What was the impact of Buddhism on Chinese culture?

The influence of Buddhism on Chinese culture is not limited to religion as generally imagined, but outside of religion, such as literature, thought, art, etc., have significant influence, which is summarized below:

(1) The influence of the ideological world

Chinese philosophical thought, germinated in the Zhou, and flourished in the Warring States period. During the Warring States period, the sons of war, each advocating its own, so that Chinese philosophical thought, extremely prosperous for a while. The Han Dynasty, the only Kong Lao, after the Wudi repudiation of the hundred set Confucianism as a respect, so the decline of Taoism, and the six dynasties of Wei, Jin, and the prevalence of Buddhism in the world, and Taoism is gradually revitalized, and then conflict, because of the conflict and the exclusion of the exclusion of the contact and the integration, after the talk of the Lao and Zhuang, more than the meaning of the Buddhist scriptures, and the Buddhist scholars, but also more references to the Lao and Zhuang.

As for Confucianism, the emperors and famous Confucian scholars turned to Buddhism, which led to the defense of Buddhism at that time. However, because of the transcendence of Buddhist thought and the beauty of translated literature, all the first-class Confucian scholars at that time did not study Buddhism, and the general thinkers of the Tang Dynasty even used the two Buddhist doors of emptiness and non-emptiness and non-existence as the basis for reconciling and even leading Confucianism and Taoism.

The end of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Song Dynasty, only Zen Buddhism flourished, and manipulated the ideological world at that time. The reason is that Zen advocates no writing, no teaching, and aims to investigate the fundamental principles of life, so that people can study and invent on their own - to understand the mind and see the nature, and only then can we talk about learning. At that time, academics were influenced by Zen, such as Zhou Lianxi and Cheng Mingdao.... For example, Zhou ordered his disciples to inquire into the question, 'What is the pleasure of Confucius Yan Hui'? Cheng also ordered his disciples to observe 'the weather before the end of joy, anger, sorrow and happiness', and advocated reading the sutras half the day and meditating half the day, all inspired by the Zen Buddhism's inquiry into 'where does life come from and where does death go? or 'Before my parents were born, how was my original face? The idea of the Zen Buddhist school of thought has been inspired by the idea of 'how can I be my original face before my parents were born?

As for Lu Xiangshan of the Song Dynasty, he went even further to say, 'The universe is my mind, and my mind is the universe. Wang Yangming of the Ming Dynasty also took the Zen method as the basis for his advocacy of 'conscience'. In short, Zhou Cheng Zhu Zi and other science, and Lu Xiangshan, Wang Yangming and other psychology, none of them are not affected by the Buddhist Zen thought, it can be said that they are based on the Buddhist theory, to be learned, and the establishment of a set of academic ideas and theories, that is, the famous Chinese philosophical history of the Song and Ming philosophy, all the study of Chinese philosophical history, I think there must be a common sense.

(2) Influence on Literature

The middle age of the translation of Buddhist scriptures is the six hundred years from the late Han Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, and the five to six thousand volumes of Buddhist classics are all products of this time, and after the Song and Yuan Dynasties, although there are some translations, they have been insignificant.

China between the North and South Dynasties to the inert Tang, masters, translation of the characters, not less than hundreds, the most outstanding, and the greatest contribution to Chinese literature, when pushed to Roche and Xuanzang. Roche is the old translation of the age of the titan, Xuanzang is the new translation of the age of the jungles; Zang translation of the volume, although rich in Roche, and Sh translation of the scope of the broader than the Xuanzang, the two wisdom, such as the reputation of Qi, evenly matched. The old translations were mostly straight translations, so the Roche translations, rich in the natural language of the West, not only opened up a new world of Chinese thought, but also provided a great deal of information about Chinese literature. As for the era of new translations, the tendency to Italian translation, the writing of the vivid and interesting, the format of the new, innovative words, the structure of the exquisite, even to make Chinese literature, for the degeneration of, I would like to cite three points as follows:

(1) the content of the national language for the expansion of

Chinese since the Han Dynasty, the scholars of the ancient is still, do not dare to have a little creativity, although there are new concepts, but also must be set to the ancient words, so that all the academic are with a gray, uninteresting. The initial translation of the Buddhist scriptures, in addition to the inherent terminology of the sound of the translation, the image of the language also attacked the ancient, after the deepening of the study, the feeling that the old language and the new meaning, it is very difficult to match, if you are still using the ancient language, will not be able to avoid the loss of the truth of the cage, or the words do not mean, and therefore committed to the creation of new language, inadvertently promote the expansion of the content of the national language, and the current dictionary of Buddhism, although the push can not be exhaustive of the scriptures of all the new terminology, but also enough to make a person sigh in awe of what I have witnessed.

As for the Buddhist Dictionary compiled by Japan, the 35,000-odd words collected are all new words created by the translators from the Han and Jin dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, and these new words have been added to the Chinese language system and become new components, so that the content of the national language has not been enlarged.

(2) Changes in Grammar and Style

Only if you read the sutras, you will find that their style is different from that of ordinary books. The most significant of these is that the sutras do not use the words "之", "乎", "者", "也", "矣", "焉", "ya", and they do not use the beautiful words of the Longman text. At the same time, there are a lot of inverted grammar in the sutras, and there are a lot of adjectives, ultimatums, and homonyms. In particular, in a sutra, prose and poetry are intertwined, and whether it is a verse or a long line in prose, the content is either reasoning, describing events, asking and answering questions, or using metaphors, and all of these are present. After the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese style of writing was more like a true and smooth, a wash of the dust of the Six Dynasties, was not influenced by the translation of the Buddhist scriptures literature.

All in all, the Buddhist scriptures are constructed in a new and beautiful form, and the color of the foreign tone is also strong, so that people praise, there is a kind of harmony and freshness, which can be said to be a kind of revolutionary vernacular new style of writing at that time, and the founding of such a new style of writing, Roche and his subordinates have been the most important credit. Although the translation of Buddhist scriptures flourished in the Tang Dynasty, if we compare it with literature, there is no one who has translated more than Roche.

(3) Development of Literary Interest

The pure literature of modern China, such as novels, songs, and even literary creations, is closely related to the translation of Buddhist scriptures, because Chinese Buddhism, since Roshi's time, has been exclusively occupied by the Mahayana school, and the flourishing of Mahayana came after the demise of the Buddha. The first advocate should push Ma Ming, read the biography of Roshi Ma Ming Bodhisattva, know in fact for a great man of letters and great musician, his writings and the cause of the Dharma, are this learned, so his book "Buddha's lineage of praise 'a book, can be said to be: a 30,000 words of a long song; the translation is not heavy rhyming, but read, feel it with the peacock and the Southeast lice fly and so on the ancient flotsam and jetsam similar to the music. The author of the Mahayana solemnity, is simply 'Confucian history' style of a novel, although the material from the four Ahan, but by its wonderful writing embellishments, even make the reader's mind moving to God.

After Ma Ming, most of the Mahayana classics, such as the Avatamsaka, Nirvana, and Prajna, are rich in literature, and then translated into the wonderful Chinese language by the masters of the translation field. The method of interpretation and writing has been revolutionized, and its direct influence on the development of Chinese literature, such as the Chinese literary masterpieces Shui Xiao Zhuan and Dream of Red Mansions, etc., its structure and writing style are influenced by the Huayan and Nirvana sutras, that is, after the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, the miscellaneous dramas, transcripts, play lyrics, and other long-playing songs, which are also indirectly absorbed by the writing style of 'Praise of the Buddha's work' and written. As for the Tang Dynasty, the new poems of Han Shan Shide and so on, which are in-depth and simple, are the precedent of Bai Le Tian, Su Dong Po and so on, and the discourses of Cheng Zhu and so on in the Song Dynasty are also imitated from the Zen Buddhism. In addition, the book of the return to the original, the Journey to the West, etc., is rich in literary value of the work.

