Don't Frame Buddhism with Confucianism's "Human Nature Is Self-Endowed, Buddha-Nature Is Humanly Achieved"!

2006/7/26 12:42:56

There's some person called Tang Yao who wrote a post titled "Weekend Fun — Does Confucius Still Owe the Buddha a Flick on the Head?" In it, he smugly fabricated a story to attack Confucianism. Not only is this person ignorant of both Confucianism and Buddhism, but he also frames Buddhism with the Confucian concept of "Human Nature Is Self-Endowed, Buddha-Nature Is Humanly Achieved" and then uses it to attack Confucianism — utterly laughable!

Confucianism is inherently a very complex system. Stuffing the stale doctrines of ossified Confucians into the mouth of Confucius is the most basic trick played by all the May Fourth upstart types who wanted to tear down the "House of Confucius." What do "strict rules and precepts," "hierarchy between ruler and subject," "rigid social stratification," or "resigned fatalism" have to do with Confucius? Confucius's single principle of "education without discrimination" alone is enough to put today's so-called education reforms to shame. Confucius's ideas have been deconstructed and reassembled by all manner of people over thousands of years, and there are still people like this Tang Yao constantly framing him. This muddled account can be settled another time — when the opportunity is ripe, this ID will naturally begin lecturing on the Four Books and Five Classics to set the record straight.

As for what Tang Yao considers his devastating weapon, capable of dealing a fatal blow to Confucianism — "Human Nature Is Self-Endowed, Buddha-Nature Is Humanly Achieved" — this is precisely a Confucian idea. Of course, "Buddha-nature" here can be defined in Confucian terms as "sagely nature" (that is, the quality that enables a person to become a sage) according to the highest Confucian goal of "inner sagehood and outer kingliness." "Everyone can become a Yao or Shun" — though it was only after the Ming dynasty's School of Mind that this idea became widely popularized, it has always been a core thought of Confucianism. When Mencius spoke of cultivating the vast, righteous qi, he never said you had to pay fees for it like registering a cat or dog nowadays, nor was there any notion of "rigid social stratification." "Sagely nature is humanly achieved" is Confucianism's core value. As for "Human Nature Is Self-Endowed," this is Confucianism's fundamental judgment about the world — otherwise, how could there be "education without discrimination"? Of course, slandering others without understanding, wielding someone else's treasure as a weapon to attack them without realizing it was theirs all along — this is indeed a type of person, and there have always been many such people, even more so today. But I believe Confucius would certainly extend his "education without discrimination" to them as well!

That said, Confucianism is not the ultimate teaching, and in its development, due to sectarian biases as well as ethnic, clan, and national reasons, it frequently engaged in the practice of favoring its own and rejecting others — as in Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism and last century's New Confucianism. Most laughably, the very phrase "favoring one's own and rejecting others" came from Han Yu himself, the self-proclaimed champion of anti-Buddhism and pro-Confucianism. Perhaps this anti-Confucian Tang Yao learned from the great Confucian Han Yu's fine tradition of hitting himself. Of course, it is only natural for Confucianism to absorb different nutrients to strengthen itself. Though its methods were sometimes petty and it often acted like Zhu Bajie (first, eating the ginseng fruit without tasting it; second, raking accusations at others), the Zhu Bajie–like behavior Confucianism frequently exhibited is in fact common to human nature, so one can't blame Confucianism alone. After all, Confucianism ultimately did uphold its original ideals, and in this chaotic world, that in itself is quite remarkable — it should be enough for the likes of Tang Yao to study for quite a while.

Finally, since "Human Nature Is Self-Endowed, Buddha-Nature Is Humanly Achieved" has nothing to do with Buddhism, then what is Buddhism's actual position? That which is Buddha is nature; that which is not Buddha is not nature. That which can be achieved can also be destroyed — but Buddha-nature is neither born nor extinguished, nothing gained, nothing achieved. Like flowers in a mirror or the moon on water, yet it conjures infinite worlds. The five poisons and six realms of existence are never separate from the cool, pure realm. Affliction is enlightenment; the great earth is gold. The infinite enters a single mote of dust without being stained; a single mote of dust emerges into the infinite without being lost. Even so, this is still merely the speculation of human consciousness. What then is the ultimate? One wants to speak but holds back, and simply says: "How cool is the autumn." Contemplate!