The Idioms "Cheng Men Li Xue" And Zen Buddhism's "Li Xue Duan Bi":An Exposition Of Their Development And Misinterpretation

The idiom "Cheng Men Li Xue"(roughly,'standing in the snow at the master's door')is known to people all around China,and has been seen as a model of Confucian respect for teachers.Coincidentally,there is also a story from Zen Buddhism,entitled“Hui Ke Li Xue Duan Bi"(rougly,Hui Ke stands in the snow and severs his arm),which shares a common element:Li Xue(standing in the snow).By placing into apposition the process of development of the two stories over time,this article shows the change of "Li Xue" in the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism in order to explore the broader relationship between the two.The first part deals with the similarity between Cheng Men Li Xue and the Zen story,and argues that Cheng Men Li Xue basically comes from Zen,but that as Neo Confucianism gradually became orthodox,the implication and connotation of the story constantly changed.The second part,discusses the spread of the story Cheng Men Li Xue against the background of the rise of Neo Confucianism,and examines the errors generated in the process of transmission.It mainly revolves around an analysis of the discrepancies in three parts of the story,namely,the order of appearance of two characters,You and Yang;the passage describing the 'sitting with closed eyes' as opposed to 'sleeping with closed eyes';and a discrepancy concerning standing in the snow versus standing in a room.This raises the question of the authenticity of Cheng Men Li Xue,which is based on things like the absence of a definite chrono logical setting,the thought and intention of the author Yin Tun's,and the textual criticism practices of people of that time..The third part mainly analyzes the story of Li Xue Duan Bi,by placing the formation and evolution of the story of Hui Ke in the context of the history of Zen.First,it examines the earliest origins of the story,and then how things developed and changed in the Tang Dynasty.The commonly known form of story finally developed at the end of the Tang Dynasty,and its spread in Song,Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties was also influenced by different factors.