The Analysis Of Expounding Methods On The Filial Piety In Buddhism In Qi Song’s On Filial Piety

Qi Song is a famous monk in the Northern Song Dynasty. He read many books on Buddhism and Confucianism and was very good at writing. When the Confucian scholars in the Northern Song Dynasty had set off a wave of repelling the Buddhism, Qi song wrote a number of Buddhism treatise like on the origin of the Buddhism and on filial piety and so on for defending. At the same time, he vigorously advocated that Confucianism and Buddhism are not in contradiction to each other. In this way, he tried to defend the Buddhism to the critics from the Confucian scholars.On filial piety is a very important article written by Qi Song to expound the filial piety in Buddhism, which includes twelve chapters. The article give a research on “filial piety”, the focus of criticism to Buddhism by the Confucian scholars, and make a positive response. From the perspective of expounding methods, the article on one hand inherited and developed the ideas from some of the famous Buddhist apologetics in the history, rise the point that filial piety is really important to Buddhism; on the other hand, it made a reinterpretation on “filial piety”, by this way, it showed that the Buddhism theories are not in contradiction to the Confucianism’s on filial piety, moreover, the theories about filial piety in Buddhism are much more profound than those in Confucianism. These views on the one hand to maintain the Buddhist position, on the other hand also makes the interactive relationship between the Confucianism and Buddhism become closer. The development of the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism had come to a new stage.This paper concentrates on the expounding methods used by Qi Song in the article on filial piety. The paper is divided into four chapters: the first chapter introduces the Qi Song’s life and his main thoughts; the second chapter gives a review on the background, motivation and purpose of the article; the third chapter and the fourth chapter concentrate on the expounding methods used in the article. The third chapter focuses on the inheritance of the Buddhist apologetics in the history while the fourth chapter focuses on the unique expounding methods on the filial piety in Buddhism in the article.