East Asian Philosophy: A Brief Introduction

East Asian Philosophy: A Brief Introduction By D. E. Osto 2017 Ashhurst, New Zealand © D. E. Osto, all rights reserved Contents 1. Introduction 2. Daoism I: Laozi 3. Daoism II: Zhuangzi 4. Confucianism I: Confucius 5. Confucianism II: Mencius and Xunzi 6. Buddhism I: India and China 7. Buddhism II: Huayan 8. Buddhism III: Chan 9. Neo-Confucianism 10. Modern Neo-Confucianism 11. Buddhism IV: Dōgen 12. The Kyoto School 1. Introduction East Asian philosophy is a truly vast topic spanning thousands of years and covering an enormous geographic, cultural and linguistic range. Needless to say, one could easily devote one’s entire life to studying any one of the major philosophical schools found in East Asia. However, even the most advanced expert in a particular area of East Asian thought needs to begin somewhere. This book is meant to serve as an entry point for the English reader into the vast and profound ocean of East Asian philosophy. As a brief introduction to the subject, it unavoidably excludes much; nevertheless, I endeavor in the following pages to provide the basic contours of the three major philosophical streams found in East Asia: Daoism (Taoism), Confucianism, and Buddhism. In order to limit further the scope of the present text, I focus on the origins of these traditions in China, and trace some of their later developments in Japan. For Daoism, I limit my treatment to the classic texts of Laozi and Zhuangzi. When dealing with Confucianism, I begin my discussion with the thought of Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi. In later chapters, I also discuss the development of Neo-Confucianism in its medieval and modern forms. The final two chapters turn to Japan and investigate the Zen philosophy of Dōgen and the modern Kyoto School. Thus the treatment herein is hardly exhaustive. Specialists in the area may find my choice of topics somewhat idiosyncratic. As an apology to such a criticism, I merely point out the inevitability of excluding vast tracks of philosophical territory in such a brief introduction. Given this unavoidability, I resort somewhat for partial cherry picking of East Asian philosophies in order to do some justice to particular schools of thought, rather than choosing simply to skim across the surface of many more systems in a quixotic quest for completeness. Historical Background According to contemporary research Chinese civilization dates back as earlier as the fourteenth century B.C.E., with the beginning of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1300–1045 B.C.E.). We know from numerous oracle bones made from bovine scapula or tortoise shell that the aristocratic religion of the time centered on the king and his relationship with his departed ancestors. The king’s ancestors were believed to serve under a god called Shangdi (Shang Ti),** or the High Lord, in a heavenly realm parallel to the earthly court. Shangdi possessed the power to control or influence natural and human phenomena such as the weather, crops, military campaigns and the health of the king. The king’s deceased ancestors could intercede on the king’s behalf in Shangdi’s heavenly court. Within this heavenly realm there were also thought to exist lesser gods that personified the powers of mountains, rivers and other natural features. In order to please their ancestors and Shangdi, Shang kings performed elaborate sacrificial offerings. To check the success of these offerings and to predict future events, divination was employed. Divination was practiced by writing questions on the shoulder bone of cattle or the bottom bone of tortoises, then placing hot irons into the bone and  Transcriptions used in this book follows pin-yin style. The older Wade-Giles style is often shown in parentheses or after a slash, i.e. Dao (Tao), Laozi (Lao Tsu), Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), etc. ** Important vocabulary when first introduced will be in bold print. noting the way they cracked. Some of the most common questions used in divination were about the sacrifices (whether they were performed properly and received with favor), military campaigns and hunting expeditions. In this way, Shang kings functioned as crucial links between Heaven and Earth. Shang religion demonstrates a number of themes and patterns that continue to occur throughout the history of Chinese thought. One of these is the use of sacrifices as a ritual means of recognizing the higher authority of the gods and ancestors and providing for their needs. Another is the use of divination as a means of contacting the gods and ancestors to make sure that they are pleased and will act with favor. A third theme is the emphasis Shang religion placed on ancestor worship. This continues to be a central concept throughout Chinese history. In the middle of the eleventh century B.C.E., the Shang dynasty was overthrown by the Zhou. Initially