The influence of Buddhism on China's ancient culture

There are four main aspects: First, the influence of Buddhism on China's traditional philosophy Buddhist thought is indisputably belongs to the system of idealism. However, it is a system of "I", "heart", "nature", "gas" and other aspects of human self-consciousness, human cognitive process and the role of subjective initiative and so on. The discourse on "I", "mind", "nature", "qi" and other aspects of human self-consciousness, human cognitive process and subjective active role has played a great role in the development of philosophical thought. Just as Marx criticized mechanical materialism, he also commented on the role of idealistic thought in history. He pointed out that "idealism is, of course, unaware of the real reality, of the sensual activity itself," and that "idealism, however, develops the dynamic aspect, but only in the abstract." The Buddhist concepts of "emptiness and existence", "birth and death" and "reincarnation" are all valuable heritage of dialectics. In the Wei, Jin, Six Dynasties, Sui, and Tang cultures, Buddhism became one of the main philosophical currents in China during that period. Buddhist thought was absorbed by Confucianism and Taoism to form the traditional culture of China's "three religions in one" situation, and later to further promote the prosperity of the Song and Ming philosophies. Second, the impact of the development of science in China with the spread of Buddhism, astronomy, medicine and other science and technology and fitness. In 1955, our country issued stamps to commemorate the ancient astronomer line, is a monk in the early eighth century, is from India to China to propagate the Tantra of the good fearless disciples. He made outstanding contributions to astronomy by writing the Dhyana Calendar and determining the meridian. As for medicine, there are more than ten kinds of medical books and prescriptions translated from India in the history books of Sui and Tang dynasties, and there are medical prescription in Tibetan Buddhism. The Buddhist scripture carving promoted the development of China's printing, and almost all of the world's oldest woodblock pages that are still preserved are Buddhist cultural relics. The famous "Shaolin Fist", according to legend, is the Indian Buddhist Bodhidharma came to our country to create Zen Buddhism taught the "mindfulness of boxing", and then by the monks and disciples of the temple exercises, enrichment, development and become. Third, the influence of Buddhism on Chinese literature Buddhist classics have high literary value, and had an impact on the history of Chinese literature. The influence of Zen Buddhism on ancient Chinese poetry, since the Sixth Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, Buddhism prevailed, many poets involved in Buddhism, make friends with famous monks, poetry by the profound influence of Buddhism, the famous poets Xie Lingyun, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi, Liu Zongyuan, Su Dongpo and others on the Buddhism, their works are often in the Zen Buddhism in which. After the Tang and Song dynasties, Zen Buddhism was prevalent, and many poets created a large number of Zen poems, such as Wang Wei's Farewell to the Final South and Passing through the Temple of Fragrance, etc. In addition, a group of Buddhist poets also appeared. In addition, a group of Buddhist monks also appeared in the Buddhist world, and their poems, natural and free, shallow and deep, had a unique realm, which had a great influence on the poetic style at that time. Wang Fanzhi, Hanshan, Shide and Fo Yin of the Song Dynasty were famous poet monks, and Huineng's "There is no tree in Bodhi, and the mirror is not a platform. There is nothing in the first place, where is the dust." The poem is an example of Zen poetry. The influence of Buddhism on literature is also reflected in the influence on novels. During the Six Dynasties, there were many novels of Buddhist induction, retribution and spiritual stories, such as Liu Yiqing's Record of the Underworld and Yan Zhitui's Record of Grievous Souls. Later on, chapter novels were influenced by Buddhism in terms of themes, characters and plots, and gradually appeared novels entirely based on Buddhism, such as Journey to the West and Legend of Jeet Kune Doo, and novels with strong Buddhist colors, such as Water Margin, Dream of Red Mansions, and Story of Yue Quanzhuan. In addition, in China's folklore, legends and stories with Buddhist themes abound. All these fully illustrate that Buddhism has had a great effect on our literature. The Buddhist classics "Dharma Flower", "Vimalakirti", "Hundred Metaphors" and so on influenced the creation of novels in Jin and Tang dynasties; the variant texts, popular speeches and the discourse body of Zen masters all had a deep relationship with Chinese popular literature. Many of the stories in the Buddhist scriptures often became the subjects for artists' paintings, and certain pictorial paintings, in turn, were related to Zen ideology. As for music, chanting was popular in China in the second century AD. In the Tang Dynasty, music from Buddhist countries such as Tianzhu music, Guzi music and Anguo music were absorbed. It is rumored that a small portion of Tang music is still preserved in some Buddhist temples. For the purpose of popularizing Buddhism, the chanting that flourished