Those who have this feeling and who cultivate their mind in Taoism, must have a more subtle sensitivity for pleasure and more refined needs than sheerly sensual ones. The Shih-shuo records many unconventional activities among the "famous scholars" of the time. They acted according to pure im-pulse, but not with any thought of sensuous pleasure. Thus one of the stories in the Shih-shuo says:"Wang Hui-chih [died c. 388, son of China's greatest ealligrapher, Wang Hsi-chih] was living at Shan-yin [near present Hang-chow], One night he was awakened by a heavy snowfall. Opening the win-dow, he saw a gleaming whiteness all about him....Suddenly he thought of his
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friend Tai K'uei. Immediately he took a boat and went to see Tai. It re-quired the whole night for him to reach Tai's house, but when he was just about to knock at the door, he stopped and returned home. When asked the reason for this act, he replied: I came on the impulse of my pleasure, and now it is ended, so I go back. Why should I see Tai? (Ch. 23.)
The Shih—shuo records another story which says that Chung Hui (2.25~2.(54, a statesman, general, and writer) regretted that he had not yet enjoyed the opportunity of meeting Chi K'ang (223-262, a philosopher and writer). Therefore he one day went with several other notables to visit him. Chi K ang's hobby was that of forging metal, and when Chung Hui arrived there, he found Chi K ang at his forge under a great tree. Hsiang Hsiu (author of the Commentary on Chuang—tzu described in the last chapter) was assisting Chi K ang to blow the fire with a bellows, and Chi K ang himself continued his hammering just as if no one else were there. For a while the host and guests did not exchange a single word. But when Chung Hui started to go, Chi K ang asked him: What did you hear that caused you to come, and what have you seen that causes you to go?" To this Chung Hui answered: "l heard what I heard, so I came, and I have seen what I have seen, so I go. (Ch. 24.) .
The men of the Chin dynasty greatly admired the physical and spiritual beauty of a great personality. Chi K ang was famous for his personality, which was compared by some people to a jade mountain and by others to a pine tree. (Shih-shiw, ch. 14.) Perhaps it was these things that Chung heard of and saw.
Another story in the Shih—shuo tells us: When Wang Hui—chih was trav-eling by boat, he met Huan Yi traveling by land along the bank. Wang Hui-chih had heard of Huan Yi's fame as a flute player but he was not ac-quainted with him. When someone told him that the man traveling on the bank was Huan Yi, he sent a messenger to ask him to play the flute. Huan Yi had also heard of the fame of Wang Hui—ehih, so he descended from his chariot, sat on a chair, and played the flute three times. After that, he as-cended his chariot and went away. The two men did not exchange even a single word." (Ch. 23.)
They did not do this because what they wished to enjoy was only the pure beauty of the music. Wang Hui—chih asked Huan Yi to play the flute for him, because he knew he could play it well, and Huan Yi played for him, because he knew Wang could appreciate his playing. When this had been done, what else was there to talk about?
The Shih-shuo contains another story which says that Chih-tun (314-366, famous Buddhist monk) was fond of cranes. Once a friend gave him two young ones. When they grew up, Chih—tun was forced to clip their wings so that they would not fly away. When this was done, the cranes looked de-spondent, and Chih-tun too was depressed, and said: "Since they have wings that can reach the sky, how can they be content to be a pet of man? Hence
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when their feathers had grown again, he let the cranes fly away. (Ch. 2.)
Another story tells us about Juan Chi (210-2.63, a philosopher and poet), and his nephew Juan Hsien, who were two of the Seveii Worthies of the Bamboo Grove. All members of the Juan family were great drinkers, and when they met, they did not bother to drink out of cups, but simply sat around a large wine jar and drank from that. Sometimes the pigs also came, wanting a drink, and then the Juans drank together with the pigs. (Ch. 23.)
The sympathy of Chih-tun for the cranes and the indiscriminate generosity of the Juans to the pigs show that they had a feeling of equality and non-difTerentiation between themselves and other things of nature. This feeling is essential in order to have the quality oifeng liu and to be artistic. For a true artist must be able to project his own sentiment to the object he depicts, and then express it through his medium. Chih-tun himself would not have liked to be a pet of man, and he projected this sentiment to the cranes. Though he is not known to have been an artist, he was, in this sense, a very real one.
