Huiyuan: adhere to tradition and adapt to the times
2022-04-15
Huiyuan (334-416), who was annoying in the Yanmen building of Shanxi Province in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, traveled to Xuchang and Luoyang with his uncle when he was a teenager, "rich in six classics, especially good at Laozhuang". In 355, Huiyuan became a monk in Hengshan with dao'an. "He often wants to capture the outline and take the dharma as his own responsibility". Dao'an once praised him and said, "it's far away to make the road flow to the East!" In 378, Hui Yuan, 44, was ordered to leave Xiangyang and live in Jingzhou. In 381, Huiyuan and dozens of disciples went to Luofu Mountain in Guangdong Province. On the way, they passed Lushan Mountain and built Donglin temple for the governor of Jiangzhou. "They have lived in Lushan peak for more than 30 years, and they can't get out of the mountain and enter the customs." Since then, Lushan Mountain has become the center of Southern Buddhism, and Huiyuan has become a Buddhist master with his efforts in the Sinicization of Buddhism. Huiyuan's outstanding contribution to the Sinicization of Buddhism is that he first put forward the thought of "Dharma nature", which opened the prelude to the establishment of the theory of mind nature of Chinese Buddhism. All his postnatal Tai sect, Huayan sect, Zen sect and Pure Land Sect take this as the ideological basis. According to the biography of eminent monks, Buddhism was introduced into China. There is no saying of "Nirvana and permanent residence", but that Buddhism has a long life span. Huiyuan speculated that "Buddha is the extreme, and the extreme will remain unchanged". Therefore, the "theory of Dharma nature" said: "the utmost takes invariance as the nature, and the attainment of nature takes body as the religion", which means that Nirvana takes eternity as the Dharma nature, and the attainment of Dharma takes experiencing Nirvana as the religion, which accurately summarizes the thought and practice outline of Mahayana Buddhism. After reading the treatise on dharma nature, the eminent monk of the later Qin Dynasty praised and said, "it's not wonderful for the people of the border country to secretly integrate with reason without classics." It means that people living in remote places have tacit understanding of Buddhism before they come into contact with the Buddhist scriptures. Isn't it wonderful? According to Master Taixu's "on the general choice of Buddhism", Chinese Buddhist thought is divided into three systems. Prajna sect and knowledge only sect are all from outside. Only Zhenru sect, that is, Dharma sect, is carried forward by Chinese Buddhism itself. Because it conforms to the national spirit of the Chinese people, it can be expanded in later generations and become the mainstream of Chinese Buddhism. Based on the thought of Dharma, Hui Yuan's Buddhist karma theory has become the core theory of Chinese Buddhist ethics. Taking legality as the goal, retribution will have the subject to bear, and its internal structure will be adjusted to the traditional Chinese ethics. The Buddhist retribution theory elaborated by Hui Yuan highlights the ethical responsibility of Confucian individuals. The so-called "retribution of good and evil, the inheritance of misfortune and blessing, and no one can replace it". Huiyuan explained the deep reasons for the phenomenon of "sometimes good deeds bring disaster, or evil deeds bring celebration" seen in real life, and stressed that "there are three generations of retribution", "there should be delay, so there should be order", which laid a more solid theoretical foundation for the retribution theory. From the perspective of the birth of Buddhism, Huiyuan enriched the content of China's original concepts of good and evil, good and evil. Therefore, some scholars believe that "Confucianism stresses good and evil to correct human relations, and Huiyuan stresses good and evil to manifest retribution. Although one is to actively enter the WTO and the other is to strive for birth, it has the same social and ethical effects." Huiyuan's works such as answering Huanjing Tao, discussing materials, simplifying the affairs of Salmonella, the theory of Salmonella's clothing and mourning ceremony also pointed out the way for the Sinicization of later Buddhism in dealing with etiquette system. "Huanjingdao" means huanxuan (369-404). The "material Jane Salmonella incident" occurred in the second year of Yuanxing in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (403). In 402, Huan Xuan took advantage of sun en's rebellion to enter Jiankang and became the actual power holder of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. During the period of huanxuan's assistant government, he ordered to "material simple Salmonella", that is, huanxuan's assistant government wanted to eliminate all monks and subordinate religions. Huan Xuan's reasons are: monks live in luxury, escape corvee, there are too many monks in monasteries, and take in criminals, which has become a factor of social instability. Huan Xuan's criterion of material simplicity is: those who understand the Dharma and righteousness, those who abide by the commandments, and those who live in mountains and avoid vulgarity do not have to be eliminated. Objectively speaking, the phenomenon and its disadvantages mentioned by Huan Xuan exist in reality. Even Huiyuan can't deny this phenomenon of "filthy and miscellaneous for a long time". Huiyuan put forward suggestions: first, the standards should be adjusted. There is no problem with the standards set by Huan Xuan in principle, but the situation is different in reality. For example, there are those who can only chant scriptures but can't give lectures, and there are those who are old but can probably keep the commandments. These