Confucianism vs Buddhism vs Taoism - Realpolitik of the Three Teachings of Ancient China
Summary
TLDRThis script explores the harmonious yet complex synthesis of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in ancient China. It delves into their early developments, philosophical underpinnings, and the historical process of integration. Despite differences and occasional rivalry, these teachings adapted and borrowed from each other, influenced by political and religious climates. The script highlights how Confucianism maintained political power, while Buddhism and Taoism influenced each other and were influenced by Confucian elites and commoners alike, leading to a rich tapestry of shared beliefs and practices.
Takeaways
- 😀 Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are the three major teachings of ancient China, often thought to be harmoniously synthesized in the Chinese intellectual and spiritual landscape.
- 📚 Confucianism is a scholarly tradition that predates Confucius, focusing on morality and ritual, and does not prescribe a specific god or afterlife.
- 🌐 Taoism is a complex school of thought with the principle of 'wu wei' (action through inaction), and has incorporated various philosophies and local gods into its pantheon.
- 🙏 Buddhism, not native to China, is part of the dharmic religions of India and emphasizes concepts like dharma, reincarnation, and moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth).
- 🛣️ The synthesis of these teachings was not a conscious, directed process but a natural evolution to survive the political and religious climate of China.
- 🏛️ Confucianism held the domain of the elites, with its focus on philosophical ideas and disdain for superstition, while Buddhism and Taoism were more influential among the commoners.
- 🌟 Taoism and Buddhism did not always get along, with periods of rivalry and persecution depending on the emperor's favor.
- 🤝 The Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, which focuses on the liberation of all beings, became predominant in China and incorporated Taoist and Confucian ideas.
- 🧘♂️ Neo-Confucianism during the Song dynasty borrowed Buddhist and Taoist concepts, but still maintained its unique stance on morality and ritual.
- 🏵️ The Ming dynasty marked a period when the three teachings were treated equally, with the first Ming emperor showing equal respect to all three.
- 🌈 Despite the saying 'three teachings as one,' it's Confucianism that holds the political power, free to borrow from Taoism and Buddhism without being threatened.
Q & A
What are the three main teachings of ancient China?
-The three main teachings of ancient China are Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
How did the teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism synthesize in ancient China?
-The teachings synthesized through a historical process where they competed and adapted to the political and religious climate, eventually incorporating elements from one another without significant doctrinal violence.
What is Confucianism and how did it develop over time?
-Confucianism is a Chinese scholarly tradition that emphasizes morality and ritual. It was not created by Confucius but rather he transmitted and edited ancient moral traditions, which were later expanded upon by other scholars.
What is the principle of 'Wu Wei' in Taoism?
-Wu Wei, or 'action through inaction', is a principle in Taoism based on Laozi's teachings, which advocates for effortless action or non-intervention.
How did Taoism evolve to incorporate various philosophies and local gods?
-Taoism evolved to include various philosophies, folk religions, and local gods due to its lack of a strong central authority, leading to the emergence of different religious sects and the incorporation of ideas from other traditions.
What is the difference between Mahayana and Theravada traditions in Buddhism?
-Mahayana, or the Great Vehicle, focuses on the liberation of all beings, while Theravada, or the School of the Elders, is more concerned with following the Buddha's teachings literally. Mahayana may incorporate elements from other cultures, whereas Theravada adheres more strictly to the original teachings.
How did Buddhism adapt when it entered China?
-Buddhism initially faced resistance due to its foreign nature but later incorporated Confucian and Taoist ideas, such as filial piety, and developed into a form of Buddhism that resonated with the Chinese people, known as Chan Buddhism, which later became Zen in Japan.
What was the role of the scholar-bureaucrats in the domain of philosophical and religious interaction in ancient China?
-The scholar-bureaucrats, educated in Confucian classics, were more interested in the philosophical aspects of Buddhism and Taoism. They held a disdain for superstition, which influenced their approach to religious ideas.
How did the common people's religious beliefs differ from those of the elites?
-Common people were more influenced by the religious aspects of Buddhism and Taoism, where gods and supernatural concepts were shared, borrowed, and reinterpreted. There was less emphasis on philosophical debates and more on practical religious practices.
What historical event illustrates the rivalry between Buddhism and Taoism?
-The rivalry is exemplified by the persecution of Buddhism by Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei, who favored Taoism, after discovering weapons in a Buddhist monastery. This rivalry was also depicted in Wuxia movies and series.
How did the synthesization of the three teachings manifest in the Ming Dynasty?
-During the Ming Dynasty, the three teachings were treated equally, with the first Ming Emperor showing respect to all three. Neo-Confucianism also borrowed concepts from Buddhism and Taoism, and there was a mutual assimilation of deities and practices.
