The Research Of Yanshou’s Perfectly Fused Thought

Having developed to the peak at Tang Dynasty, Chinese Buddhism went to downhill at the end of Five Dynasties period and early Song Dynasty. Many malpractices and bad phenomena emerged in large number in Zen, and the phenomena of destroying classics, crazy Chan and treacherous Chan became increasingly rampant. In allusion to the background of Zen, Yanshou put forwarded the propositions of being single-mind, which contains everything, to integrate the core thoughts of Buddhism Confucianism and Taoism, so as to look for a more favorable climate for the development of the Chinese Buddhism. Single-mind is the heart of Yanshou’s Buddhism thought, from the perspective of Zen and based on the single-mind thought, Yanshou have constructed the huge integrate thought system that reigned the three religions. His perfectly fused thought contains three sub-systems:the blending of the Zen and the whole Buddhism besides the Zen, the blending of Zen and the Pure Land Buddhism, and the blending of Buddhism Confucianism and Taoism. The integrate thoughts of the three religions refer to his thoughts system which integrates the core value of the Buddhism Confucianism and Taoism. This paper will make an objective and concrete discussion on his integrate thoughts from these three major aspects. Yanshou’s Buddhism thought plays a very important role in Chinese Buddhism, even in Chinese philosophy and literature history. So this paper will make a general discussion and a comprehensive evaluation on the influence of Yanshou’s perfectly fused thoughts.