★兔★

On the influences of Buddhism and Zen Buddhism upon Yang-ming school of philosophy

——————————————————————————–

Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism’s influences upon Yang-ming school include:

* the interest and stress put on metaphysical issues in the first place, as a reaction to Buddhism, which occupied central place in both Cheng-Chu and Lu-Wang schools.

* the clearly manifested conception of an idealistic world, inspired by the Buddhist notion of Universal Mind, which influenced chinese intellecutals since the import of Buddhism for centuries.

* the conception of asceticism, as a systemic thought with metaphysical justifications, was origined in India, imported to China in the light of the spread of Buddhism, influenced a number of pioneers of neo-Confucianisms in late Tang dynasty and S’ong dyansty, such as Li Ao, Han Yu, Shao Yong and Chou Tung-yi. Such systematic, teleological asceticism is not to be found in ancient Chinese classical or practised as Chinese tradition. asceticism is adopted in both Cheng and Lu schools, and it is a common theme in most neo-confucianist thoughts

* means of spiritual cultivation, from meditation, quiet-sitting to sudden enlightenment and shock therapy; from a tendency to focus on sponteneity and naturalness (which can reasonably thought as influenced as much by Taoism as Zen, to a proclivity to ignore and/or challenge authority and orthodox texts (a practices started from Lu, and found currency in late followers, much so in Japan) Zen Buddhism’s tradition of esoteric teaching is also common in Yang-ming school followers, from the top to the grassroots.

given the massive influence of Zen Buddhism had in China at the time, its means of cultivation are familiar to all Chinese intellectuals with reasonable education; Zen is on its own account a mixture of Taoism and Buddhism, thus not completely alien, and it is natural to mix Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism together to establish a 3-in-1 philosophy, that is Yang-ming school. In Japan, Yang-ming school has also been influenced by Nationalist Shintoism, which means that it is a clearly distinguishable 4-in-1 philosophy.

Wang Yang-ming need not to adopt Buddhist teachings knowingly, the more probable fact is perhaps that he adopts Buddhist practices unknowingly, for Buddhist thought was so much incorporated into Chinese philosophy at the time that it iwas not possible to construct new theories and philosophies without taking elements of Buddhist thinking.

the other influences include the theory of transmission of truth, and the teleological objective of the philosophy as a whole (namely, for individual to achieve sage-hood, contrary to the ancient Chinese tradition, the goal is clearly demonstrated and detailed means of practices and cultivation were invented and taught). these influences were felt by the Cheng-Chu chool as much as the Lu-Wang school.

the rebellious, anti-authority, democratic, actionist/activist characters of Yang-ming school also make it more close to Zen Buddhism in temperament; given the profound influence of Zen philosophy in Chinese thinking from S’ong dyansty onwards, it is reasonable to suggest that the connexion between the two philosophies are not simply coincidental.

the fact the intellectuals of mainstream Confucianism criticised Yang-ming school through out history as Buddhist is a very strong evidence to support the view. and let’s not forget that many followers of Yang-ming school, especially amongst the grassroots, practiced the philosophy in an almost identical way as Zen buddhist monks did. This phenomenon was even more remarkable in Japan