The Great Monk Zonggao’s Study On The Zen Buddhist Theory Of Literati And Officialdom

As a famous monk of Song dynasty, master Zonggao suffered many a setbackduring his life and closely exchanged with scholar-officials and cared for hiscountry and common people. At that time, along with Confucianism and Taoism,Buddism played an important role in exploring the nature of infinite universe.In fact, Master Zonggao was influenced by Confucianism when he was young, hisbuddhist theory came not from the combination of Buddism and Confucianismand Taoism, but from the persuit of life and the truth of universe. The reformof the Zen lineage led by the sixth patriarch, Huineng who popularized thewisdom of Buddha and encouraged the buddhist practitioners to believe thatthey can become buddha through practice, which made traditional buddhismpractical.In Song dynasty, due to its vitality and strength, Zen Buddhism attracteda lot of scholar-officials. As a form of existence, religion couldn’t break awayfrom politic and culture. Inherited the thoughts of the sixth patriarch,Zonggao put forward a view that Bodhi Heart is loyalty for literati andofficialdom who wanted to run the country well and give people peace andsecurity to be free from the secular world, which is an appropriate way toconnect Confucianism with Zen Buddhism.This paper is all about the great monk Zonggao’s view of the literati andofficialdom learning Zen. It has three parts: The first part talks about thereality basis and theoretical basis. The reality is the background ofscholar-officials’studying buddhism thoughts in Song dynasty and the livingpredicament of literati and officialdom. The theoretical basis mainly areVimalakirti Sutra and Avatamsaka Sutra. the second part expounds the essenceof Zen, that is, Bodhi Heart is loyalty. the first section is developed by thetheory “let the nature take its course” and “Bodhi Heart is loyalty”. Thesecond section is practice. Begin with Zonggao’s critique of Mozhao Chan, thecontent and method of Kanhua Chan are sorted out. The first section of thethird part is theoretical background which is stretched by stating thehistorical status of Zen. The second section is about reflection and inspirationthrough questioning Zonggao’s zen theory and summing up Zen theories ofliterati and officialdom.