Wang Anshi's academic evolution and its relationship with Buddhism and Taoism

Wang Anshi's academic evolution and its relationship with Buddhism and Taoism

There are still great differences in academic understanding of the relationship between Wang Anshi and Buddhism and Taoism. Some people regard him as a mediator, while others only study the relationship between Wang Anshi and Buddhism and Taoism in his later years, but lack a comprehensive investigation of the relationship between Wang Anshi's academic thought and Buddhism and Taoism, and fail to understand the relationship between Wang Anshi's academic evolution and Buddhism and Taoism from a global perspective. This paper holds that Wang Anshi's academic evolution has a profound internal relationship with his Buddhist and Taoist thoughts. As an important resource of Wang Anshi's academic innovation, the change of the way in which his Buddhist and Taoist thoughts are handled in academic activities is the key to Wang Anshi's academic evolution, which is essentially related to the shift of his academic interests and the shift of his main energy from academics to politics.

First, Wang Anshi's early scholarship and his support for Buddhism and Taoism to enter Confucianism.

Wang Anshi's early academic footprints came and went from a hundred schools of Buddhism and Taoism. On this basis, he recreated his own scholarship, opened a new trend of academic non-morality in the Song Dynasty, and initially outlined the inner sage of Confucianism itself. The academic characteristic of this period is to assist Buddhism and Taoism to enter Confucianism.

From Wang Anshi's early academic works, such as Huainan ZaShuo, Biography of Hong Fan, Yi Jie and some monographs and letters about human nature, we can see Wang Anshi's achievements in the study of life morality. For the first two works, we can learn from Wang Anshi's disciples Lu Dian and Cai Bian about their influence and scholars' comments at that time. Lv Dian said: "In Jiayou and Zhiping ... Ming is still young if he has not been crowned. Scholars of Mr. Zong Anding of Huainanzi have doubts. When it comes to Gong Jing's Miscellaneous Notes of Huai Nan Zi and his Biography of Hong Fan, my heart is lonely. So I am willing to sweep Mr. Linchuan's door. " (Fu (Ming Confucianism) Jun Fu's epitaph) In Wang Anshi's Biography, he also commented on Huainan ZaShuo in this way: "When ZaShuo was written in the early days, it was said that its words were comparable. Therefore, people in the world began to look at the end of life in the original moral sense. " This is not the boasting of disciples Lu Dian and Cai Bian, but truly shows Wang Anshi's achievements in the study of life morality and his role in creating new academic trends. In particular, compare Huainan ZaShuo to Mencius. Among them, The Theory of Sexuality gives full play to Mencius' theory of good nature, quotes Confucian academic resources completely, and advocates the construction of Confucian inner saints, which greatly establishes the confidence of Confucian intellectuals in Confucianism. Later, some monographs and letters written by Jiayou and Zhiping developed the theory of human nature. On the premise of affirming the goodness of early human nature, it is believed that acquired sex is good and evil because of acquired "habits". This theory of human nature is not only a summary of the previous theory of human nature, but also a perfect solution to the conflict between human nature and evil in reality, which embodies Wang Anshi's achievements in the theory of human nature. This achievement attracted the attention of scholars at that time and had a direct impact on them. Zhang Zai's division of the nature of heaven and earth and the temperament of human nature is a theoretical refinement and generalization inspired by Wang Anshi. Therefore, Wang Anshi's theory of human nature has a great influence on the development of Neo-Confucianism. Although these thoughts are influenced by Buddhist theory, it is not obvious that Wang Anshi has a direct reference, but is inspired by his thoughts and takes them as resources for creation and absorption.

Wang Anshi has the intention to combine the thought of Yijing with the emperor's thought of maximum capital in Hongfan Biography. He said: "The winner is based on the foundation, but it is not enough to keep pace with the times. Time has passed, impermanence, and enough is enough. " ..... keep pace with the times has three virtues, so the emperor said' build', change with the times, and then rule. There is such a saying in the Book of Changes: "Easy to be a book, not far away. Because Tao is also dynamic and unchangeable, the cyclic flow is six and impermanent. "He combined the thoughts of the Book of Changes and Hong Fan in an attempt to unify this thought of life and change on the highest ontology. However, Wang Anshi lacks the necessary explanation for this "middle" and has no continuous construction. Therefore, he didn't set up an ontological thought system with "Tian Li" as the highest category like later Neo-Confucianism, and Wang Anshi's value was just an attempt in this respect before Neo-Confucianism, which provided them with some enlightenment and reference.