The Emotional Factor
As we have seen in chapter ten, the sage, according to Chuang Tzu, has no emotions. He has a high understanding of the nature of things, and so is not affected by their changes and transformations. He disperses emotion with reason. The Shih—shuo records many people who had no emotions. The most famous case is that of Hsieh An (32.O-385). When he was Prime Minister at the Chin court, the northern state of Ch in started a large—scale offensive against Chin. Its army was led by the Ch in Emperor in person, and so great was it that the Emperor boasted that his soldiers, by throwing their whips in-to the Yangtze River, could block its course. The people of Chin were great-ly alarmed, but Hsieh An calmly and quietly appointed one of his nephews, Hsieh Hsiin, to lead an army against the invaders. At a battle famous in his-tory as the Battle of the Fei River, in the year 383, Hsieh Hsiln won a deci-sive victory and the men of Ch in were driven back. When the news of the final victory reached Hsieh An, he was playing chess with a friend. He opened the letter, read it, and then put it aside and continued to play as before. When the friend asked what was the news from the front, Hsieh An, as calmly as ever, replied: Our boys have decisively defeated the enemy.
(Ch. 6.)
The San Kuo Chih or History of the Three Kingdoms, however, records a discussion between Ho Yen (died 2.49) and Wang Pi (226-249, greatest com-mentator on the Lao-tzu) on the subject of the emotions. Ho Yen, following the original theory of Chuang Tzu, maintained that "the sage has neither pleasure nor anger, sorrow nor gladness. In this he was seconded by Chung Hui (the man who went to visit Chi K'ang in the story given above). Wang Pi, however, held a different opinion. According to him, "that in which the sage is superior to ordinary people is the spirit. But what the sage has in
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common with ordinary people are the emotions. The sage has a superior spir-it, and therefore is able to be in harmony with the universe and to hold communion with Wu Li.e., the Tool. But the sage has ordinary emotions, and therefore cannol respond to things without joy or sorrow. He responds to things, yet is not ensnared by them. It is wrong to say that because the sage has no ensnarement, he therefore has no emotions. (Ch. 28, Commentary.)
The theory of Wang Pi can be summarized by the statement that the sage "has emotions but no ensnaremenl." What this statement exactly means, Wang Pi does not make clear. Its implications were developed much later by Neo-Confucianism, and we shall have a chance to analyze them in chapter 24. At present we need merely point out that though many of the Neo -Taoists were very rational, there were also many who were very sentimental.
As stated earlier, the Neo—Taoists stressed subtle sensitivily. Having this sensitivity, coupled with the afore-mentioned theory of sel-fexpression, it is not surprising that many of ihem gave free vent to their emotions anywhere and at any time these emotions arose.
An example is the Shih-shuo's story about Wang Jung (234-305), one of the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove. When Wang lost a child, his friend Shan Chicn went to condole him. Wang could not restrain himself from weeping, whereupon Shan said to him: "It was only a baby, so why do you behave like this?" Wang Jung replied: "The sage forgets emotions, and lowly people [who are insensitiveJ do not reach emotions. It is people like ourselves who have the most emotions. To this Shan Chien agreed and wept also. (Ch. 17.)
This saying of Wang Jung explains very well why many of the Neo—Taoists were sentimentalists. In most cases, however, they were sentimental, not about some personal loss or gain, but about some general aspect of life or of the universe. The Shih-shuo says that Wei Chieh (286-312, known as the most beautiful personality of his time), when about to cross the Yangtze Riv-er, felt much depressed, and said: When T see this vast L river J, I cannot help but feel that all kinds of sentiments are gathering in my mind. Being not without feeling, how can one endure these emotions? (Ch. 2.)
The Shih-shuo says also that every time Huan Yi, the flute player men-tioned earlier, heard people singing, he would exclaim: What can I do! Hsieh An heard of this and remarked: Huan Yi can indeed be said to have deep feelings." (Ch. 23.)
Because of this subtle sensitivity, these men of feng liu spirit were often impressed by things that would not ordinarily impress others. They had sen-timents about life and the universe as a whole, and also about their own sen-sitivity and sentiments. The Shih-shuo tells us that when Wang Ch'in as-cended the Mao Mountain (in present Shantung province), he wept and said: "Wang Po-yu of Lang-ya [i.e., myself] must at last die for his emotions." (Ch. 23.)
