| After detailed analyses of Ming Shi and Ming Seng and their interactions described in Shi Shuo Xin Yu, the article believes in a ideologically active and academically open context as Wei & Jin, Ming Shi and Ming Seng embodied the two major thoughts at the time, i.e. metaphysics and prajna, and virtually facilitated interactions between the two by exchanging ideas personally, leading to a dominant cultural phenomenon of the Eastern Jin Dynasty– confluence of Ming Shi and Ming Seng, and of metaphysics and prajna. Prajna evolved from translating Buddhist sutras, to"exegesis rendering", then to"Six Schools and Seven Theories", each with unique Ming Shi & Ming Seng interaction. With similarities to metaphysical thinking, Prajna became popular at the time, where some credits should go to earlier and ongoing prevalence of metaphysics. At this period, increasing Ming-Shitizaion of Ming Seng was a predominant rhythm in interactions of the two groups. Growing influence of metaphysics led to greater interests in Prajna sutras and doctrines among Ming Shi stratum; at the same time, Ming Seng, by leveraging their social status and networking activities, successfully penetrated Buddhism into upper classes with growing influence. Ming Seng with Ming Shi origins (i.e. Buddhism believers among Ming Shi, who at last become monks), with their profound Confucian cultivation and proficient metaphysical knowledge, helped bridge metaphysics with Prajna, and traditional Chinese thinking with Buddhism. Ming Shi turning into Ming Seng was a trait of the period, as well as a problem along with Buddhism localization in China. After Prajna was introduced, blind spots in metaphysical theories, created out of political reasons, were gradually eliminated, and the enduring and puzzling controversies between nature and norms, and spiritual needs and physical joy, hit a favorable turn. The Treatise of Self-transformation of Guo Xiang... |
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