A Study Of Pei Xiu's Buddhist Belief

Pei Xiu,the Prime Minister of Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty,was a devout Buddhist.He had deep contacts with such eminent monks as Chengguan,Zongmi,Weishan Lingyou and Huangbo Xiyun,which played an important role in the dissemination of their works and the determination of their historical status.He also participated in the writing of Buddhist classics and the construction of theories,leaving tens of thousands of words of works.Pei Xiu lived in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,which was the turning point of Chinese ideology and culture,and also the key period of Buddhism's transformation from theoretical Buddhism to Folk Buddhism in the process of Buddhism's Sinicization.He was not only the owner of political power,but also the elites of ancient Chinese knowledge and culture,who could intervene the imperial power's decision-making on Buddhism,and deeply understand the Buddhist philosophy.Pei Xiu's career changes,family background,Buddhist learning,communication between eminent monks,three religious thoughts,belief theory,etc.all of those not only reflect the fate and cultural origin of scholar officials in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,but also reflect the close relationship and basic trend of politics and culture,Buddhism and Confucianism,life and belief in that era.Pei Xiu was a key figure in the development of Buddhism in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,which had a direct impact on the history of Buddhism and the development of Chinese culture.However,there was still a lack of systematic and comprehensive research on Pei Xiu.As the two main lines of Pei Xiu's life,political career and Buddhist belief run through his whole life course.This paper also studies Pei Xiu begin with these two main lines.In the first chapter,Pei Xiu's life,official career and works are first examined,and the main experiences and works of Pei Xiu's life are restored in the complicated and trivial historical materials of the middle and late Tang Dynasty.According to the existing historical materials,Pei Xiu's life is divided into three periods: the period of his youth's hard study,the period of exploration and accumulation of his career,the period of his official position as prefect in Sanlin Town,the period of political peak as Prime Minister and the period of his old age.Because of the change of political status and the relationship between Buddhism,these five periods presented different appearances.Pei Xiu left many works,but also because of the confusion of historical materials,it is difficult to distinguish the true from the false.After the textual research and text analysis,it is known that Pei Xiu wrote nearly 30000 words of poetry,inscriptions,literary theory,memorial and so on,most of which are related toBuddhism.These poems still exist in the world because of the spread of Buddhism.The second chapter studies Pei Xiu's family background and the close relationship between his family background and Buddhist belief.Pei Xiu's Buddhist belief was formed in his childhood under the direct influence of the belief of his family members.As an adult,the influence of his family on his Buddhist belief still exists.He and his family members continued the Buddhist Association established by his father Pei Su,and the successive contacts between the official family and local Buddhism generations promoted the development of local Buddhism.The third chapter focuses on the communication between Pei Xiu and the eminent monks.In different political stages,Pei Xiu's communication with the eminent monks takes on totally different ways.In the first half of his life,he had contacts with famous Royal teachers and eminent monks.In the later half of his life,he communicated with local Zen monks in order to help build temples and expound Buddhism.His communication with them played an important role in spreading and carrying forward the Buddhist theory of eminent monks and promoting the restoration of local Zen preaching center after Huichang Buddhist disaster.Chapter four focuses on Pei Xiu's thought of that the three religions share the same theoretical thought.In the context of the integration of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,Pei Xiu put forward a unique thought that the three religions share the same theoretical thought.Pei Xiu received the traditional Confucian education in his childhood,and studied Buddhism and Buddhism in his communication with eminent monks.He took Confucianism and Buddhism as the main body and took part in Taoist thoughts.He integrated the characters of Confucianism,Buddhism,Taoism and saints,and took the Buddhism philosophy of mind and nature as the core of the three religions,and the salvation of the world as the function of the Tao.He realized the integration of religious liberation of life and Confucian practice of the world.The fifth chapter tries to discuss Pei Xiu's Buddhist belief formation and his Buddhist belief structure and his Buddhist practice.The formation of Pei Xiu's Buddhist belief is closely related to his official career changes,the structure of his belief and the logic structure of his inner transcendence are also closely related to his political identity.In his later years,Pei Xiu's taking home as a temple event was the last landmark event in his practice of Buddhist belief.Taking this as the center,he investigated the psychological,political,economic,belief and other comprehensive reasons behind the action of taking home as a temple among scholar bureaucrats in the middle and late Tang Dynasty,as well as the interaction between these factors and the impact on Chinese temple culture.The contradiction between political idealand spiritual liberation is one of the important problems that ancient Chinese scholar officials tried to solve all the time.Pei Xiu realized the convenience of belief practice and the depth of philosophy theory,realized the simultaneous development of Government Religious management and personal belief,completed the docking of self-consciousness and Confucian ethics.It also showed that the scholar officials played an important role in the Sinicization of Buddhism,and the integration of the three religions,and the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism,and the relationship between politics and religion.