(3) the impact on the art world

Buddhism on the shadow of Chinese art, can be divided into four points:

(1) the building of the magnificent

Ancient Chinese architecture, although not as practical as Western, but strive for exquisite, such as before and after the house of the display of the layout, around the wonderful embellishments, but not the Western buildings can be compared. In particular, the general construction of Buddhist temples, the structure of the exquisite, grand and solemn, are modeled on the state of primitive Buddhism in India, as for the pagodas throughout mainland China, more than enough to represent the spirit of Buddhist perseverance, giving people a sense of the sacred and sublime.

(2) the realism of the carving

Ancient China, although there is carving, and molding and casting, but began with the import of Buddhism, the Tang Dynasty, the famous workers of the molding, as well as with the wood or stone carved statues of the Buddha, is an epoch-making artistic creations. Such as Longmen in Luoyang and Datong Yungang stone Buddha, the Stewart Caves of the Buddha and murals, the form of realistic, the characters of, not only lifelike, is simply flying potential, is a priceless treasures of the Chinese art world.

(3) portrait of the Xiao Miao

Because of the Sui and Tang dynasties of Buddhism flourished, so that the Chinese painting to get a great revelation, because at that time, the famous painting Buddha, and strive to Vimy Vimy and will be the story of the characters in the scriptures painted on the wall, as a solemn embellishment. Such as stew huang frescoes, yungang stone Buddha, are famous far and wide, for Chinese art to put a color, although we can not personally see the mainland Buddhist temple of art creation, only from books and paintings a glimpse of one or two, although, but also desire to be there.

(4) The touching of chanting

Chinese ancient music is very good, but Buddhism came to China, there are new tunes to join, so that the old tunes a hundred feet further, and there is a special development, such as the 'Fish Mountain chanting' 'temple bells' and other music, all copying the Buddhist scriptures in the excellent Sanskrit. As for the chimes, bells and drums of Buddhist temples, they are the ritual music of the monks' living and ****, which makes people hear them and their common thoughts disappear immediately. Chinese poets like to hear the drums and bells of Buddhist temples in the evening and morning, and sing a wonderful poem and song, even the modern music, but also more rhymes in the Buddhist chanting, which can be seen in the Buddhist music of the touching.

Four, the influence of Buddhism on Chinese customs

Buddhism was introduced into China, in addition to the direct and indirect influence on Chinese literature and thought, never involved in political activities, but the social customs and habits, but there is a subtle effect. The most important was the improvement of the outlook on life and the expansion of filial piety.

(1) Improvement of the outlook on life

Ancient Chinese people thought that death was like the extinction of a lamp, and Confucius also said, 'How can one know death when one does not know life'. The introduction of Buddhism into China has made people realize that there is a place for life and a place for death, and that the right to return to life and death is vested in one's own self, so to speak: 'There is no door to happiness and misfortune, but only to be invoked by one's own self'. And the incurring of misfortune and happiness often depends on one's own thoughts. That is why it is said, 'One thought of good goes to heaven, and one thought of evil goes to hell.' Because Buddhism believes that in daily life, all behavior, language and thoughts, can form a special inertia, become a kind of incurring future consequences of the potential forces, that is, the dominant life, dominate the universe of karma.

