong, though Ti is not Yong, these two are neither one nor two.Chapter Five is cultivation aspect. We gives a comparison between edification in Buddhism and introspection in The New Theory of Consciousness-Only, so clarifies that Xiong Shili pays more attention to individual inner experience of Tian Dao(天道)He considers innate intelligence as the function of noumenon, which means that in spite of being transcendent, Tian Dao is knowable to and immanent in human beings. In addition to the innate intelligence, he creates another new concept of acquired intelligence, which uses to keep the importance of knowledge in experienced world. Moreover, he is affected by the concept of parikalpita-svabhava (遍计所执性)in Consciousness-Only school and consider the parikalpita-svabhava as a persistent attitude to search knowledge in external world, which is the origin of science knowledge. However, in terms that acquired reason is inferior to innate intelligence, the relationship between innate intelligence and acquired intelligence still hints a complete monistic way of thinking. In fact, he wants to emphasize the supreme of innate intelligence and its superior status in moral practice.Chapter Six makes a summery about the controversy caused by The New Theory of Consciousness-Only and gives an illustration from a view of religious communication.At last, the conclusion shows that he deeply affects his disciples such as Tang Junyi and Mou Zongsan, so they mostly accept his theory of communication of Confucianism and Buddhism and put it forward. On the other hand, the book, The New Theory of Consciousness-Only, becomes one of the controversial focuses in modern communication between Confucianism and Buddhism history. This controversy is both a Religious one and Philosophical one. And it shows that the transition from cultural aspect to religious aspect in religious communication is necessary. And Xiong’s view that the immanence and transcendence are the common features of Chinese religions makes his communication between Confucianism and Buddhism possible.