Although Wang Anshi integrated Buddhism and Taoism into the study of Confucian moral construction in his early academic creation, in his articles and letters about Buddhism and Taoism written to foreign disciples, he bluntly expressed his recognition and respect for Buddhism and Taoism and foreign dignitaries. In Answering Ceng Zi's Book, Wang Anshi advocated absorbing Buddhism and Taoism from the perspective of constructing Confucian theory of mind and nature. "Collection Classics of Chunhua Academy of Lianshui Army" said: "The Tao is not long. ..... Later scholars either favor one over the other, or sense the world situation, or are born from the heart, so the knowledge of saints is divided into 89. ..... Covered in inaction, retirement, silence, Laozi and Zhuangzi in China, Buddha in the Western Regions. " I began to appreciate the ideological charm of Buddha Lao in kung fu practice. Wang Anshi's attitude towards Laozi's learning is even more obvious in the book "Answering Korea" written during Zhiping years. He said, "I said,' If I lose my virtue, I lose my virtue, if I lose my benevolence, if I lose my righteousness, then I lose my righteousness. Yangzi's words are consistent, and Laozi's words are fragmented, so this is different. ""I don't think Lao Tzu's understanding of Tao is fundamentally different from that of Confucius and Yangzi, but only from different angles. Although these articles written in different periods all express the tolerant attitude towards Buddhism and Taoism, the degree of tolerance is gradually rising, so that there is no essential difference between Confucianism and Taoism, and there is almost no criticism of Taoism. This paved the way for Wang Anshi to reconcile Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism after the political reform. However, Wang Anshi wrote in the early years of Zhiping in Answer to Gong Shenfu, saying, "Mencius didn't. Only Yang Zi can talk about adults but not Lao Zi." He is still critical of the study of Laozi and Zhuangzi. This contradiction shows that Wang Anshi kept a certain degree of vigilance while absorbing Buddhism and Taoism in the early days.

Second, Wang Anshi's academic reconciliation theory during the political reform period.

During the political reform, Wang Anshi's academic interest shifted to the interpretation of Confucian classics, and his main energy turned to politics. The main purpose of exegesis is also to serve the real politics. Therefore, his exploration of the principle of life has not made greater progress on the basis of previous academic innovations. Judging from the academic characteristics, Wang Anshi unilaterally pursued the innovation of justice during the political reform period. Although he swept away the shortcomings of the classic annotations of Han and Tang Dynasties and Chen Xiangyin, and made great achievements in the academic field, it also led to the hypothesis and arbitrariness of the interpretation of righteousness, and inevitably there were boring marginal notes.

In the New Interpretation of Three Classics published during the Reform Period, the Buddhism and Taoism used in Zhou Li's New Interpretation by Wang Anshi himself did not occupy a large proportion in the book, but there were some traces of Buddhism and Taoism in the study of life and morality. For example, to elaborate the theory of inner saints through sacrificial ceremonies is to directly quote Taoist thought.

Zi Shuo is Wang Anshi's most criticized work. Although this work was completed in the period from retirement to Jinling, it is more appropriate to regard it as a work in the period of political reform from the main contents completed before retirement and the influence on the compilation of Three Classics and New Meanings. Even this book, which was criticized by the history of the Song Dynasty as "stressing the life of the Buddha", does not have much Buddhist content. For example, Wang Anshi wrote: "When there is nothing, there is no beginning. At first, when you listen to things and think, you are smart and ignorant. Think, think without thinking, think without thinking. If so, his heart has not moved, so his heart is inside. " It explains the meaning of words with Taoist thought, but it is essentially different from absorbing Buddhism and Taoism from the standpoint of Confucianism in the early days. This academic trend has played a great role in advocating and demonstrating the new schools and students it founded. As the History of the Song Dynasty said, "For a time, scholars were afraid to teach their lessons, and the master teacher was purely used to select scholars. Scholars don't have to name themselves, and Confucianism spreads its notes first, which is useless. "