should not be eliminated. The second is the question of who will identify it. "It's easy to detect the signs, but it's difficult to distinguish the authenticity. It's hard to get the letter from a remote source", especially for remote local officials who don't have the ability to identify. Huiyuan suggested that the matter should be handed over to "suwang Salmonella", that is, the professional affairs of "eliminating monks by sand" should be handed over to the Buddhist community. However, Huan Xuan was defeated soon, and the matter of "eliminating the monks by sand" was settled. However, this matter has a great impact. Later generations set up a professional monk official management system. The so-called "monk officials strictly discipline the monks all over the world, abide by the rules and regulations, and those who violate the rules will be punished by their own department". Its basic idea originated from this. The theory of Salmonella's clothing may have been written in the second year of Yixi (406). "Bare clothes" means that the right shoulder is taken out. This is the standard dress of Indian monks, but exposing the right shoulder is not in line with Chinese dress etiquette after all. Huiyuan believes that this dress from India shows respect for the gods; Right side can distinguish between high and low, so that life is virtuous; The right side can also facilitate the right hand to work and so on. Zhennan general he Wuji questioned that the Chinese people regard the right as the place of fierce mourning, and the Salmonella is right-sided, which is not in line with the concept of good and bad luck in China. Huiyuan's answer first pointed out the philosophical significance of China's left auspicious and right fierce, that is, pleasing life and fearing death, and good and then evil retreat. This is the etiquette formulated by the former king in accordance with human nature. However, monks "retreat from worldly glory and fight against vulgarity". After all, their pursuit is different from the secular world, so it is reasonable for Salmonella to favor the right. On the one hand, according to Hui Yuan, the costumes of later Chinese monks adhered to their own traditions, on the other hand, they were adjusted according to different regions and occasions. It can be seen that the monk clothing system of Chinese Buddhism is still characterized by "taking sides with the right". Closely related to the theory of Salmonella's clothing, Hui Yuan explained the Confucian Sutra of mourning clothes in Lushan and made the Buddhist mourning ceremony. Lei cizong, who listened under the seat, later became a famous expert in this field. The real problem at that time was what kind of mourning clothes should monks wear on occasions such as the death of their master and parents. Hui Yuan's lecture on the Sutra of funeral clothes is to make the Buddhist funeral system for reference to the Confucian funeral etiquette, followed by the funeral ceremony. Unfortunately, the book has been lost. On the one hand, the funeral ceremony adheres to the Buddhist tradition, on the other hand, it adjusts in response to the changes of the times and environment, leaving a very valuable experience of Sinicization of Buddhism for future generations. After the introduction of Buddhism, many Buddhist precepts formed in India could not be implemented in China. Therefore, monk system, a unique form of Buddhist system, appeared, which not only did not violate Buddhist precepts, but also could meet the actual needs of the construction of Chinese monk groups. Dao'an, Huiyuan's master, once formulated the "norms for monks and nuns" and unified the surnames of monks and nuns, so that a Chinese monk group began to take shape. Huiyuan inherited the cause of dao'an and formulated the festival of the Dharma society, the festival of the monks of the outer temple and the festival of the bhikuni. "Law Society Festival" refers to the rules and regulations jointly observed by the monks of Lushan Bailian society. The "outer Temple monk Festival" and "bichuni Festival" refer to the rules and regulations applicable to outer Temple monks and bichuni respectively. Huiyuan restrained the Lushan monk group by formulating a series of rules and regulations, which were called "Yuangui" by later generations and were widely used by the Buddhist circles in the north and south. Since then, the Chinese Buddhist monk group has continued the tradition of the coexistence of monk system and commandments. The development of monk system later formed clear rules, which is essentially the expression of the Sinicization of Buddhism in commandments. Huiyuan's outstanding contribution to the Sinicization of Buddhism also lies in his active advocacy of pure land belief. Many later generations respect Huiyuan as the first ancestor of Pure Land Sect. He founded the pure land Lotus Society and established a simple and easy way to chant Buddhism and practice, which is very conducive to the spread of Buddhism among ordinary believers at the lower level. Huijiao once praised huiyuanyun: "Yongquan still notes that it really depends on the Iraqi people." Master Huiyuan's wise choice and pioneering efforts in the Sinicization of Buddhism have shaped the Chinese Buddhism of later generations. Rereading the master's works in those years should have enlightenment for us to further promote the process of Sinicization of Buddhism today. (outlook new era)
Edit：Yuanqi Tang Responsible editor：Xiao Yu
Source：
Special statement: if the pictures and texts reproduced or quoted on this site infringe your legitimate rights and interests, please contact this site, and this site will correct and delete them in time. For copyright issues and website cooperation, please contact through outlook new era email：lwxsd@liaowanghn.com
Recommended Reading Change it 
Home
