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Is there a conflict between Buddhism and Taoism?

Many people ask me this question, is there a conflict between Buddhism and Taoism, and is there a conflict between divination and Buddhism? Then we must first understand the origin of Zhouyi. The content of Zhouyi is very rich, from astronomy, geography and personnel, from natural science to social science, from social production to social life, from how emperors and generals govern the country to how ordinary people behave. Through the scientific method of gossip and past information prediction, it predicts the good and bad information of nature and personnel, and makes all preparations, so as to better understand, transform and promote the continuous development of society.

The Book of Changes has accumulated a lot of life experience and summed up everything with mathematical logic. Its philosophy can be applied to all the measurements of people, time and objects, so it can explore the universe itself, know the fate, guide the travel and storage of life, and become a treasure trove of important life and behavior. Therefore, it is called "the king in the book, the head of the group classics" and is a great classics on earth. Zhouyi is not only used for fortune telling, but also for understanding the laws of nature and the truth of the universe.

Buddhism, on the other hand, allows people to do good deeds and know the cause and effect. So I don't think the two are in conflict.

As for whether there is any conflict between Buddhism and Taoism, first of all,

Buddhism originated in ancient India. In 1 century, Buddhism was divided into Mahayana and Hinayana. In the 3rd century BC, with the support of Ashoka, Buddhism began to spread in Asia, first to Sri Lanka in the south, and then to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries in the east. Most of Southern Buddhism is Hinayana Buddhism. Buddhism introduced to the north is mainly Mahayana Buddhism, which was introduced to China through the western regions in the 1 century, and spread to Korea, Japan and other places.

The teachings of Buddhism are developed in the soil of traditional Indian society, such as reincarnation and penance. Buddhism adapted to the needs of anti-Brahmanism in India, so it put forward the concept of "equality of all beings" to counter the caste system of Brahmins.

It is generally believed that Buddhism was introduced into the Central Plains of China during the Eastern Han Dynasty. After Buddhism entered China, on the one hand, some scholars quickly saw the paralysis and enlightenment of Buddhism; On the other hand, some people have seen the conflict and disharmony between Buddhism and China traditional culture, such as the dispute between famous immortals and immortals in the Southern Dynasties. Confucianism has occupied a very important position since Hanwu ousted a hundred schools and respected Confucianism alone. Some Buddhist ideas are incompatible with the Confucian idea of respecting heaven and ancestors, and the complexity and obscurity of Buddhism's own teachings are also difficult for the lower classes to accept. Therefore, if Buddhism is to spread in China, it must adapt to the traditional culture of China.

Taoism is a native religion in China. Tao, originally a theory, originated from Laozi in the Spring and Autumn Period, and was perfected by Zhuangzi in the Warring States Period, so it became the theory of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Taoism advocates purity and inaction, which was accepted by the rulers in the early Han Dynasty and became a way of governance. Taoism also originated in the Han Dynasty. It is attached to the theory of Laozi and Zhuangzi, absorbed the theory of Yin and Yang in Qin and Han Dynasties and the theory of alchemists, and became a relatively complete religion after being processed and transformed by Ge Hong and Tao Hongjing Kou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

The first is the ethnic conflict caused by Buddhism and foreign religions. As a foreign religion, Buddhism will naturally arouse the antipathy of China's traditional society. In the traditional society, the difference between China people and foreigners is very strict. Secondly, there is a dispute about which is the best. During the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism and Taoism flourished together, and the rulers often chose or reconciled the two religions for their own needs, which made the two factions begin to compete for the initiative of religious forces. During this period, Buddhism was officially recognized and even strongly advocated. In the Southern Dynasties, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Song, Qi, Liang and Chen Dynasties, most emperors believed in Buddhism very much. Liang Wudi even admired Buddhism and even gave his life for the temple. Buddhism flourished in the Southern Dynasties. The Northern Dynasties began to support Buddhism from the era of Xerox and Shi Hu in the post-Zhao Dynasty. Although Buddhism was destroyed by Emperor Tai Wu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it flourished again. What's more, Emperor Xiaoming of the Northern Wei Dynasty worshiped Buddhism and suppressed Taoism, which greatly promoted the development of Buddhism in the Northern Dynasty. Therefore, Buddhism greatly expanded its influence in the Southern and Northern Dynasties due to its own maturity and the support of its rulers. At this time, Taoism has just moved from the folk to the upper level, just changed its orthodoxy, and its strength is relatively weak. But Taoism, after all, is a local traditional religion, so Taoism has relative advantages in this respect. There is a dispute between the two religions about who is in power.