Zhou culture was not as advanced as the Shang, but the Zhou kings quickly adopted aspects of the Shang culture. The most important religious innovation of the Zhou was the development of the concept of Heaven (Tian) as the supreme deity. At first the Zhou seemed to look upon Heaven and Shangdi as the same being. With time Heaven came to possess more of an impersonal aspect as a moral force in the universe. Zhou kings believed that they conquered the Shang due to their moral superiority according to the Will of Heaven. Zhou kings considered themselves Sons of Heaven, a term that continued to be used by Chinese emperors until the beginning of the twentieth century. They alone had the right and duty to rule and perform the required annual sacrifices to Heaven. The belief that certain families had a divine right to rule based on their virtue (de / te) came to be understood as the Mandate of Heaven (tianming). When a ruling family’s virtue declined, Heaven withdrew its mandate for their rule and they were overthrown. In the Classical period (see below), the Mandate of Heaven became the basis for the Confucian theory of dynastic change that explained how the moral authority to rule can pass from one family line to another. A number of other important religious/philosophical concepts developed during the early or Western Zhou Dynasty, which remained central to Chinese thinking throughout its history. One of these was the belief in a naturalistic universe. The universe was thought to be governed by certain natural laws without there being a lawgiver or theistic god existing outside of the natural order. The regularity of nature could be witnessed in the cyclic processes of day and night and the seasons, the process of growth and decline, such as the cycles of the moon, and the bipolarity of nature. The ancient Chinese understood this bipolarity of nature in terms of two opposite but complimentary forces that are ultimately responsible for both cyclical changes and changes of growth and decline. These bipolar forces are known as yin and yang. Yin is the dark, negative, cold, passive, receptive, yielding, soft, female force in the universe; while yang is the bright, positive, hot, active, creative, hard, masculine force. Every type of transformation in the natural world from the changes of the seasons to the tensing and relaxing of muscles in the human body were understood as a dynamic interplay of yin and yang. This forces come to play a central role in the classic book of Chinese divination, the Book of Changes (Yijing / I Ching). Yin-Yang The ancient Chinese called the harmonious interaction of yin and yang forces in nature The Way (Dao / Tao). The basic meaning of Dao is simply a road, a path or a way. In Chinese religious thought it comes to have two primary meanings as The Way ś one meaning is ethical or religious truth; the other is as the ultimate metaphysical truth underlying the reality of all appearances. The first meaning becomes important to the Confucians; the second is the central religious concept of the Daoists. A corollary to the belief in yin and yang is the art of feng-shui. Sometimes called geomancy in English, the term indicates a system of divination based on the principles of ying and yang for determining auspicious locations for human dwellings and burial tombs. According to feng-shui, yang (called the white tiger ) is identified with the right, east, spring and the rising sun. Yin (called the azure dragon ) is understood to be the left, west, autumn and the setting sun. Through analyzing the topography of different locations, the feng-shui expert is able to determine the luckiest geographical spot and orientation for dwellings, temples, shrines, tombs and even whole cities. For example, every Chinese temple and ancient city has its main entrance to the south according to the basic principles of feng-shui. Another key concept in Chinese religion is the belief in gods and spirits. As already mentioned, the ancient Chinese believed in the existence of gods and ancestors in Heaven. Often deceased ancestors would be elevated to the status of gods. In addition to these, popular Chinese thought maintained the existence of countless other spirits and ghosts inhabiting animals, plants, stones, mountains, rivers, trees, etc. Some of these spirits were malevolent and therefore charms, exorcisms, incense and prayers were need as protection against them. The human soul was thought to be divided into a yin and yang component. The yin component of the soul (po) is its material or earthy aspect, which resides in the grave after the death of the body. If properly buried and sacrificed to, the po soul rests peacefully; if not, it could become a demon, devil or ghost (kuei) and cause problems. Also, when properly buried and sacrificed to, the spiritual or yang aspect of the soul (hun) resides in Heaven and bestows blessings upon the surviving family