Confucianism is the ruling ideology of China feudal society since the Han Dynasty. It reflects the economic and political requirements of China's feudal society, so it has always been in a dominant position as an official philosophy. Confucianism first came into being at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, and it was a school in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Therefore, what we generally call "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism" mainly refers to Confucian education, and Confucianism can never be regarded as a religion.
Buddhism, which originated in India, is quite different from China's inherent ideology and culture in many aspects due to the different cultural traditions and social backgrounds. But Buddhism not only understands the importance of "do as the Romans do", but also has its own internal mechanism to adapt to the environment. Therefore, after it was introduced into China, it took "randomness" and "convenience" as its theoretical basis and paid great attention to adapting to China's original ideology and culture. It is often said that since the autobiography of Buddhism began, it began a process of continuous China. From the ideological and theoretical point of view, the China of Buddhism is to a great extent the channelization and Confucianism of Buddhism, and the channelization and Confucianism of foreign Buddhism were mainly manifested through the translation of Buddhist scriptures at first.
On the other hand, Taoism is the indigenous religion in China. It was formally founded in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and its ideological origin can be traced back to the immortal witchcraft thought in the Warring States period and even the ancient folk witchcraft. Taoism pursues immortality, while Buddhism pursues immortality and nirvana.
Confucianism stresses the accession to the WTO, preaches the way of peace, that is, the so-called righteousness, sincerity, housekeeping, governing the country and leveling the world, and attaches importance to the governance of the real society, rather than pursuing the illusory world of Buddhism and Taoism, which has caused a fundamental theoretical conflict between Confucianism and Buddhism and Taoism. Buddhism advocates the theory that everything in life is bitter and everything in the real world is empty, and advocates breaking through the world, becoming a monk and becoming a monk, which is in direct contradiction with the ethics and filial piety advocated by Confucianism. Therefore, once Buddhism was introduced into China, it was resisted and rejected by Confucianism. The development of Buddhism in the whole feudal society of our country was always accompanied by the struggle with Confucianism. Although there are fundamental theoretical contradictions in Confucianism and Taoism, Taoism is, after all, a native religion in China and produced in the cultural atmosphere of feudal society in China. Therefore, the political ethics of Confucianism has long been incorporated into Taoism, thus greatly reconciling the ideological conflicts between Confucianism and Taoism. In the history of China's thought, although there was a dispute between Confucianism and Taoism, it was far less fierce than that between Confucianism and Buddhism.
Of course, in addition to contradictions, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism also have mutual influence, mutual absorption, complement each other and jointly play a social role. Confucianism is the ruling ideology of feudal society and the main tool for the ruling class to maintain feudal order, while Buddhism and Taoism are its powerful assistants and supplements. The former began to build, govern and consolidate feudal society from its active entry into WTO; The latter set out from negative nativism, eased social contradictions and maintained feudal social order. They complement each other and promote each other, maintaining the ancient Chinese empire. This determines the deep social foundation of their unity.
Taoism absorbed the Confucian political ethics theory as its own dogma. Buddhism, on the other hand, tries its best to say that its teachings do not violate Confucianism, and at the same time, it follows the footsteps of Taoism and absorbs the Confucian theory of Confucianism, so that its thoughts can be integrated and coordinated with Confucianism. In the past, Confucianism always emphasized the preaching of political ethics and lacked profound philosophical thoughts. In this respect, Buddhism and Taoism, especially Buddhism, have rich and profound philosophical thoughts. Therefore, in order to enrich their own philosophy, Confucianism not only criticized Buddhism and Taoism, but also fully absorbed their useful philosophical materials to enrich and develop their own philosophical system. Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties is an outstanding representative in this respect. Therefore, we often regard Neo-Confucianism as the product of the confluence of the three religions, which is indeed reasonable.
Historically, in the ideological field, the dispute between Confucianism and Buddhism mainly revolved around the following issues: the nativism of Buddhism and the dispute between Confucianism and Buddhism.
Buddhism stresses becoming a monk and practicing, which contradicts the Confucian way of loyalty to the monarch and filial piety to the father. As early as the Han Dynasty, when Buddhism was first introduced, it was recorded in the Theory of Reason and Confusion: "Q:' According to the filial piety, parents who suffer from skin lesions dare not do so. ..... Today, the shaman shaved his head, which violated the sage's words and filial piety. ""This accusation is based on Confucian filial piety, and it is against Confucian filial piety to think that Buddhism becomes a monk and does not abandon its descendants.
As for Buddhism's idea of becoming a monk and not paying tribute to the king, it directly conflicts with the Confucian idea of loyalty to the king, and even causes a big debate between Confucianism and Buddhism about whether Samoans should pay tribute to the king during the Eastern Jin Dynasty. At that time, Huan Xuan and others advocated that shamans should respect the king and abide by Confucian ethics. Hui Yuan, a monk, wrote On Shaman's Disrespect for the King in order to safeguard the dignity and teachings of Buddhism, in order to answer the challenge of Huan Xuan and others to Buddhism. Hui Yuan thinks that Buddhism has the difference between being at home and becoming a monk: "To practice Buddhism at home is to be a Hue person.
Therefore, there is heaven's love and a gift from God. "Being a monk requires ambition, and becoming vulgar requires enlightenment.". ""When you become vulgar, you shouldn't be polite to the world, but when you live in seclusion, you should be noble. "Therefore, you should not pay tribute to the king. Hui Yuan believes that this does not violate the Confucian way of loyalty and filial piety. " If a person is virtuous (that is, a person gets a positive result), then he will be in harmony with his six relatives and he will move around the world. Although he is not a prince, he has also cooperated with the emperor, and he will give birth in Iraq. "Therefore, Buddhism is" the weight of the world, not against its filial piety; Respect the Lord without losing respect. "The debate between Buddhism and Confucianism about alienation and summer.
Confucianism is the Chinese nation's own thought, and Buddhism is a foreign religion. Therefore, Confucianism accuses Buddhism of being the religion of Yidi, which is only suitable for Yidi area and not suitable for China. This argument also originated from the Han Dynasty. "On Reason and Confusion" records: "Confucius said:' It is better to die in the summer than to have a monarch. "Mencius laughed at Chen Xiang's skill in learning Xu You and said,' I have heard of turning summer into summer, but I have never heard of turning summer into summer.' My son's weak crown learned the Tao of Yao and Kong, but now he has given up and studied the technique of changing places (Buddhism). Is it confusing? "This is the division of Confucian household Yi Xia.