In addition, Wang Anshi's academic proposition changed into an attitude of recognizing Buddhism and Taoism, which made the new school and students take Buddhism and Taoism as their ideological resources on a large scale and be ashamed of not talking about moral life. Although his classic explanation is healthy and simple, Wang Anshi regards the study of life morality as his academic and political foundation and source, and his resources are not only Confucianism, but also a lot of Buddhism and Taoism, which leads scholars to indiscriminately absorb moral life from Buddhism and Taoism as a resource for writing books. There are also many new scholars who directly annotate heretical classics. The formation of this ethos cannot but be said to be the result of Wang Anshi's academic thought, so this academic trend of thought can also be regarded as Wang Anshi's academic characteristics. It is in this sense that The History of Song Dynasty criticizes Wang Anshi's Zi Shuo as "a mere formality, a mere formality".

Wang Kan, the son of Wang Anshi, was greatly influenced by Wang Anshi's academic work, and he was also the main author of Shangshuyi and Shi Jingyi in The New Meaning of Three Classics. Wang Chang is the author of ten volumes of Notes on Zhuangzi, and the General Catalogue of Sikuquanshu and Daozang are both titled as 20 volumes of Biographies of New Nanzhen Classics, as well as Buddhist books: Biography of Old Xunzi, Notes on Laozi and Yi Jie. His books are not only influenced by his father in guiding ideology, but some of them are just like his father.

In the preface of the New Biography of the South China True Classics, Wang Kan said: "People who read Zhuangzi's book in the world don't know what the book Zhuangzi said means, but think it is empty and strange. I'm Zhuangzi, suffering from being detained and never knowing it, so the book ends here. There is nothing to say, but if Zhuangzi wants to do it, he will do it himself. Guy also corrected the mistakes at that time, so he had to praise his words and do his own thing. It is wonderful to do everything. If a humble person knows it, it is better to read its books. I am very hurt and don't know what Zhuangzi means, so I am puzzled by his book. " He also said: "Stealing the final chapter of The Analects of Confucius and Mencius is the cause of the sage Tang. If you think it is a book and politics, its effect can be compared. Lao Tzu, a great sage, changed his thoughts appropriately, so he understood the meaning of being unique in virtue, thus restraining the dispersion of things and simplifying them. Honesty is a book combined with politics, which will turn people into customs. This article has its own effect, so the classic means the end. " Treating Confucian classics and Taoist thoughts equally, I think that as long as they are used in politics, Yao Shunyu's great governance will be realized. Compared with Confucian classics, Laozi is more "morality-oriented" and mainly belongs to Taoism, which is also the source of his absorbing more from Taoism.

Lv Dian, a famous scholar of the new school, also wrote Notes on Laozi (two volumes) and Notes on Zhuangzi, and another representative figure, Lv Huiqing, wrote ten volumes of Zhuang Ziyi. Other scholars, such as Chen Xiangdao, Shen Qichang and Liu Zhongping, have annotated Taoist classics. Most of these new scholars spare no effort to annotate heretical classics, which is obviously not an accidental phenomenon, but an academic choice under the influence of Wang Anshi, the founder of the new school. Therefore, the relationship between Wang Anshi's scholarship and Buddhism and Taoism is mainly manifested in his influence on new scholars and students during the political reform, and these scholars mainly look at Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism from the same angle and hold a harmonious attitude towards the three religions. Judging from the influence and even guidance of Wang Anshi's academic theory, it is a logical conclusion to regard this theory as the academic characteristic of Wang Anshi's political reform period.

The new school headed by Wang Anshi mostly refers to the resources of Buddhism and Taoism to construct their own life and morality. It does not integrate this life morality with the spirit of Confucianism's entry into the WTO into an internally unified and innovative ideological system, but simply confuses Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, lacking internal unity and soul, so it is difficult to unify the thoughts of scholars and form a chaotic situation made up of three thoughts. Zhu criticized: "Wang Zhixue is because his knowledge is not enough, and to interpret the so-called old way as Tao is to change it and the disadvantages are not as good as before." He also said: "Knowing the disadvantages of folklore without knowing it, and not knowing its learning without knowing it, is like an old interpretation, confusing the reality of Confucius. Although the new academic system is granted, the disadvantages of scholars are not as good as the previous day. " This criticism is not entirely a matter of opinion.

At that time, the style of study immersed in nothingness formed by the new school and its control over the imperial examination were strongly opposed by people of insight.