It can be seen that the dispute between Buddhism and Taoism is actually not a conflict between the teachings of the two major religions and religious philosophy, but a conflict between two different cultures in integration, which is a conflict of interests between the two major religions.

The typical performance of the conflict between Buddhism and Taoism in this period is that three martial arts schools and one family destroyed Buddhism. The reason is the conflict of economic interests between Buddhism and the country. The expansion of Buddhist temples occupied a large number of fields, and Buddhist monks did not levy taxes, competing with feudal countries for labor and military sources, which directly violated the economic and political interests of feudal countries.

For example, with the support of Ho Choi, a Han Chinese, and Kou Qianzhi, a Taoist leader, Bartotao, the Taidi of the Northern Wei Dynasty, carried out the initial reform of Xianbei Sinicization. Ho Choi was born in a Confucian family, which made him stubbornly adhere to the Confucian concept of "preventing summer"

, strongly reject all kinds of ideologies that are contrary to Confucianism. Ho Choi added the aura of "Taiping Emperor" to Wu Tai, the emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and vigorously promoted Taoism, which became the state religion of the Northern Wei Dynasty. At the same time, he tried his best to weaken Buddhism, which was regarded as "the god of worship", and denounced it as "obscenity". Behind the contradiction between Buddhism and Taoism lies the contradiction between Xianbei nobles in the Northern Wei Dynasty and Han nobles who advocate sinicization. Cui Hao, who believes in Taoism, is the representative of the latter. He promoted this action under the guise of worshipping Taoism, with the deep purpose of realizing Xianbei Sinicization. Unfortunately, he was too hasty and radical, which eventually led to failure.

The development of Buddhism in the Northern Zhou Dynasty began in the Western Wei Dynasty. Yu Wentai, Yu Wenjue and Yu Wenyu all believed in Buddhism, and Buddhism flourished in the Northern Zhou Dynasty, which seriously affected the source of military tax. Emperor Wu of Zhou was determined to carry out the action of destroying Buddha in order to enrich the power of the country. This time, the Northern Zhou government not only gained a lot of temple wealth, but also gained a population of nearly 3 million, which made the production develop day by day. "The number of years of rent adjustment has increased and the number of soldiers has increased day by day." Thus, it provided a solid material foundation and strong military strength for the Sui Dynasty to unify and fight against Turks. The establishment of the concept of meridians has promoted the exchange and mutual penetration of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and laid the foundation for the establishment of a new feudal ruling service ideological system with Confucianism as the mainstay and Taoism and Buddhism as the supplement.

In the Tang Dynasty, Taoism had a unique revered position because of its ethnic names. In the Wu Zhou Dynasty, after Wu Zetian succeeded to the throne, in order to further deify her rule and emphasize her divine right, she even used Buddhism as a tool to constantly change the title of the year, such as "Divine Grant", "Holy Certificate", "Heavenly Book", "Divine Power", "Holy Calendar" and "Dazu" all contained Buddhist political content. In fact, although the Queen believed in Buddhism, her intention to build Dayun Temple and the Buddha statue at this time was not to spread Buddhism and do good deeds, but mainly for the political significance of Buddhism-symbolizing that Maitreya, the "Emperor Buddha", ruled the world from birth and took it as the foundation of the Zhou Dynasty. But the superiority of Buddhism in doctrine is incomparable to Taoism. So Taoism used its political advantage to exclude Buddhism. The extinction of Buddhism by Wu Zong is the development and intensification of this contradiction. The contradiction between Buddhism and Taoism is the direct reason why Wuzong destroyed Buddhism.

Among these events, the most influential one is the event of destroying Buddha in Zhou Shizong. In fact, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the northern regime took some measures to ban Buddhism, but the extinction of Buddhism in Zhou Shizong was a big problem. Judging from the available data, Zhou Shizong did not slaughter a large number of monks and nuns and burn Buddhist scriptures this time, but it has the nature of rectifying Buddhism and still retains many monasteries and monks and nuns. However, due to the overall development of Buddhism in China, it has reached a stage of barely maintaining. After this blow, it has become even more depressed. In this context, the dispute between the three religions tends to ease. Since then, the dispute between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is no longer as sharp and obvious as it used to be. Although it still exists, it is relatively small.

From the above, we can see that, in essence, Sanwu Buddhism is still pursuing economic and political interests, especially the Northern Zhou Emperor, who banned Buddhism and Taoism in order to obtain financial and military resources. The development of Buddhism will inevitably bring some negative effects to feudal countries, and the dispute between Taoism and Buddhism is often the fuse for feudal countries to take measures to destroy Buddhism, and there are often deeper reasons behind it.