Outlines
📜 Early Developments and Synthesis of Chinese Teachings
This paragraph delves into the historical synthesis of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in ancient China. It challenges the notion of a harmonious blend by examining the early developments of these philosophies. Confucianism, predated by Ruism, emphasizes moral virtues and rituals without prescribing a specific god or afterlife. Taoism, with its principle of 'Wu Wei' and complex origins, incorporated various ideas, including those from Buddhism. Buddhism, an import from India, underwent significant adaptation in China, influencing and being influenced by Taoism. The paragraph also touches on the political and religious rivalries between these teachings throughout Chinese history.
🏛 The Interplay of Elite and Commoner Domains in Chinese Philosophy
The second paragraph explores the interaction between the elite and commoner domains in the context of Chinese philosophical and religious traditions. It highlights how Confucianism dominated the elite sphere, with its classics forming the basis of the imperial examination system. The philosophical aspects of Buddhism and Taoism were of interest to the scholar-bureaucrats, while the religious aspects were more influential among the common people. The paragraph discusses the historical conflicts and assimilations between Buddhism and Taoism, including periods of persecution and favor by different emperors. It also notes the eventual synthesis of the three teachings during the Ming dynasty, facilitated by the equal respect granted by the first Ming emperor.
🌏 The Political and Cultural Synthesis of Chinese Teachings
The final paragraph provides insight into the political backdrop of the synthesis of the three teachings in China. It explains how Confucianism maintained its political power due to its secular nature and ability to borrow concepts without threat to its dominance. The paragraph contrasts the philosophical borrowings of the elite with the religious syncretism of the commoners, where gods and deities from different traditions were freely adopted and reinterpreted. It also touches on the global assimilation practices of monotheistic religions and ends with a teaser for future content, inviting the audience to subscribe for more historical insights.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Confucianism
💡Buddhism
💡Taoism
💡Synthesis
💡Warring States Period
💡Neo-Confucianism
💡Mahayana
💡Taoist Canons (Daozang)
💡Elites and Commoners
💡Political Power
💡Cultural Assimilation
Highlights
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism are the three teachings of ancient China, which were harmoniously synthesized into the Chinese intellectual and spiritual landscape.
The historical process of synthesization of these teachings was not always harmonious, involving competition and conflict.
Confucianism, predated by Confucius, promotes the virtue of legendary kings and is a living tradition expanded by various scholars over time.
Taoism is a complex school of thought with the principle of 'Wu Wei' or effortless action, and has incorporated various philosophies and local gods.
Buddhism, originating from India, entered China during the Han dynasty and incorporated Taoist and Confucian ideas to develop into Chinese Buddhism.
The Mahayana tradition of Buddhism is concerned with the liberation of all beings and may incorporate gods and religious traditions of other cultures.
There were disagreements and debates between different Buddhist traditions, but no violent conflicts ensued.
Taoism and Buddhism had periods of rivalry and persecution, especially when one gained favor over the other with the emperor.
The synthesization of the three teachings is a result of their natural evolution to survive the political and religious climate.
Neo-Confucianism during the Song dynasty borrowed Buddhist and Taoist concepts while maintaining its own unique perspective.
The Ming dynasty marked a period when the three teachings were treated equally, with the first Ming emperor showing equal respect to all.
In the domain of the elites, Confucian scholars were more interested in the philosophical aspects of Buddhism and Taoism.
Among the commoners, religious ideas from Buddhism and Taoism were shared, reinterpreted, and integrated without significant conflict.
Polytheistic religions like Buddhism and Taoism adopted a non-violent method of assimilation by incorporating and redefining gods from each other.
In contrast to polytheistic religions, monotheistic religions insist on one god and doctrinal purity, leading to less flexibility in assimilation.
Despite the saying 'three teachings as one,' it is Confucianism that holds the political power and was free to borrow from Taoism and Buddhism without threat.
The rivalry between Taoism and Buddhism in the commoners' domain was relatively tame, with gods often borrowed and shared between the two religions.
