The Research "On Two Religions" By Dao’an

The book with the name of “On Two Religions” written by a famous magecalled Dao’an at the end of the North Zhou Dynasty is a systematic version about theviews of Buddhism and Taoism. In order to face up to the attacks of Taoism，Dao’an seta host and guest himself to help to differentiate the relationship between Buddhism andConfucianism systematically. Not only did the book uphold the status of Buddhism, butalso it delayed the process of the policy of the suppression of Buddhism by EmperorZhou Wu. What’s more, it also became a sample which summarized the relationshipbetween the three religions clearly during that period.There are plenty of works studying the relationship between the three religions.Based on the perspective of the text named “On Two Religions”, this paper analyzesthe relationship between the three religions in the late North Zhou Dynasty. It providesan inherent logic clue for illustrating the evolution process of the sinicization ofBuddhism thought. Firstly, Dao’an released the title of the text, then he discussed thedifferences between Taoist and Taoism. By comparison, he concluded that Buddhismhas a higher status than the Taoism. Secondly, he redefined Confucianism. Bycomparing Confucianism and Buddhism, he concluded that Buddhism has a higherstatus than Confucianism. According to the explanation of the two items which thoughtBuddhism is from inside and the later is from outside, Dao’an drew a conclusion thatBuddhism has a higher status than Confucianism which established the subjectconsciousness of Buddhism. From that, we can say Buddhism has been on its road toindependence instead of dependence at the beginning of that period.In addition, It isalso obvious that Chinese Buddhism has already regarded itself as an independentexistence. And thus it helps to establish harmonious but different development paths forthe sinicization of Buddhism.