members. These popular beliefs about the human soul would later be modified according to Buddhist notions of karma and rebirth. In 771 B.C.E., the Zhou king was assassinated during an attack on the capital, Chang’an, by non-Chinese nomads. Thereafter, the capital moved eastward to the city of Luoyang in the Yellow River valley. With this move began a period of both political conflict and philosophical ferment known as the Classical Period. The first half of this period became known as the Spring and Autumn period (722–479 B.C.E.) after the Spring and Autumn Annals supposedly revised by Confucius. The second half is known as the Warring States period (47Ś–221 B.C.E.). During the Warring States period, the power of the Zhou kings began to decline and many feudal lords waged war against each other to extend their political power. The collapse of the Zhou system generated both a theoretical and practical problem for Chinese intellectuals. The first was, If Heaven has a moral will, how can it allow such violence and suffering to continue? The second was, How can political order and social harmony be restored? These questions gave rise to roughly a half a dozen major schools of thought such as Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, and Daoism. Among these Confucianism and Daoism became the most important and influential. Chapter Outline Chapter 2 is about Daoism (Taoism). Philosophical Daoism (Taoism) or Classical Daoism is often opposed in scholarly literature to religious Daoism. In Chinese, the term associated with philosophical Daoism is the School of the Way (Daojia), and the term used for religious Daoism is Teaching of the Way (Daojao). Philosophical Daoism or the School of the Way centers on two classic literary works of the ancient period: the Daodejing (Tao Te Ching), The Classic of the Way and its Virtue, and the Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu). According to legend, the Master Lao (Laozi / Lao Tzu), an older contemporary of Confucius, composed the Daodejing at the request of a border guard before he left the world to be a mountain recluse. The modern view is that Laozi is most likely a legendary rather than a historical figure, and that the Daodejing is a composite work composed orally by different authors over more than a century. Chapter 3 explores the philosophy of Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu.) Unlike Laozi, Zhuangzi appears to have been a real person who lived at the same time as the Confucian philosopher Mencius in the third century B.C.E. Unlike the Daodejing, Zhuangzi’s text, known simply as the Zhuangzi, is not concerned with political matters, but rather focuses on the individual’s mystical relationship with the Dao. Its style is often elegant, humorous and profound. According to Burton Watson (1964: 3), the central theme of the Zhuangzi may be summed up in a single wordś freedom. In order to be free, one’s conventional values must be discarded. A truly liberated person is free from conventional judgments about suffering, poverty, wealth, fame, success or failure. The fourth chapter is about Confucius, the founder of Confucianism. Born in 551 B.C.E., in the state of Lu, Confucius was generally known as Kong Zhongni or by the honorific title Kongzi ( Master Kong ). Confucius is the Latinized version of another of his titles (Kongfuzi) invented in the seventeenth century by Jesuit missionaries. Legend has it that Confucius’ father died when he was three, leaving him and his mother extremely poor. Confucius is said to have established a private school at the age of 30. At the age of 51, he was appointed as the head of the Zhongdu county of Lu. Later he was promoted to Minister of Industry, Minister of Public Security, and acting Prime Minister of Lu. After offending the most powerful noble in Lu, Ji Huanzi, he was forced to leave Lu at the age of 55. Later in life, Confucius concentrated his energies on revising the classics. The revised classics were not his own works, but through his revisions they became regarded as such. Confucius did not write any systematic treatise on his thoughts, but his students compiled a collection of his sayings into a book known as the Lun-yu (Analects). This book became the most widely known and influential of the Chinese classics, and functioned something like the Bible of Confucianism. Chapter Five deals with the first real Confucian philosopher, Master Meng (Mengzi) or Mencius (c. 372-289 BCE), and his philosophical adversary, Xunzi (c. 325-238 BCE). Mencius is said to have been a disciple of Zi Si, the grandson of Confucius. Like Confucius he wandered around trying to get kings to put his political views into practice without success. His thoughts were compiled in a work known as the Mencius (Mengzi). The two main themes of the Mencius are human nature (ren xing) and humane government (ren zheng). Mencius believed in the innate goodness of human