A Study On Buddhist Thought Of Shandong Monks And Celebrities In Jin And Song Dynasties

During the Jin and Song Dynasties,the development of Buddhism in Shandong was influenced by many aspects of the environment.From a political point of view,the emperor’s worship of Buddhism provided strong support for it;from a cultural point of view,Confucianism and Taoism brought dual influences to it;from a social point of view,war turmoil cultivated rich soil for it.Under the combined effect of these environments,Shandong Buddhism developed gradually and steadily.From the slow development in the Western Jin Dynasty to the further development in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Sixteen Kingdoms period,and then to the rapid development in the Song and Wei Dynasties,the number of monks and nuns in Shandong’s perspective had continued to increase,the number of believers had continued to grow,and the scale of monasteries had continued to expand.Buddhism emerged a kind of good development trend.During the development of Shandong Buddhism,many famous monks appeared,some of whom were from Shandong and some who were not from Shandong.Among the famous monks from Shandong,Zhu Qian was the most famous and representative.As one of the representatives of "Six Schools and Seven Schools",he applied the metaphysical thinking mode to the Buddhist Prajna-kong concept,and used "nothing" to solve "empty",which reflected the way the monks understood Prajna’s "empty nature" at that time.Among the famous non-Shandong monks,Seng Rui had the most outstanding Buddhist attainments.His ideological content was very broad,and he had experienced the transformation from Prajna "emptiness" to Nirvana "existence",which not only represented the shift of the monk’s ideological focus at that time,but also reflected the Trends in the development of Chinese Buddhist theory.In addition to famous monks,many celebrities from Shandong also emerged during this period,some of whom worshiped Buddhism and some who opposed Buddhism.They expressed different views on Buddhist teachings.Among the famous Buddhists,Yan Yanzhi was more representative.He explained Buddhist teachings on the basis of traditional Chinese culture,and put forward the "retribution theory" based on induction,the unconventional "physical and spiritual concept",and the "sage theory" highlighting the saints,they had high historical value.Among the anti-Buddhist celebrities,He Chengtian was more representative.He criticized Buddhist teachings from the standpoint of materialism,and challenged Buddhism three times,namely,criticizing "karma" with "far from near","atheism" to refuted the "theory of immortality",and "the theory of three talents" opposed to the "theory of all living beings",they reflected the self-defense consciousness of Chinese local culture in the face of foreign cultural threats,and was a valuable asset in the development of Buddhism.Any kind of thought had its own characteristics,and the Buddhist thought of Shandong monks and celebrities,as an organic part of the history of Chinese Buddhist thought,also had its ideological characteristics.Due to differences in Buddhist attainments,Professional level,and depth of diligence,monks and celebrities had different focus on Buddhist thought.On the whole,the Buddhist thoughts of famous monks were mainly concentrated on the level of pure speculation and pure theory.Their way of thinking had changed from metaphysics to middle view,the content of their thoughts has shifted from Prajna "emptiness" to Nirvana "existence".In contrast,the Buddhist thoughts of celebrities mainly focus on Buddhist teachings that were contrary to traditional Chinese culture.Their way of thinking achieved an organic unity of reality and transcendence,and their ideological content achieved an organic unity of struggle and fusion.These were of great significance to the study of Chinese Buddhist thought.