Two Paths Of Han Yu

There are a lot of controversy about Han Yu in history, especially centre on his theory about anti-Buddhist. Some people think that he has made a great contribution to Confucian thoughts. And some people make a fierce criticism on him. There are two parties of viewing on Han Yu,one is respect and support him,and the other is opposed to him. This situation is caused by various factors, but two kinds of attitude should not be ignored. One is based on the neo-Confucianism, which is removing Han Yu out and judging Han Yu’s view of Buddhism. The other is judging Han Yu dismiss the relation of Confucianism and Buddhism in TangDynasty,which is divide into two parties:Han Yu’s anti-Buddhist and revering Confucianism. Around the Mid-Tang Dynasty, this paper is based on Han Yu’s own horizon, especially the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism at the end of eighth Century and early ninth Century. After the cataclysmic An Shi Rebellion, accompanied by a serious disorder of national political authority, the ideological circle also undergonc a dramatic intellectual shock. In the late8th century, Han Yu was faced with the collision of Confucianism and Non-Confucianism culture. In the era of Han Yu, with the swelling of Buddhism and Taoism, the Confucian thought that the balance between Confucianism and Buddhism reached the brink of collapse, so it was an unavoidable historical choice to adjust the relation between Confucianism and Buddhism. As a Confucian, Han Yu chosen the extreme cultural proposition rationally, when he was faced with the active ideological circle. He argued that the government should restore the authority of Confucianism in the political and ideological, reject Buddhism and Taoism, and rebuild the single pattern of the world guided by the Confucianism. The unified cultural proposition of Han Yu was not only as a response to reality stimulation, but also was actively break up the theory of dual structure universally accepted by the community since the middle ages. Han Yu extended the originally single proposition "Opposed to Buddhism for compound proposition "Opposed to Buddhism and Taos". He put a heterogeneous extend into homogeneous proposition. Han Yu’s "anti-Buddha", the expansion of the scope, it is in the tang dynasty Confucian bound to reshape the single pattern of the world in the field of thought are characterized. The expansion of the scope in Han Yu’s "anti-Buddha" showed Confucianism in Mid-Tang Dynasty require to rebuild the ideological circle of dominance. Different from other scholar-bureaucrat groups in considering the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism, Han Yu set the the first value that the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism only exist contradictions. So, Han Yu argued that we must adjust the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism and must choose a negative way. Taking consideration of various factors, and after rational thinking,Han Yu drew his conclusion about the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism.In this paper, starting from the third part discusses the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism from the perspective of Han Yu. His judgment of the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism was unique, which was different from other Confucian in the Mid-Tang Dynasty. Han Yu only valued the differences between Confucianism and Buddhism, but he deliberately ignore their similarities. He analyzed the conflict between Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian from two angles of endogenous and exogenous, and deliberately make the contradictions between Confucianism and Buddhism cann’t be reconciled. In the fourth part, Han Yu’s" anti-Buddhist" was mainly around two aspects of endogenous and exogenous, which was based on the cognition of two kinds of conflicts between Confucianism and Buddhism. The main idea of Han Yu’s Confucianism was against Buddhism around two aspects of endogenous and exogenous. On the face of it, Han Yu, Buddhism and Confucianism were two different things. Apparently, Han Yu’s" anti-Buddhist" and respected Confucianism were two different things. In fact in the view of Han Yu, there was no difference in the critique of Buddhism and reconstruction of Confucianism. It was the two sides of the same problem. He made an unprecedented criticism about Buddhism from two aspects fiercely. One way focused on the blow to Buddhism, which maily wanted to break up Buddhism, so in reality, the government would choose specific strategy and policy. The other way chose to enrich the Confucian themselves and strengthen their competitiveness. When dealing with the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism, Han Yu combined destruction with reconstruction logically. Since Han Yu, the criticism of Buddhism has become more and more deeply. He thought that Confucianism was the only channel connecting the secular world and the spiritual world. In the real world, he changed the tradition of limiting the Buddhism from Tang Dynasty. Since then, Confucianism changed the religious policy from limiting the excessive development of Buddhism to destructive absolutely hit. In the spiritual world, Han Yu tried to find out the appropriate resources from the classics of Confucianism to manage the public. Han Yu pushed the Confucian to highly abstract level, built the theory of "Dao" firstly, and illustrated the legitimacy of Confucianism.And also he elevated the status of the Mencius. He also combined the inner ethical order of the Confucian with the external academic system specification. From two aspects of endogenous and exogenous, Han Yu pushed the "anti-Buddhism" career of Mid-Tang Dynasty to a new height. This change meant that Confucianism from valuing the etiquette system to attaching importance to people’s intrinsic value norms and ethical demands. So Han Yu opened a new era. Of course, the road of "anti-Buddhism" of Han Yu had the strong limitation of the times and the color transition, and also there were lots of contradictions in the two ways. To some extent, different attitude toward Han Yu was derived from the limitations of the "anti-Buddha" internal structure itself.