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The Factor of Sex
In the West, romanticism often has in it an element of sex. The Chinese term feng Iiu also has thai implication, especially in its later usage. The atti-tude of the Chin Neo—Taoists towards sex, however, seems to be purely aes-thetic rather than sensuous. As illustration, the Shih-shuo tells us that the neighbor of Juan Chi had a beautiful wife. The neighbor was a wine mer-chant, and Juan Chi used to go to his house to drink with the merchant s wife. When Juan became drunk, he would sleep beside her. The husband at first was naturally suspicious, but after paying careful attention, he found that Juan Chi did nothing more than sleep there. (Ch. 23-)
The Shih-shuo says again that Shan T'ao (2.05-2.83, statesman and general), Chi K ang, and Juan Chi were great friends. Shan Tao's wife, Han, noticed the close friendship of the three and asked her husband about it. Shan T ao said: At present they are the only men who can be my friends. It was the custom in China then that a lady was not allowed lo be introduced to the friends of her husband. Hence Han told her husband that, when next his two friends came, she would like to have a secret peep at them. So on the next visit, she asked her husband to have them stay overnight. She prepared a feast for them, and, during the night, peeped in at the guests through a hole in the wall. So absorbed was she in looking at them that she stood there the whole night. In the morning the husband came to her room and asked: "What do you think of them?' She replied: "In talent you are not equal to them, but with your knowledge, you can make friends with them. To this Shan T ao said: "They, also, consider my knowledge to be superior." (Ch. 19.)
Thus both Juan Chi and the Lady Han seemed to enjoy the beauty of the opposite sex without any sensuous inclinations. Or, it may be said, they en-joyed the beauty, forgetting the sex element.
Such are the characteristics of the, feng Iiu spirit of the Chin NeoTaoists. According to them, feng Iiu derives from tzu-jan (spontaneity, naturalness), and tzu-jan stands in opposition to ming chiao (morals and institutions), which form the classical tradition of Confucianism. Even in this period, however, when Confucianism was in eclipse, one famous scholar and writer named Yiieh Kuang (died 3°4) said: "In the ming-chiao, too, there is fundamentally room for happiness. (Shih—shuo, ch. I.) As we shall see in chapter twenty -four, Neo -Confucianism was an attempt to find such happiness in ming-chiao.
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CHAPTER 21
THE FOUNDATION OF CHINESE BUDDHISM
lHF, introduction of Buddhism into China has been one of the greatest events in Chinese history, and since its coming, it has been a major factor in Chinese civilization, exercising particular influence on religion, philosophy, art, and literature.
Introduction and Development of Buddhism in China
The exact date of the introduction of Buddhism is a disputed problem not yet settled by historians, but it took place probably in the first half of the first cenlury A.D. Traditionally, it is said to have entered during the reign of Emperor Ming (58-75), but there is now evidence that it had already been heard of in China before this time. Its subsequent spread was a long and gradual process. From Chinese literary sources we know that in the first and second centuries A.D., Buddhism was considered as a religion of the occult arts, not greatly differing from the occultism of the Yin— Yang school or of the later Taoist religion.
In the second century the theory was actually developed in certain circles that Buddha had been nothing more than a disciple of TShih Chi or Historical Records (ch. 63), where it is said that Lao Tzu, late in life, disappeared and nobody knew where he went. Elaborating this state-ment, ardent Taoists created the story that when Lao Tzu went to the West, he finally reached India, where he taught the Buddha and other Indians, and had a total of twenty-nine disciples. The implication was that the teaching of the Buddhist Sutras (sacred texts) was simply a foreign variant of thai of the Too Te Ching, that is, of the Lao-tzu.
In the third and fourth centuries an increasing number of Buddhist texts of a more metaphysical nature was translated, so that Buddhism became bet-ter understood. At this time Buddhism was regarded as similar to philosoph-ical Taoism, especially the philosophy of Chuang Tzu, rather than to Taoism
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as a religion. Often the Buddhist writings were interpreted with ideas taken from philosophical Taoism. This method was called that of ko yi, that is, in-terpretation by analogy.
Such a method naturally led to inaccuracy and distortion. Hence in the fifth century, by which time the flood of translations was rapidly increasing, the use of analogy was definitely abandoned. Yet the fact remains that the great Buddhist writers of the fifth century, even including the Indian teacher, Kumarajiva, continued to use Taoist terminology, such as Yu (Being, exis-tent), Wu (Non—being, non-existent), yu—wei (action) and wu—wei (non—ac-tion), to express Buddhist ideas. The difference between this practice and the method of analogy, however, is that in the latter one sees only the superficial similarity of words, while in the former one sees the inner connections of the ideas expressed by them. Hence, judging from the nature of the works of these writers, this practice, as we shall see later, did not indicate any misun-derstanding or distortion of Buddhism, but rather a synthesis of Indian Bud-dhism with Taoism, leading to the foundation of a Chinese form of Bud-dhism.
