A reconsideration of the characteristics of Song-Ming Li Xue

Chunfeng Jin

doi:10.1007/s11466-010-0103-5

Abstract

By analyzing Zhu Xi and Zhang Zai’s three representative explanatory paradigms—that of Feng Youlan, Mou Zongsan and Zhang Dainian, the paper tries to show that studying Chinese philosophy in a Western way and emphasizing logical consistency will unavoidably lead to the defects of simplicity and partiality. In addition to Buddhism and Daoism, Song-Ming philosophy had also absorbed thoughts from the Pre-Qin, Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. The existence of multiple philosophical thoughts and their new synthesis lead to internal contradictions in Song-Ming philosophy and Li Xue 理学 (Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming dynasties). The contradiction between the doctrine of tiandao 天道 (the way in which the world runs) and that of xinxing 心性 (mind and human nature) was even sharper. Li Xue and Xin Xue also overlapped one another. The transition from the doctrine of tiandao to that of xinxing was a long journey. It was begun by Zhu Xi in his later years, and was finally completed by Wang Yangming. Unveiling the complexity and special characteristics of Song-Ming philosophy is a task for scholars on the history of Chinese philosophy.

Highlights

The *Saddharmaparikathā or “Sermons on the True Law” is a Buddhist homiletician’s guidebook composed probably around the 5th century ce
The artefact was discovered for modern scholarship by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana (1893–1963) and Dge ’dun chos ’phel (1903–1951) in 1934, during a somewhat hurried visit to Spos khang monastery in Gtsang province
The famous Indian scholar was able to study it for a short time during a subsequent trip, enough for a brief scholarly report, which was published in 1938.2 This is what he says in the introductory part of the said report: In my second trip to Tibet, I visited the monastery of Pökhang [i.e., Spos khang] where I saw three bundles of Sanskrit mss. in which I noticed an important work by the great poet Aśvaghôṣa

Summary

Introduction

The *Saddharmaparikathā or “Sermons on the True Law” is a Buddhist homiletician’s guidebook composed probably around the 5th century ce. The manuscript in question ( Ms) was kept in Tibetan custody for possibly as long as nine centuries, but it was apparently never translated or even engaged with until modern times. Last time, [i.e., on his third journey to Tibet] I tried my best to visit Pökhang, but I could not go. When the three volumes were brought, I found that one was Tridaṇḍamālā by Aśvaghôsha with a separate work named Parikathā by a later author.

Sāṅkṛtyāyana 1938

Kano 2016

Findings

33 See the forthcoming article “The Benefit of Cooperation