In the second year of Xining, the imperial court discussed the reform of the imperial examination law. Su Shi wrote in the "School Tribute Law": "In the past, Wang Yan was good at Laozi and Zhuangzi, and everyone in the world learned it. His customs were arrogant and even crossed the south. Wang Jin, a good Buddha, practiced paganism and managed the calendar at the expense of personnel, and still laughs it off. So Confucius seldom talks about life, thinking that few people know it. Zi Gong said:' The articles of the master can be heard, but the words of the master cannot be heard.' The theory of husband's life is not heard by Zigong. Today scholars are ashamed not to talk about life, which is credible! Nowadays, the scholar-officials regard Buddha as a saint, and none of the writers in the city sell books that are not from Zhuangzi. After reading his article, Haoran contributed a lot and could not be poor; Judging from his appearance, he is detached and cannot be ignored. How can this be true? ..... I wish your majesty a wise teacher, try it with words and learn from it. Broaden the classics, though simple; A little bit about floating birthdays will work hard. Su Shi criticized the current situation of academic circles at that time, expressed his deep concern about this situation, and gave solutions to those who chose "extensive classics" in the selection of imperial examinations and those who ignored "a little floating life".

Sima Guang expressed the same meaning as Su Shi in On Miscellaneous Customs published in the same year. He said, "It's a good idea to meet a doctor in modern times. I like to praise Laozi and Zhuangzi, flow into the examination room, learn from each other, learn from each other, learn from each other, learn from each other, and learn from each other. " ..... and sex, zi gong; Life is an uncommon word of Confucius. Today's juren, writing and writing, talks about life first, and even wanders and forgets to return, and then enters Zhuangzi. Empty talk, lie to the examiner, and win the first place. With Lu Li here, it is widely expected and sweeping. ..... I hope the imperial court can issue a special imperial edict, admonish my grandfather and doctor, and still command the imperial court of does, so that I can show it to the scholar first and then judge it later. If I forget what to say, those who talk about Laozi and Zhuangzi will fail in their rhetoric, so as not to delay their old age and defeat the customs. "

In short, because Wang Anshi led the imperial examination reform, "new academic system, giving Confucian classics and abandoning poetry", and the ultimate source of this Confucian classics is the study of moral life, and the study of moral life takes Buddhism and Taoism as resources too much. Therefore, under the guidance of the imperial examination baton, students played a role in studying moral life in the examination, and formed a style of study of "on nothingness and absurdity". The formation of this style of study is related to Wang Anshi's academic evolution and the evolution of Buddhism and Taoism, which is the inevitable result of Wang Anshi's failure to continue the innovation of the previous three thoughts and turn to Buddhism and Taoism as the basis of Confucianism.

Thirdly, Wang Anshi's later academic and harmonious theory were further deepened.

As mentioned above, Wang Anshi's thought of reconciling Buddhism and Taoism during the political reform was mainly accomplished by new bachelors and students who should be promoted under his influence. After the second attack, he personally played the role of reconciliation between Sakyamuni and the old master through various forms of writings. These ideological characteristics are obvious in his essays and letters. Not only that, he did not hesitate to publicly annotate Buddhist and Taoist classics. Wang Anshi's interpretation of Buddhism and Taoism includes Lao Zi's interpretation, Zhuangzi's interpretation, Leng Yan's interpretation, Mo Wei's interpretation and Hua Yan's interpretation. These characteristics of Wang Anshi's scholarship show that his theory of harmony is deepening to a certain extent, and it is more manifested in the form of Buddhism and Taoism.

On the theory of human nature, Wang Anshi also changed the innovative practice of connecting the past and the future from the standpoint of Confucianism in the early stage, and directly turned to the Buddhist view of human emptiness. In Answering Uncle Jiang Ying and Primitive Nature, it is fully displayed. In Answer to Uncle Jiang Ying, he said: "When a gender is called asexual, it is actually something, which makes sense, but it is hard to say. Only asexual, so it can be changed; If there is sex, fire can't be water ... "Wang Anshi expounded the theory of human nature from the perspective of Buddhism, which is very different from the theory of human nature before the political reform. Wang Anshi's theory of human nature is very different before and after. If we don't discuss them separately and generally, it will inevitably lead to contradictory ideas. For example, Jiang Yibin discussed Wang Anshi's two works in different periods together. Wang Anshi's annotation of Buddhism and Taoism classics in his later years is the proof that he regards foreign Taoism as the foundation of Confucianism. All these show that Wang Anshi directly absorbed resources from Buddhism and Taoism to build his own life and morality, and his main interest turned to Buddhism and Taoism.

