The influence of Buddhism on traditional culture

On the Influence of Buddhism on China Traditional Culture

I remember that Ji Xianlin, a teacher whom I admire very much, had a very incisive discussion on the relationship between Buddhism and China traditional culture on different occasions and in different articles. As a famous scholar, he doesn't believe in Buddhism himself, but he has made in-depth research on Indian culture and Buddhism, as well as the history of Buddhism in China, and put forward profound insights and academic viewpoints that even a Buddhist can't put forward. For example, he said that it was Buddhism that was introduced into China from India that really influenced all aspects of China culture and all social strata, and brought religious awareness to China people. We can say that if we want to know the culture of China, we should at least know the Indian Buddhism. If we don't understand the role of Buddhism in China's history, culture and philosophy, otherwise, we can't write any history of China's philosophy, China's thought, China's linguistics, China's phonology, China's architecture, China's music and China's dance.

Mr. Ji's evaluation is fair and incisive. But his old man's house also asked us to "analyze this research more subtly, concretely and truly, so as to make a more correct judgment".

Buddhism has a history of more than 2,000 years. From the first year of Yuan Shou, Emperor Ai of Han Dynasty, Dr. Da Yue presented Buddhist scriptures to floating disciples in Jingkou, and later Emperor Yongming, who had a golden dream, sent envoys to greet Buddha statues and missionaries to preach, translated the earliest Buddhist scriptures "Forty-two Chapters" and built the White Horse Temple in Luoyang. However, many people don't quite understand that Buddhism was introduced into China not directly from Nepal and India, the hometown of the Buddha, but from today's Central Asia and the Western Regions. There are two ways of transmission: one is the northward route through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashgar, Hotan, Turpan, Hexi Corridor and the Silk Road in Xinjiang; One is the southbound route, which passes through the sea routes of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

The main problems faced by early Buddhism were the translation of Buddhist scriptures and how to adapt to China. Since Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhist scriptures have been gradually translated into Chinese. However, if people want to know and understand these foreign alien thoughts, the first task is how to explain the concept of Buddhism with the habits of China culture, and how to make our original Taoism and Confucianism accept foreign Buddhism and make it localized and nationalized. This process has gone through two or three hundred years, or even longer. The introduction of Buddhism was strongly supported by the rulers of past dynasties, so it developed very rapidly during the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties. Through the construction of various large-scale grottoes, such as Qizil Grottoes, Pauzke Li Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes, Dunhuang Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes and Tianlongshan Grottoes, countless Buddhist stone carvings have been created, temples of different sizes have been built all over the country, and a large number of Buddhist scriptures have been translated, which has had a great influence on the traditional culture of China. It can be said that without the inheritance of Buddhist architecture, it is impossible to leave so many cultural heritages. The sculpture art in the history of China is basically the sculpture art of Buddhism. The same is true of mural art.

Historically, the philosophical thoughts of ancient China people were more about preaching than metaphysics and logic. Our ancient philosophy is not only full of moralism, but also poetic, intuitive and aesthetic, which is difficult to explain with western philosophical concepts. After the introduction of Buddhism, especially the Buddhist thought of only knowing Prajna, it had an important influence on the logical rationality of China's traditional philosophy, the mind and nature view of Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties, and the promotion of China's philosophical speculative spirit. For example, for the convenience of telling Buddhist stories, precious scrolls and customs to ordinary illiterate believers. Be produced and then developed into a popular novel; Poets, poets and painters in the Tang and Song Dynasties were rarely influenced by Buddhist culture, especially literati paintings in the Song Dynasty were also influenced by Buddhist thoughts and paintings. Dunhuang frescoes adopt western painting methods; According to the standard of Zen Buddhism, there are also differences in calligraphy between the north and the south. The painter Dong Qichang is a typical example. Many great calligraphers have copied Buddhist scriptures, such as Huayan Sutra, Heart Sutra, and Wang Xizhi is an example. The process of translating and writing classics in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties not only greatly improved the level of China's calligraphy art, but also stimulated the development of ancient phonology. The introduction of Buddhism also had a great influence on the traditional festivals in China. For example, the Lantern Festival is also a festival related to Buddhism, and it is the day when Sakyamuni turned evil. The world is bright and bright, symbolizing the brightness and beauty of the world; Buddhist music has also been valued by the ruling classes of past dynasties. The Emperor's Nine Songs is a court ritual music, which is composed of music from Buddhist countries, and the music in the Tang Dynasty is especially influenced by Buddhist music and Hu music. Buddhist music makes people feel refreshed after listening to it, and it is still deeply loved by the people, especially in Wutai Mountain and Emei Mountain.

It can be said that in the history of human religious communication, only Buddhism has never used force in communication, which is different from Catholicism, Christianity and Islam.

