Dao'an: if you don't follow the Lord of the country, it's difficult to establish laws
2022-03-22
In the history of Chinese Buddhism, the famous Japanese Buddhist scholar Maoxiong Kamata once took "the pioneer of Chinese Buddhism" as the title of the chapter on Daoan. From the perspective of the history of the Sinicization of Buddhism, it is not too much to call the Taoist priest of the Eastern Jin Dynasty a "pioneer of the Sinicization of Buddhism". Liang Qichao once praised dao'an as "the first builder in Chinese Buddhist circles" and "the existence of dao'an in Buddhism is almost as good as getting a prime minister in the entrepreneurial period of previous dynasties, and then founding the country on a large scale". Dao'an, a 12-year-old monk from Changshan, Hebei Province, went out to study after being fully disciplined. He was a teacher in Yecheng and worked in fotucheng (232-348). At that time, he had the reputation of "painting Taoist and startling neighbors". After the death of Buddha Tu Cheng, dao'an led people to take refuge everywhere because of the world chaos. Although he wandered around Hebei, Shanxi and Henan, he continued to study. Later, he lived in Xiangyang for 15 years, formed a monk group, sorted out the Scriptures, formulated norms, unified the surname, and gradually became a Buddhist leader who respected the world. In the fourth year of the Taiyuan Dynasty (379), dao'an came to Chang'an, the capital of the former Qin Dynasty, stationed in xiwuzhong temple and established a translation field; The tenth year of Taiyuan (385) passed away. 16 years later, master kumarosh began to enter Chang'an. "If you don't meet (dao'an), you will have endless sorrow and hatred.". We say that master an is a pioneer in the Sinicization of Buddhism, and his contribution is multifaceted. For example, Buddhist scripture translation. Dao'an established the first large-scale official Buddhist sutra translation field in the history of Chinese Buddhism in Chang'an, and led the translation of more than one million words of Buddhist sutras such as si'ahan and apitan, which directly affected the emergence of the post Qin jiumorosh translation field. Dao'an summarized the experience of Buddhist scripture translation and took the lead in putting forward the principle of "five lost roots and three not easy" in Buddhist scripture translation. "Five lost versions" means that there are five differences in the form of expression between the Chinese translation and the Sanskrit Original: inconsistent word order; The translation should conform to the reading habits of Chinese people and add modifiers that are not in the original text; The translation should omit the places repeated many times for emphasis in the original text; The translation should omit the original text and summarize the "Yi Ji" of the full text at the end; Before turning to the next topic, the original text likes to repeat what has been said before, and the Chinese translation has been deleted. In other words, translation must "lose the original". "Three difficulties" means that there are three difficulties in translating Buddhist scriptures: it is not easy to remove the "elegant ancient" component in Buddhist scriptures in order to adapt to current language habits; The Sutra theory said by Buddhist saints is full of wisdom. It is not easy to accurately convey its essence to the world today; The Arhats gathered together for the first time and made great efforts to recall what the Buddha said. Today, ordinary people translate Buddhist scriptures according to their own understanding. It is not easy to translate them well. Liang Qichao once summed up the "three difficulties" as: "it is necessary to seek truth and metaphor customs", "Buddha's wisdom is separated from each other, and it is difficult to combine reality" and "there is no way to inquire about it for a long time". Master dao'an thus clarified the basic principles of Sinicization of Buddhist scripture translation. His "five lost roots and three difficulties" still has enlightenment significance for the modern transformation of traditional Buddhist thought. Master dao'an's compilation of scriptures is the beginning of the collation of Chinese Buddhist scriptures. During the dao'an period, more and more Buddhist scriptures were translated, so it was difficult for people to determine which were imported and which were forged. Therefore, dao'an compiled the catalogue of comprehensive sutras, which is called dao'an Lu in later generations. It is the earliest systematic catalogue of Buddhist sutras, which has pioneering demonstration significance for the collation of Buddhist scriptures in later generations. Master dao'an formulated the norms for monks and nuns. During the first hundred years of Buddhism in China, there was only a lack of complete laws and codes. Dao'an has hundreds of monks in Xiangyang and thousands in Chang'an, but the system of maintaining the monks is not complete. The commandments are unknown and the monks are disorderly, which has aroused secular criticism. In this case, dao'an formulated the "monk and nun standard" in Xiangyang. The hundreds of monks in Xiangyang and even the thousands in Chang'an were managed in an orderly manner. Since then, this monk and nun standard, "Tianxia Temple House followed it". Master dao'an established a Buddhist system in line with China's national conditions in accordance with foreign Buddhist laws. The so-called "half Chinese and half Buddhist" set a precedent for Baizhang Zen master in the Tang Dynasty to establish clear rules, while Chinese Buddhist temple life after the Song Dynasty was basically carried out in accordance with Baizhang clear rules. Master dao'an's reform of "taking Buddhism as his surname" has formally promoted the integration process of Chinese Buddhism. Since the Han and Wei dynasties, there have been various surnames of monks in China. For example, those from the western regions took "an" as their surname, while those from Kangju, Yuezhi and Tianzhu took "Kang", "Zhi" and "Zhu" as their surnames respectively; Most of the monks in China take their surnames from teachers, and some even haven't changed their common surnames. The unification of Buddhist monks with Buddhism as their surname is a major feature of Chinese Han Buddhism. The reform of dao'an has reduced the impact of social differences such as class and rank caused by the difference of surnames on the unity of Buddhist groups, which has contributed to the integration process of Chinese Buddhism. Master dao'an's pioneering contribution to the Sinicization of Buddhism also lies in his proposition that "if you don't follow the Lord of the country, it is difficult to establish (lift) laws". Dao'an suffered repeated wars in his middle age. He led his people to flee to Song County, Henan Province. Soon, he was approached by the former Yan Bingfeng. So he went to Xinye and said to the disciples, "in this bad year, if you don't follow the Lord of the country, it will be difficult to establish dharma (lift); and the body of enlightenment should be widely spread." Dao'an's original intention is: "now, in the face of famine and war, (so many people have difficulty in eating, and it is easy to die in chaos). If you don't rely on the Lord of the country, (everyone's life safety can't be guaranteed), let alone spread the Dharma?" Here, the word "Lord of the state" is more a reference or symbolic meaning, not actually referring to the "Lord of the state" himself, but to the safe living environment and stable social order provided by the "Lord of the state". This can reverse the interpretation of dao'an's desire for a peaceful social environment for the country and the people, that is, only when the country is good, the world is good, or the society is stable and even prosperous, can the Buddha Dharma be better carried forward. Therefore, this sentence shows the meaning of patriotism and love of religion. If we make a further extended interpretation and understand "the Lord of state" as referring to or symbolizing the worldly legal norms formulated by him, then the sentence "it is difficult to establish (lift) laws without abiding by the Lord of state" can also be interpreted as "it is difficult to carry out Buddhist legal activities without abiding by the Lord of state (the worldly laws formulated by the Lord of state)", which implies that Buddhism should respect and abide by laws and etiquette in the world and should not act recklessly on its own identity, Religious activities, including religious activities, shall be carried out within the scope prescribed by laws and regulations, and shall not violate public order and good customs. It can be said that master dao'an's proposition that "it is difficult to establish laws and things if not in accordance with the Lord of the country" has opened the fine tradition of Buddhism's patriotism and love for religion and the precedent of correctly handling the relationship between politics and religion. It is the most valuable historical experience and spiritual wealth of the Sinicization of Buddhism. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
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