nature. He states, all men have compassionate hearts. Xunzi (Hsün Tzu) regarded himself as a disciple of Confucius and Confucius’ disciple Zhong Gong. Xunzi had a number of opposing views to Mencius. His thinking was much more naturalistic, while Mencius was more idealistic. He believed that Nature is bad. Its goodness is artificial. He thought that a person’s moral concepts were acquired after birth and not innate. Xunzi did not believe that people deliberately violate the rules of morality, but that they have no natural conception of morality at all. In other words, they are morally blind by nature. Chapter 6 outlines the development of Buddhism in India and its transplantation to China. Mahāyāna Buddhism began to filter into China from the first century of the Common Era, but it took several centuries before Buddhism became integrated into Chinese society and culture. The Buddhist scriptures from India were written in Indic languages (various prakrits and Sanskrit) and therefore needed to be translated into Chinese. Often teams of translators worked together under imperial sponsorship. One of the most famous Chinese translators was Kumarajiva (350–413), who led a team in the capital city of Chang’an. Numerous pilgrims journeyed from China to India in search of scriptures such as Faxian (fourth and fifth century) and Xuanzang (seventh century). Beginning in the fourth century a number of Buddhist schools had emerged in China. Although these schools found their inspiration from Indian Buddhist scriptures and religious concepts, they developed into distinctively Chinese systems. Four of the most important were Tiantai, Huayan (Hua-yen), Pure Land and Chan (Zen). Tiantai and Huayan were both elaborate philosophical systems; whereas Pure Land emphasized faith and Chan stressed meditation. This book focuses on the teachings of Huayan and Zen. Chapter 7 investigates the Buddhist philosophy known as Huayan. The most creative and definitive period in the history of the Huayan School was the era of the first three patriarchs during the 7th century. The concepts of noumenon (li) and phenomena (shih) are probably the most important terms in Huayan thought. Noumenon is a term borrowed from Western philosophy to translate the Chinese term li or principle. For Immanuel Kant, a noumenon or thing in itself” (German Ding an sich) is an unknowable, indescribable reality that underlies observed phenomena. In Huayan Buddhism the noumenon or principle of every event/object (phenomena) is its emptiness. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, emptiness means that all phenomena (shih) lack independent existence. Therefore, declaring that all things have emptiness as their true nature is the same as saying that all things are interdependent. This is the Huayan notion of relativity. Much of Huayan thought, such as the Four Realms of Reality and the Ten Mysterious Gates, are ways of describing the mutual interpenetration of the ultimate realm (noumenon) with phenomena, and the nonobstruction of phenomema with each other due to their emptiness. The First Patriarch Tu Shun taught that the all in one, one in all perspective of Huayan as the culmination of Buddhist thinking. The most famous Huayan philosopher, the third Patriarch Fazang (Fa-tsang), wrote many works systematizing and elaborating the teachings of his predecessors. He is sometimes considered the school’s true founder. He was the personal teacher of Empress Wu and was given by her the title of National Teacher. He wrote a famous treatise based on his explanation of the Huayan vision of reality to the Empress called Treatise on the Golden Lion. Probably the most famous work of Fazang is the Treatise on the Divisions of Doctrine in the Unitary Vehicle of the Huayan. Chapter 8 looks at Chan Buddhism. Chan was the most successful of the Chinese schools of Buddhism. The word Chan comes from the Chinese transliteration (channa) of the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which means a state of meditative concentration. Chan therefore literally means the meditation school. When Chan traveled from China to Japan in the twelfth century, the Japanese pronounced the Chinese character for Chan Zen. Thus, Chan and Chinese Zen are two names for the same thing. Chan claims to be a mind-to-mind transmission outside of words and scriptures. This direct transmission of the enlightened mind of the Buddha is believed to have passed from the Buddha akyamuni to his disciple Ka yapa, who Chan considers to be the first patriarch of the tradition. The twenty-eighth Indian patriarch, Bodhidharma, is regarded as bringing Chan from India to China in 520 C.E. Although there are many legends about Bodhidharma, very little is known about the historical figure. After the first five Chinese patriarchs, Chan split between Northern and Southern schools over a dispute regarding transmission and the nature of enlightenment. The