Transcripts
confucianism buddhism and taoism these
are the three teachings of ancient china
it is often thought that these three
teachings were harmoniously synthesized
into the chinese intellectual and
spiritual landscape
but how is it possible for three very
different philosophical and some would
call religious traditions to mess
together so well
or did they
in this episode we will look at the
historical process of synthesization of
these teachings
and it ain't all sunshine and rainbows
okay let's start by looking at the early
developments of these three teachings by
knowing the malleable nature of these
teachings we are going to get very
important clues on how they can be
synthesized rather easily during the
warring stage period of china various
schools of salt competed for the hearts
and minds of the lords and commoners
confucianism or rule as it is known in
east asia is one among those so-called
hundred schools of thought ruism is a
chinese scholarly tradition that
predated confucius
confucius is the latinization of the
name kung futsu confucianism extol the
virtue of the legendary kings of
pre-dynastic and early dynasties of
china and the early tour dynasty kings
and dukes as confucius had claimed
himself he was not a creator but rather
a transmitter of these ancient moral
traditions to be fair he actually edited
a lot of these ancient documents and
promoted the essex not only to nobles
but also to commoners and as i have
covered in more details in a previous
episode it is a living tradition which
was expanded upon over time by
manchester unjung-su jusi wang ming and
others
this philosophy is very particular about
their brand of morality and ritual but
they do not prescribe for the belief in
a particular god or afterlife that's why
christian confusion converts shu guangxi
claims that christianity is compatible
with confucianism
as for taoism it's quite complex as i
have discussed in another video it is a
bit like a kitchen sink of ideas this
school of thought was first identified
by sumachen in his book records of the
grand historian its proponents practiced
the principle of wu e action through
inaction or effortless action which is
based on laozi's writing daughter jin
ideas such as pakwa yin yang and using
the five phases were not present in
daughter jin they are actually later
additions borrowed from other schools of
sorts it may not have started as a
standalone philosophical school of salt
either as one of the earliest taoist
school of assault in history was huanglo
taoism it is a school of sorts or
perhaps religion that identified lords
together with the legendary figure of
yellow emperor which was one of the more
prominent ideology in court at the time
eventually a recognizable religious
movement emerged later at the end of the
han dynasty the way of the celestial
master which was started by zhang
daoling
but taoism never had a strong central
authority and other religious taoist sex
started to emerge and so did the yellow
turban rebellion that hastened the end
of the hun dynasty being polytheistic
taoists have incorporated various
philosophies folk religions and local
gods into their pantheon including
buddhist ones
the collection of tao's canons taotsang
even grew to an unmanageable size of
over 5000 books at the very least
buddhism is a religious philosophical
tradition that was started by sitata
gotama also known as the buddha it is
not native to china and it is considered
to be one of the many dharmic religions
of india which includes hinduism jainism
buddhism and sikhism they share many
common features such as the concept of
dharma reincarnation and moksha which is
the liberation from the cycle of rebirth
however there are fundamental
differences in the interpretation of
each of these concepts among those
religions and even within buddhism
itself as it was separated into a few
different traditions the mahayana
tradition or the great vehicle tradition
is concerned with the liberation of
everyone from the cycle of birth and
reapers and it may incorporate the gods
and religious traditions of other
cultures in order to appeal to more
believers some of them may disparage the
teravatans as hinayana or lesser vehicle
saying that the therapharans are more
concerned with following buddha's
teaching to the letter rather than the
spirit of his teaching on the other hand
the terrafada tradition or the school of
the elders may think that the mahayana
tradition have strayed too far from
buddha's original teachings i wonder if
this has to do with the vegetarian
starbucks inside the fukuang sun buddha
museum yep i've been there
despite their disagreements there
weren't any cause for violent conflict
even the historic nalanda mahafira which
the explorer monk shunsang famously
attended taught both mahayana and
sarawada texts as for fajrayana it is an
offshoot of mahayana and it is focused
on tantric experiences
the buddhist tradition that's
predominant in china is mahayana when
buddhism entered china during the khan
dynasty it did not immediately succeed
at first it was considered to be too
foreign but eventually it started to
incorporate taoist and confusion ideas
such as filial piety into its own
tradition and developed into tan
buddhism in the 5th century which was
eventually brought to japan as zen
buddhism likewise taoism also borrowed
quite a few buddhist ideas even though
they would hate to admit it but the
influence can be seen in the early
taoist canons
now i must distinguish the two different
domains of the philosophical and
religious interaction
the elites and commoners the elites
would be the scholar bureaucrats of
ancient china this domain was firmly
held by the confusion as most of them
were educated in the confusion classics
and even more so since the tang dynasty
because the imperial examination system
was standardized and the confusion
classics are the test subjects
the elites would be more interested in
the philosophical side of buddhism and
taoism because confucianism in general
holds particular disdain for
superstition even though the book of
definition eaching is considered as one
of the five confucian classics well i
guess they just don't want to go too far
with a superstition
but it never stopped some emperors and