Buddhism did not have its own place of activity in the early stage of its spread. Most of them were "left their homes for temples" by princes, nobles, rich families and businessmen. For example, Guangxiao Temple in Guangzhou was donated by the great-grandson of Nanyue King in Han Dynasty. Later, with some support, the monks began to build their own venues. The architectural pattern of early temples in China was centered on stupa, and Buddhist temples were built around it. The stupa dedicated to the relic is the main symbol, so the stupa is the main body of the building, and a temple is built next to it. This is also inherited the architectural style and requirements of ancient Indian temples; Temple architecture in the Tang and Song Dynasties formed a unique architectural pattern. Unlike in the past, Buddhist activities could only be carried out in the space given by rich children. Master Daoxuan, a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty, made a set of plans to build temples and pagodas, and formulated the Tanjing, which clearly stipulated the architectural requirements and standards of temples, especially the temple as the main architectural center of the whole temple, because the Buddhist temple is the main place to worship Buddha statues, Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist scriptures, thus distinguishing traditional temples from pagodas. From the architectural form, the tower is behind the temple. In Song Dynasty, the architectural pattern of "Galand Seven Halls" prevailed in temple buildings, such as Buddhist temples, Buddhist temples, monasteries, warehouses, mountain gates, Xijing and bathrooms.

After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, the layout and architectural style of temples in China were basically finalized. Its characteristic is that the layout of the temple sits south to north, and the temple is built on the north-south central axis, paying attention to symmetrical combination. However, the temple construction in different regions always adapts to local conditions, guides the situation and gives people a natural aesthetic feeling. The Buddhist temples in Han Dynasty have the same architectural style, rigorous planning and reasonable layout. Generally, it is the mountain gate, then the bell tower, the drum tower, the Heavenly King Hall, the Ursa Mahayana Hall, the East Ancestral Hall, and the West Ancestral Hall. The main hall (Ursa Mahayana Hall) is the Dharma Hall in turn, with Zen Hall, Zhaitang Hall on both sides, and finally the Tibetan Scripture Building. The buildings of Guangji Temple, Dazhong Temple, Jietai Temple in Beijing and Zen Temple in Henan and Hebei are all like this. Many temples in the south are built on the mountain, often taking advantage of the situation. The temple is composed of several courtyards, which is magnificent and large in scale, forming a sense of hierarchy. Because of the large space, many monasteries have facilities such as release ponds. Some temple buildings are very ingenious in conception, and the whole temple is connected with each other through building facilities such as halls, platforms, buildings, pavilions and corridors. There are flowers and trees, lotus ponds, fruit trees, nurseries, vegetable gardens and tea gardens in the courtyard, and the paths are often paved with goose warm stones, which not only embodies the artistic conception of "My road twists and turns, passing through a sheltered depression, flourishing and reaching a Buddhist temple", but also constitutes the external environment and internal architecture of the temple building, as well as the special nature formed among practitioners.

These places have now become famous historical sites and cultural tourist attractions all over China, which is why people often say that "there are many famous mountains and monks in the world". These historical and cultural heritages are the result of the efforts of monks in those years. If you have the opportunity to go to the four famous Buddhist mountains, such as Liang Qing, that is, Wutai Mountain, you can have a lot of feelings and gains, but you must try your best to appreciate the aesthetic atmosphere of Wutai Mountain Buddhist architecture. For example, the landmark building of Taihuai Town is the Lama Tower of Tibetan Buddhism in Yuan Dynasty. The building under the pagoda is Tayuan Temple, and there are several temples around the pagoda. On the top is Pushou Temple, a famous women's Dojo. Not far from the pagoda is Guangren Temple, also called Tang Shifang, a Tibetan Buddhist temple. The beauty you can enjoy along the way is different from the scenery in the four seasons or in the misty rain.

Besides, what are we going to see in these Buddhist holy places? Worship what? What do I mean by worshipping Buddha? This is definitely not idolatry, but a kind of spirit and thought that arouses our hearts through this symbolic form. For example, we worship Guanyin Bodhisattva because we want to worship her spirit of compassion, embody this spirit of compassion in our hearts, and bury the seeds of compassion in our bodies and minds. This is our ultimate goal of worshipping Guanyin Bodhisattva as believers. The Bodhisattva of Mount Emei worships his spirit of doing things, because he once swore to the Buddha that he must practice and express and realize his desire to become a Buddha with practical actions. Worship Manjusri Bodhisattva is to worship his wisdom and understanding attitude towards birth, illness and death, and to open the door to our intelligent life; The spirit of Bodhisattva in Jiuhua Mountain is very similar to the western spirit of "whoever I don't crucify". He once swore to the Buddha that after his death, the Buddha would spare all those who suffered in hell, that is, "if I don't go to hell, who will go to hell". I think this is also a place where Buddhism and Christianity can communicate and echo, shining with the charm and light of a great human thought. On the basis of this great spirit, we can find something that we can abide by together among different religions and civilizations, establish what Mr. Zhou called a new world order, and share common beliefs.

I remember reading a poem by Kipling, an English poet, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. This poem expressed his views on the opposition between East and West. For example, "Oh, the East is the East and the West is the West, so the old brothers will never get together again and never look back." But it is also a western writer, such as Goethe, a great German poet, who once wrote a poem with the same theme, but expressed a higher cultural concept and spiritual realm of harmonious coexistence between East and West. His main idea is:

Regardless of the East or the West, we should unite as brothers and sisters. Why can comparative literature and world literature follow Goethe's thoughts and concepts? I think from the anthropological point of view, Goethe is much greater than Kipling, because he expressed a deeper, broader and more harmonious human ideal.

(Text provided by China Buddhist Art Information Center/Buddhist Culture in Dust)