most famous Chan master of the Southern School was Huineng, whose life and teachings were immortalized in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. The Southern School was later systemized into five lineages or houses. Two of these, the Linji line (Rinzai in Japanese) and Caodong (Soto in Japanese), became the main lineages in Japanese Zen. Chapter 9, explores the development of Neo-Confucianism. In the late Tang, some Confucians began to oppose the teachings of Buddhism and Daoism. In the 11th century this movement developed into the teachings known as the School of the Way (dao xue) or the School of Principle (li xue), which attempted to redirect Chinese religion toward the Confucian classics and away from Buddhist and Daoist thought. During the Southern Song (1127-1279 CE), the Learning of the Way teachings became more closely identified with the Cheng-Zhu school, named after Cheng Yi (1033-1107) and Zhu Xi (1130-1200). Cheng Hao (1032-1085), Cheng Yi’s brother, initiated an alternative interpretation known as the School of Mind (xin xue), which was later completed by Wang Yangming (1427-1529). By the 14th century, this new Confucianism became the official interpretation and remained so from 1313 to 1905 (almost 600 years!). Modern scholars refer to this type of Confucianism as Neo-Confucianism. Neo-Confucianism became an international movement and spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. It flourished in all of these East Asian countries and since the sixteenth century some of most creative philosophical work occurred in Korea and Japan. Although opposed to Buddhism and Daoism, Neo-Confucianism borrowed many theories from these other two religions. Nevertheless, Neo-Confucianism always placed the most emphasis on the traditional values of Confucianism: the moral transformation of the individual and society. Chapter 10 deals with what is generally termed modern or new NeoConfucianism. Many scholars divide the modern Neo-Confucians into three periods: 1) 1920s to 1940s; 2) 1950s to 1970s; and 3) 1980s to present. Scholars of the first period attempted to combine Neo-Confucian philosophy with modern Western philosophies. Scholars of the second and third periods were generally from Taiwan and Hong Kong. A main concern of the third group is the increase of certain social problems in East Asia brought on by modernity and globalization such as prostitution, drug trafficking and use, and pollution. This group seeks to find solutions to these problems in Confucian ethics. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1Ś50, Marxism has been the guiding ideology of Main Land China. Nevertheless, Confucianism is still studied as an academic subject. Chapter 11 focuses on arguably Japan’s greatest thinkerś Dōgen. The Kamakura Period of Japanese history witnessed the transplanting of Chinese Chan to Japan. As in Chinese Buddhism, Japanese Zen emphasizes sitting meditation, which is called zazen. The initial goal of the Zen practitioner is to achieve a break-through (kensho), which is the gateway to enlightenment (satori). Japanese Zen is divided into two main schools: Rinzai and Soto. The Rinzai school was introduced from China by Eisai (1141–1215) in 1191. The special characteristic of the Rinzai school is its use of non-logical riddles called koans employed by the Zen master to break the student’s mind from its habitual patterns of thinking. Two of the more famous koans are, Does a dog have a Buddha nature? and What is the sound of one hand clapping? A student of Eisai, Dōgen (1200–53), founded the Soto Zen school. For Dōgen, zazen was not a means for attaining enlightenment, but enlightenment itself. The twelfth and final chapter looks at Japan’s Kyoto School of philosophy. The Kyoto School began with the writings of Nishida Kitarō (1870-1945). Other important figures in the movement were Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962), Nishitani Keiji (1900-1900), Watsuji Tetsuro (1889-1960), Masao Abe (1915-2006), Shitzuteru Ueda (b. 1926), and Eshin Nishamura (b. 1933). The School derives its name from a group of scholars at Kyoto University, who while well-grounded in Western philosophical thought, use Western philosophical ideas in creatives ways in conjunction with Asian philosophy, particularly Mahāyāna Buddhism. The result is a unique religious and philosophical perspective, which has come to gain the name of The Kyoto School. The Kyoto School, however, does not strictly represent a distinctive philosophical outlook, but rather consists of a constellation of different views influenced specifically by German thinkers such as Kant, Hegal, Nietzsche and Heidegger and Christianity, entering into dialogue with East Asian thought inspired by Buddhist notions such as emptiness. One of the most distinctive ideas to emerge out of this new synthesis of Western and Asian thought, is Nishida’s notion of absolute nothingness.