in ancient times gave rise to a special kind of literature, the chanson, which was a way of transforming the contents of Buddhist scriptures into a popular text that could be easily sung and sung. The various variant texts found in the Dunhuang caves are popular literary works that are rich in imaginative language. From these works, we can see the origins of the later Chinese popular literature such as plain language, novels, and operas. In addition, there is a special literary genre, the discourse genre, which was produced from the records of the talks and instructions of the Zen masters. This simple, lively and free spoken language genre was later copied by the Song and Ming philosophers, who produced various kinds of discourses. In addition, there is also phonetics, such as the past Chinese dictionary passes on the reverse cut, is influenced by the Sanskrit pinyin and developed. In short, the performance of Buddhism in the field of Chinese literature is rich and colorful. Fourth, the influence of Buddhism on architecture and aesthetics After the introduction of Buddhism, temples were built all over the world, and Du Mu's "Four Hundred and Eighty Temples in the Southern Dynasties" was a true depiction of the state of temples at that time. After the Wei Jin and North and South Dynasties, with the introduction of Buddhism, China's ancient sculpture in the subject matter and artistic style have produced great changes, Buddhist statues, stone carvings, stone carvings gradually became the main subject matter of sculpture, the Western rough and bold art style gradually penetrate and applied to sculpture. Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes group carving of Buddha, magnificent, vivid and realistic, is China's ancient sculpture of the model work. Until now China's ancient architecture is the most preserved Buddhist temple tower, the existing Songyue Temple brick tower in Songshan, Henan, Shanxi Wutai Mountain, South Chan Temple, Foguang Temple of the Tang Dynasty wooden buildings, Yingxian large wooden pagoda, Fujian Quanzhou open source temple of the stone east and west towers, etc., are the study of China's ancient architectural history of the valuable physical objects. Mural painting is an extremely important art style of ancient Chinese painting, and Buddhist painting is mainly mural painting. The existing murals in the Dunhuang caves provide us with very rich artistic and historical information. It is worth noting that the initial prevalence of the Buddha's story of life paintings, the development of the Tang Dynasty, gradually for the "sutra change" painting replaced. Just as there are variations in literature, the "sutra variation" in Buddhist paintings is also the stories and metaphors in the sutras that are painted into a picture. Such as the Dunhuang Caves in the performance of the Vimalaya Sutra "Vimalaya change", the performance of the Pure Land Sutra "Pure Land change", etc., are very wonderful and vivid great works. The rise of the sutra change painting, so that the content of the mural greatly enriched up, and thus the Tang dynasty Buddhist temple mural painting of the flourishing, reached the extreme point. At that time, the famous painters, in the name of dozens of recorded, such as Yan Liben, Wu Daozi, etc., mostly engaged in Buddhist painting. This shows the role of Buddhism in the art of painting at that time. Chinese painting from Wang Wei's school of literati painting and the development of the Song and Yuan after the prevalence of the writing of the painting, and the idea of Prajna and Zen Buddhism, very much related. Buddhist prints were produced early with the printing of Buddhist scriptures, and the earliest prints in China that we can see now are the Buddhist paintings on the Great Tibetan Scriptures. Fangshan stone sutra in the Tang Dynasty stone line Buddha painting, since the Song and Yuan dynasty Guanyin painting, Lohan painting and water and land painting are very popular. Moreover, since the introduction of Buddhism, the rulers of various dynasties opened caves, in which a large number of murals on Buddhist themes such as the story of Buddha's birth, the story of the Buddha's biography, the story of the sutra, the Western Paradise, Buddha, Bodhisattva and the flying sky were painted. These murals, mainly represented by Dunhuang Grottoes and Xinjiang Kizil Grottoes, are rich in subject matter, colorful, diverse in style, and delicate in brushwork, reflecting the artistic styles and aesthetic interests of different eras, as well as the culmination of the ancient painters' skills and rich imaginations, and are an important legacy of China's cultural treasures. At the same time, from these murals of different eras, we can clearly see the continuous fusion of Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture, as well as the Chineseization and secularization of Buddhism in the process of spreading. Dunhuang, Yungang, Longmen and other grottoes in the preservation of Buddhist statues and murals is a world-famous treasure trove of art, they absorbed the characteristics of Gandhara and India and the development of the Chinese national style of the art of statues, China's great cultural heritage and the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Qinghai's Ta'er Temple, etc., the construction of the solemnity and majesty of sculpture and painting is exquisite.