officials from being superstitious
now here in the commoners domain is
where the religious ideas mesh and
intermingle god's and supernatural
concepts were borrowed shared and
reinterpreted the religious side of
buddhism and taoism would make this
place their ideological battleground for
the most part but sometimes they would
influence and appeal to kings and
emperors too buddhism and taoism did not
get along well before the ming dynasty
there is actually a historical reason
why they are depicted as rivals in all
those wusha movies and series as in
certain dynasties they would be
persecuted in turn depending on which
side was able to get the emperor's favor
or more accurately which side was
threatening that rule emperor taiwu of
northern way who favored taoism
discovered that some rebels had stored
their weapon in a buddhist monastery so
buddhism was persecuted this lasted
until his buddhist grandson took the
throne a few years later this is quite
ironic because you would imagine that
the toba royalty would favor buddhism
since it was considered to be a who
religion and they had the nomadic shanpe
ancestry meanwhile the southern liang
dynasty which had ethnic han royalty
favored buddhism the foreign religion
and persecuted taoism during the tang
and song dynasty taoism was the
state-sponsored religion despite that
buddhism became very popular with the
masses
then during the mongol expansion and the
yuan dynasty the mongol khans like
monger khan and kublai khan often
invited buddhists and taoists for
debates in those occasions all the
different buddhist sects joined together
to defeat the taoist multiple times
leading to the burning of countless
towers cannons
the buddhists wrote the laughing at the
taoist essay which accused them of
stealing buddhist ideas and the taoist
wrote the converting the who classic
claiming that buddha was a disciple of
laotz because according to legend he
traveled to the west buddhism they
claimed is just a corruption of taoist
teaching this whole kerfuffle between
the two is very interesting i may cover
it in more details in the future anyway
despite this in general taoists and
buddhist monks were still treated fairly
by the mongols and taoist activities
continued
since it was relatively harmless and did
not threaten those in power the
synthesization of the three teachings is
a long process that wasn't consciously
directed it is just the result of the
natural evolution of these three
teachings in order to survive the
political and religious climate in the
song dynasty neoconfusion zusi borrowed
buddhist and taoist concepts but he
still disliked the buddhist monasticism
and withdrawal from family
responsibility it was only around the
ming dynasty when the three teachings
were treated equally because the first
ming emperor zu yuen zhang gave them the
same amounts of respect main tendency
confusion wang yangming also borrowed
buddhist meditation methods in his
teaching to put this synthesization into
context let's compare the differences
between the elites and commoners the
philosophical ideas are freely borrowed
by the confucian elites because they do
not threaten the rule of the emperors
the mandatory of heaven is still
strictly a confusion concept it is an
agnostic concept that doesn't specify
which heaven or god gives the ruler the
mandate of heaven buddhism being a
monastic religion and taoism being
disdainful of politics and hierarchy
does not challenge the confucian
justification to rule and in the
commoners domain due to the fact that
those religions are polytheistic there
wasn't much religious and doctrinal
violence either despite all the rivalry
polytheistic religion have a very simple
non-violent method to counter their
rivals religion and that is to steal
their god
yep just change the label and redefine
them in their own terms it is similar to
how the romans took the greek gods and
combined them with their own nurture one
of the taoist gods had buddhist indian
origin and guangkong who was based on
the historical general guanyu became
both taoist and buddhist god in japan
some buddhists also claimed that the
japanese gods were reincarnation of
certain buddhas in modern day hinduism
some sects considered jesus and buddha
to be avatars of visnu the thing about
monotheistic religion is that the
prominent ones such as judaism
christianity and islam insist on just
having one god and doctrinal purity the
ruler's justification to rule used to
hinge on the blessing of their one god
however in instances when they did not
feel politically threatened by the gods
of other religions they would also play
the same assimilation game for example
the legend of the buddha had been
adopted by the catholics into the legend
of saint barlum and josephat where the
name josefat is the corruption of the
sanskrit word bodhisattva various
catholic celebration and saints were
also influenced by the pagan roman
religion so despite the common saying
three teachings as one it is really
confucianism that firmly holds the
political power and since it is secular
enough and wasn't politically threatened
by those other teachings it was free to
borrow concepts from taoism and buddhism
or at least the ones from the orthodox
sets because there were quite a lot of
cults that encouraged rebellion that
appeared from time to time the rivalry
in the commoners domain is pretty tame
too most lay believers in ancient china
won't really know much about the
difference between taoist and buddhist
gods because they kept boring from each
other that's why in classic literatures
such as journey to the west and
investiture of the gods we see buddhists
and taoist gods interacting with each
other but we can see which author favors
which religion more because in the
journey to the west the buddha is
depicted to be more powerful than the
jade emperor only he could subdue sonu
and in investiture of the gods the
buddhas are just side characters even
though the synthesized buddhist deities
are featured prominently so there you go
that was the rare politique behind the
harmonious teachings
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until next time stay cool my bros
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