Throughout his later works, his attitude towards harmony theory is no longer to beat about the bush or support his disciples to do so, but to shift his focus to this point. From the direction of academic thought, Wang Anshi still took the study of moral life as the ultimate academic goal in his early days, and thought that only by cultivating the study of moral life can he better engage in the work of foreign kings, that is, he can be a man if he does well himself. After that, his life moral research draws more resources from Buddhism and Taoism, but lacks the school position consciousness of exploring the ultimate root from Confucianism. However, it is still believed that the study of life morality must be put into use, so as to truly cultivate the study of moral life, so that the inner saints and the outer kings complement each other. Therefore, when Sima Guang abolished all the new laws of Wang Anshi, even the immunization law was not spared, Wang Anshi could not help crying.

In a word, those views that Wang Anshi kept a considerable distance from Buddhism and Taoism in his later period are all one-sided views that did not comprehensively examine Wang Anshi's academic changes. Compared with the middle period, Wang Anshi's attitude towards Buddhism and Taoism further developed his theory of harmony. In the relationship between the inner sage and the outer king, its focus is more inclined to seek the construction of the inner sage of Buddhism and Taoism, and its Buddhist and Taoist colors are more prominent.

Four. conclusion

In the early stage, Wang Anshi tried to absorb the knowledge of life morality from Buddhism and Taoism, and combined this absorption with his Meng Xue thought, and made creative play on the basis of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, thus achieving gratifying results in the theory of human nature. In the Biography of Hong Fan, he tried to combine the thought of "birth and change" in the Book of Changes with the ontological meaning of "zhong" in Hong Fan, which was also an attempt to construct a philosophical system. However, Wang Anshi did not maintain this momentum of ideological innovation. After the political reform, he just absorbed life and moral resources directly from Buddhism and Taoism, which had a profound impact on his school and students. Therefore, on the whole, he only found that Buddhism has elements worthy of reference in the study of life morality, but did not further refine, innovate and construct Confucianism's own study of life morality. This job happened to be taken over by the Neo-Confucianism. Cheng Yi said that Wang Anshi's early academic works were worthy of recognition, but later they became fragmented, and he was greatly dissatisfied with his later research on life ethics, which mainly quoted resources from Buddhism and Taoism. This shows the influence of Wang Anshi's early learning on Neo-Confucianism and his important role in the formation of Song studies.

Wang Anshi did not reconcile and consider the highest category of Confucianism, so he did not establish a self-consistent Confucian philosophy system, which was related to his excessive recognition of Buddhism and Taoism in his later period. Wang Anshi thinks that the life theory of Buddhism is already very valuable, and there is no need to innovate a set of Confucian own life moral theory, just borrow it. Therefore, Wang Anshi concentrated on discovering what Buddhism can learn from, rather than re-creating. On the contrary, Cheng Yi devoted his main energy to academic re-creation at the same time and later. Although he is different from Buddhism and Taoism, he always has a strong sense of drawing a clear line with Buddhism and Taoism, so he does not take right and wrong of Buddhism and Taoism as right and wrong, which is a powerful driving force for him to innovate a set of Confucian own life ethics on the basis of the three religions. In addition, Wang Anshi's later academic research is more about discovery than innovation, which is also inseparable from his subjective identity. His life is dominated by politicians, so it is inevitable that academic creation of political activities is too frequent.

Most importantly, it may be harsh for us to evaluate Wang Anshi's scholarship from the standpoint of Neo-Confucianism. But to take a step back, even if Wang Anshi's scholarship is impeccable, he can't equate it with politics, but directly apply his academic views to political practice. We can stick to academic truth, but we can't impose it on everyone as an acceptable idea. Because politics needs to be accepted by most people, otherwise, it may become a target of public criticism or have adverse consequences. Wang Anshi's mistake is that he should not apply what he thinks is true scholarship to politics that must be recognized by most people, because scholarship and politics are two different fields.