Because there is good and evil in human karma, there is also good and bad and bitterness and happiness in the rewards. The Buddha said: 'If you do not forget your work, when karma meets you, you will still suffer the consequences.' He also said, 'If you want to know the cause of your past life, you are the recipient in this life; if you want to know the fruit of your next life, you are the author in this life.' Since all encounters in life are self-inflicted, why should we be saddened by the hardships of our circumstances or proud of the good encounters? However, if we can grasp the present, realize that the past is not to be admonished, and know that the future can be pursued, change our past wrongs, and strive to be good, we can naturally overcome our difficulties and create happiness. Therefore, the Buddhist doctrine of the three lives of karma and reincarnation actually contains vigilance and encouragement, so that under the law of karma, the living can do penance and accumulate blessings to ensure their well-being, and the dead can recommend themselves to their souls to help them, and even the emperors and dignitaries of the country, who blamed themselves for their country's misfortunes, took the blame for their own faults, and then did their own soul searching in order to avoid the epidemics. From this, we can see that the law of cause and effect of Buddhism is y rooted in people's hearts, not only affecting the Chinese people's outlook on life, but also curing problems before they happen, and supplementing the insufficiency of politics and education.

(2) Expansion of filial piety

Ancient Chinese people, in order to build up their lives and even to unify the family, rule the country, and pacify the world, all of them took filial piety as the basis. The introduction of Buddhism has enlarged and enriched the content of Chinese filial piety. For Confucianism's discussion of filial piety is nothing more than 'giving birth to a child with rituals, burying the dead with rituals, and offering sacrifices with rituals.' Or, in addition to serving the left and right, warm in winter and cool in summer, and making sure of the morning and evening, it is also necessary to carry on the legacy of the ancestors and fulfill the cause of the forefathers. As Confucius said, 'Those who are filial are those who are good at succeeding the will of others, and those who are good at succeeding the will of others.'

Buddhism says that filial piety is not only about serving and providing for the deceased, following his or her will, and developing his or her career, but it is also about making him or her stop doing evil and do good deeds, so that he or she can be free from birth and death, and be free from suffering and be happy. Therefore, it is said, 'To be filial without filial piety is not enough to be a human being; to be filial without being able to live and die is not enough to be a filial piety.' It is also said, 'To be born, to be raised, to die and to be buried is a small filial piety; to be born to be clothed and to die to be honored is a great filial piety; to be born to be guided by righteousness and faith, and to die to be recommended to the spirits and gods is a great filial piety of human piety.'

The Buddha said in the Brahma Net Sutra: 'All men are my fathers, all women are my mothers, and I am born from them, and all beings in the six paths of life are my parents.' It can be seen that the Buddhist way of filial piety has a deep significance and a wide scope. Not only should one honor one's parents of the three lifetimes, so that they can believe, stop doing evil and do good deeds, and finally attain liberation from birth and death and freedom from suffering, but one should also honor and respect all beings of the six paths, and based on the principle of 'honoring others is always honored by others,' the promotion of the Buddhist way of filial piety can indeed fill society with piety and goodwill, and the hearts of the people will turn toward goodness. The goodness of people's hearts and the happiness of the future can be expected in the near future. Therefore, I say: Buddhist filial piety not only enlarges and enriches the content of Chinese filial piety, but also helps to promote morality.

In summary, we should know that Buddhism is the product of a cultural and intellectual revolution in history, and after the introduction of Buddhism into China, the influence of Buddhism on Chinese culture is both deep and huge. If the culture of Confucianism is the whole of traditional Chinese culture, Buddhism should be the heart of Chinese culture. If it is said that Chinese traditional culture is based on Confucianism, it is undeniable that the importation of Buddhism has made the first item of Chinese culture degenerate and become one of the basic culture. Therefore, we want to study Chinese culture, first of all to study Buddhism; to revitalize Chinese culture, first of all to revitalize Buddhism, want to make Chinese culture spread in the world, more than the first to promote Buddhism can not be.

Many foreign scholars who are interested in Chinese culture in recent times, most of them take Buddhism as the main body. Based on this, I think: as a Chinese, especially Chinese students, regardless of the belief in Buddhism or not, there is a need to study Buddhism, otherwise, not to mention the mission of spreading Chinese culture, that is, once contact with foreign scholars to study Chinese culture, but their own Chinese culture has deteriorated, and become the mainstream of Chinese culture, Buddhism, but know nothing about it, good sense?