Buddhism in the Central China
(See the DVD)
Lung Men (or Long Men) Caves: (Read Chen, p. 170-176)
Yun GangCaves:
Maturity and Acceptance: Buddhism in Sui and Tang Dynasty
1. The dialogue between Confucianism and Buddhism (De Bary, p. 132-138):
1.1. Buddhism attracted Chinese because of its Metaphysics:
1.1.1. Confucianism deals with the problems in present.
1.1.2. Buddhism deals with the truth of realty.
1.2. Confucianism questions Buddhist faith:
1.2.1.The third party, Mou Zi (Mou Tuz) is involved to mediate the dispute between Confucianism and Buddhism:
Mou Zi: A Chinese logician.
1.2.2. Confucianists’ questions:
Why is Buddhism not mentioned in the Chinese Classics?
Why do Buddhist monks do injury to their bodies?
Why do monks not marry?
How can Chinese believe Buddhist doctrine of death and rebirth?
1.3. The main differences between Confucianism and Buddhism:
1.3.1. Filial Piety
1.3.2. Self
1.3.3. Present life and Death:
2. The debate between Daoism and Buddhism (Chen, p. 184):
Whether did Lao Zi (Lao Tzu) become the Buddha after he disappeared beyond the western passes?
3. Chinese Emperors and Buddhism:
3.1. The supporting from emperor Liang Wu in Liang dynasty (before Sui dynasty) let Buddhism highly developed in the Southern China.
3.2. Emperor Wen (Yang Chien) in Sui dynasty tried to unite the Northern Buddhism and Southern Buddhism.
3.3. Emperors Tai Tsung and Kao Tsung’s attitude toward Buddhism in early Tang dynasty:
3.3.1. He believed that he is Lao Zi’s offspring and stated that the stability of the empire rested on the merits of wu-wei.
3.3.2. Tai Tsung’s police to Buddhist: unfriendly.
3.4. Empress Wu Chao’s support of Buddhism:
3.4.1. Reasons: The Confucian system does not permit women to assume political control of the state. She needs to seek justification for her acts outside the Confucian classics.
3.4.2.The Mahayana sutras, Dharmakshema, chapter four and six record that Buddha had conversations with a female divinity and an India girl.
3.4.3. Buddhism flourished during the years 685-705 under her leadership.
4. Chinese royal family and Tibetan Buddhism:
4.1. Princess Wen Cheng married Tibetan King:
http://www.csupomona.edu/~zding/photo/indexphoto.htm
http://www.diamondway-buddhism.org/terms/music.htm
5. Buddhism and Tang poems and paintings
Li Bo’s Daosit poems:
李白
月下獨酌
花間一壺酒，
獨酌無相親；
舉杯邀明月，
對影成三人。
月既不解飲，
影徒隨我身；
暫伴月將影，
行樂須及春。
我歌月徘徊，
我舞影零亂；
醒時同交歡，
醉後各分散。
永結無情遊，
相期邈雲漢。
Five-character-ancient-verse
Li Bai
DRINKING ALONE WITH THE MOON
From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me --
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring....
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.
樂府
李白
子夜四時歌 秋歌
長安一片月，
萬戶擣衣聲；
秋風吹不盡，
總是玉關情。
何日平胡虜？
良人罷遠征。
Folk-song-styled-verse
Li Bai
A SONG OF AN AUTUMN MIDNIGHT
A slip of the moon hangs over the capital;
Ten thousand washing-mallets are pounding;
And the autumn wind is blowing my heart
For ever and ever toward the Jade Pass....
Oh, when will the Tartar troops be conquered,
And my husband come back from the long campaign!
七言古詩
李白
宣州謝朓樓餞別校書叔雲
棄我去者，
昨日之日不可留；
亂我心者，
今日之日多煩憂。
長風萬里送秋雁，
對此可以酣高樓。
蓬萊文章建安骨，
中間小謝又清發，
俱懷逸興壯思飛，
欲上青天覽明月。
抽刀斷水水更流，
舉杯銷愁愁更愁。
人生在世不稱意，
明朝散髮弄扁舟。
又作復
Seven-character-ancient-verse
Li Bai
A FAREWELL TO SECRETARY SHUYUN
AT THE XIETIAO VILLA IN XUANZHOU
Since yesterday had to throw me and bolt,
Today has hurt my heart even more.
The autumn wildgeese have a long wind for escort
As I face them from this villa, drinking my wine.
The bones of great writers are your brushes, in the School of Heaven,
And I am a Lesser Xie growing up by your side.
We both are exalted to distant thought,
Aspiring to the sky and the bright moon.
But since water still flows, though we cut it with our swords,
And sorrows return, though we drown them with wine,
Since the world can in no way answer our craving,
I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to a fishingboat.
七言絕句
李白
下江陵
朝辭白帝彩雲間，
千里江陵一日還。
兩岸猿聲啼不住，
輕舟已過萬重山。
Seven-character-quatrain
Li Bai
THROUGH THE YANGZI GORGES
From the walls of Baidi high in the coloured dawn
To Jiangling by night-fall is three hundred miles,
Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me
To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.
* * * * *
Du Pu and Bei Juyi’s Confucianist poems
* * * *
Wang Wei’s Chan poems:
王維
鹿柴
空山不見人，
但聞人語響。
返景入深林，
復照青苔上。
Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei
DEER-PARK HERMITAGE
There seems to be no one on the empty mountain....
And yet I think I hear a voice,
Where sunlight, entering a grove,
Shines back to me from the green moss.
王維
渭川田家
斜光照墟落，
窮巷牛羊歸。
野老念牧童，
倚杖候荊扉。
雉雊麥苗秀，
蠶眠桑葉稀。
田夫荷鋤立，
相見語依依。
即此羨閒逸，
悵然吟式微。
Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei
A FARM-HOUSE ON THE WEI RIVER
In the slant of the sun on the country-side,
Cattle and sheep trail home along the lane;
And a rugged old man in a thatch door
Leans on a staff and thinks of his son, the herdboy.
There are whirring pheasants? full wheat-ears,
Silk-worms asleep, pared mulberry-leaves.
And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders,
Hail one another familiarly.
...No wonder I long for the simple life
And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again!
王維
渭城曲
渭城朝雨浥輕塵，
客舍青青柳色新。
勸君更盡一杯酒，
西出陽關無故人。
Folk-song-styled-verse
Wang Wei
A SONG AT WEICHENG
A morning-rain has settled the dust in Weicheng;
Willows are green again in the tavern dooryard....
Wait till we empty one more cup --
West of Yang Gate there'll be no old friends.
王維
竹里館
獨坐幽篁裡，
彈琴復長嘯。
深林人不知，
明月來相照。
Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei
IN A RETREAT AMONG BAMBOOS
Leaning alone in the close bamboos,
I am playing my lute and humming a song
Too softly for anyone to hear --
Except my comrade, the bright moon.
Daoist and Zen Arts:
