Chuang-Tzu And The Chinese Ancestry of Chan Buddhism

·期刊原文

P.411

In regarding the development of Ch'an Buddhism much
emphasis has traditionally been placed on its Indian
background. Of course, it has been recognized that
the Indian sources passed through a process of
translation and adaptation to the Chinese, but what
exactly the native soil was in which the Buddhist
seeds fell has not been analyzed all too clearly.
Chinese philosophy, on the other hand, has been
seen as consisting mainly of the three traditions of
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Taoism as a
philosophy in the Six Dynasties period meant the
so-called school of Lao-Chuang, i.e., a mixture of
ideas based on the Tao-te-ching and the Chuang-Tzu
and on their major Dark Learning commentators Wang Pi
and Kuo Hsiang. However, Lao-Chuang did not merely
consist of a certain way of looking at the world; it
also encompassed a practical ideal of how to deal
with this life. Appealing mainly to the educated
elite, Lao-Chuang served as a means to comprehend and
express ecstatic states experienced by individual
literati through absorption into music; wine, or
nature. The most famous examples are found in the
poetry of Juan Chi, Hsi K'ang, and T'ao Yuan-ming.(1)
Because of this function and its ideal of mystical
freedom, Lao-Chuang thought can be considered part of
the native Chinese mystical tradition.
This tradition became the major vehicle for the
translation of Buddhist concepts into Chinese
thinking. In this process of translation, the
tradition of Lao-Chuang itself underwent decisive
changes. After two centuries of interaction with
Buddhism, it ceased to exist as an independent
philosophical, mystical alternative.(2) In this
context, Ch'an may be seen as the legitimate heir to
the Lao-Chuang tradition. It was be the purpose of
this paper to delineate the development from Kuo
Hsiang's Chuang-Tzu to the direct forerunners of
Ch'an.

P.412

Mysticism as found in the Chuang-Tzu is based on
the assumption that the Tao, the Absolute, is always
here and there and everywhere. Man became separated
from the Tao as he developed consciousness, through
which he came to hate death and love life, and
constantly shifted between emotional and intellectual
extremes. To remedy this situation, rather than
making choices, he should identify with all, as all
is the Tao, and "make all things equal," forgetting
himself and the world by "sitting in oblivion".(3)
Once freed from the 'fetters and handcuffs' of
categorial thinking, he will mentally dissolve into
Chaos (hun-tun(a)),(4) after which there will be no
more right and wrong, no more death and life. Man
will then become fully at-one with the Tao and able
to enjoy everything just as it is. This is the true
freedom of man, the 'free and easy wandering" of the
first chapter of the Chuang-Tzu. The mind then can
roam through the universe in cosmic excursion, but it
is also perfectly suited to dealing with everyday
realities.(5) The true man is always one in what he
does, his mere presence benefits the age. He has a
human face, but is actually filled with the emptiness
of Heaven; acting like everyone else, he never gets
entangled.(6)
Systematized by Kuo Hsiang,the essential ideas of
Chuang-Tzu mysticism are organized into a
philosophical world-view. The Tao, the eternal
Absolute, which is characterized as changing on and
on without beginning or end, is called Self-so or
nature. It manifests itself in the world in two
aspects, share and principle (fen and li(b)) which
define each being's lot and particular existence. In
man they are inborn nature and fate (hsing and
ming(c)) respectively. Only when man remains within
the ideal framework delineated for him by nature will
he be content and lead a happy life. But
consciousness causes him to love and hate and
discriminate, spoiling the original purity. In
realizing that he is bound by his perception, man can
attain a state of utmost accordance with life: by
emptying his mind and "sitting in oblivion" the state
of realization of nature within himself. This is the
interpretation Kuo Hsiang gives for the "free and
easy wandering" of the Chuang-Tzu. Mystical union,
the merging of one's mind with the Absolute in Chaos,
he expresses through the word ming(d) as opposed to
hsiang(e), to think in dualistic patterns. Both terms
were later used by Buddhists.
Furthermore, the Chuang-Tzu ideal of no-mind, wu-
hsin(f), of "keeping a free self in the midst of any
and all circumstances, to affirm the here and now
actively as one's own"(7), is elaborated by Kuo
Hsiang to encompass

P.413

not only non-action, but also non-happiness,
non-reliance, non-knowledge, etc. These are ideal
states of mind developed through the complete denial
of their imperfect and impure counterparts in the
world. With no-mind, the true man, rather than
withdrawing into the wilderness, will be able to find
the place in society most appropriate for him.
Precisely because "he stopped being aware of beings,
he is able to enter the crowd". (Comm. ch. 6)
Fulfilling his social responsibilities to the utmost,
he realizes his given share of the universal truth.
As everything is the Tao, no task is too low to grant
fulfillment. An tasks are duties in the world and for
the good of society, which itself is but a part of
the cosmic process with which one should always be in
tune. This notion which mirrors Confucian concepts as
much as the ideal Taoist state of Great Peace is
contradictory to the Buddhist postulation that one
has to leave one's family and society in order to
realize oneself as a monk and as a true man.
The first Buddhist thinker to take up the Chuang-
Tzu was the monk Chih Tun(g) (314-366)(8). He came
from a gently Buddhist family and never left the
aristocracy. His Buddhism found expression in his
monkish attire, his shaven head and his observance of
the five precepts. His thought, however, is fully
based on the Dark Learning, especially on Kuo Hsiang,
and is expressed in a mixture of Buddhist technical
vocabulary and Chuang-Tzu metaphors.
While Kuo Hsiang says that the Absolute is nature
and one has to go beyond beings to realize it, Chih
Tun states that one should transcend matter to reach
the arcanum which encompasses being and non-being.
All matter is ultimately empty, because it arises as
part of the chain of dependent origination and does
not exist by itself. On the other hand, Chih Tun
notes that "Heaven's truth is the original world"(9)
and sees the process of purification as a return to
truth. As long as there is mentation, (i.e.,
thoughts, worries, and emotions) Heaven's principle
cannot make itself manifest. Even the ten stages of
prajna wisdom are no more than the "traces", the
outward symbols of the actual doctrine.'(10) Man
should forget the traces and what causes them (chi
and so-i chi(h) ) , non-being and what causes
non-being. Chih Tun uses the so-i construction of Kuo
Hsiang to express stages of forgetfulness, of unified
perception which are utterly ineffable. But whether
someone can pass through these stages fully depends
on his "karma-lot" (yuan-fein(i) ) , (11) a
combination of the Buddhist concept of retribution
with Kuo Hsiang's

P.414

notion of the cosmic share.
Mystical union is again fully conceived of in
Chuang-Tzu phrasing: "The mind merges (ming(d)) with
the Great Void, in emptiness and identity, c hange
and emotion are forgotten."(l2) "Emptiness and
identity" (k'ung-t'ung(j) in the Chuang-Tzu is the
name of a mystical mountain. It is related to
hun-tun(a), chaos, phonetically and conceptually,
denoting the mystical state of mind, a kind of
chaotified perception which alone is able to realize
the arcanum. Yet Chih Tun also criticises Kuo
Hsiang:(13)

Someone said: Is everyone following his own
nature to be considered as wandering at
leisure? ' Chih Tun objected: This is not true.
The nature of the tyrant Chieh and of Robber
Chih was to destroy and to harm, and if one
regards following one's nature as the
realization of perfect freedom, then their way
of life would consequently be "free and easy
wandering", too.

Here the understanding of what comprises man's nature
is the significant difference. While Kuo Hsiang
postulated that inborn nature was an aspect of the
Tao and therefore pure and good (the so-called
'nature' of a tyrant would therefore be a
distortion), Chih Tun admits the possibility of an
evil nature which has to be fought and suppressed to
attain purity. Thus one should purge oneself of
desires, cut all attachments to family and state, and
fully submit to the precepts of the monk's life.
Fukunaga sees Chih Tun's major contribution to
Chinese thought as lying in his exemplary life: for
the first time, the elite was exposed to the idea
that one should take direct personal action towards
salvation, rather than merely unlearning whatever
patterns one had inherited. Now an active denial of
instincts was proposed which replaced the ideal of
just letting go, of mystically 'going along' with
one's inner impulses and outer circumstances. The
satisfaction or contentment of the true man gains a
new dimension with Chih Tun. This is documented in
the sole passage that remains of his Chuang-Tzu
commentary:(14)

Free and easy wandering refers to the mind of
the perfect man. When Chuang-Tzu talked about
the Great Tao, he used the analogy of the P'eng
bird and the quail. Because the P'eng bird's

P.415

way of life is untrammeled, it loses all
particular direction in the realms beyond the
body. But because the quail, on the other
hand,lives in the near and scoffs at the far,
there is a certain complacency in the realm
within its mind.
The perfect man, riding upon the truth of
Heaven, soars aloft, wandering infinitely in
unfettered freedom. Since he treats beings as
beings without being treated as a mere being by
them, therefore in his wandering he is not
self-satisfied. Being mystically in communion
with the universe,he does not act purposefully.
He is not hurried, yet he moves swiftly.
Therefore in his freedom he goes everywhere.
This is how it becomes 'free wandering'. But
if, on the other hand, one has a desire to
fulfill one's own contentment, and to be
content with one's own contentment, such a
person in his happiness has something like
natural simplicity. Like a hungry man, once he
is satiated, or like a thirsty man, once his
thirst is quenched. But would such a one
forthwith forget all about cooking and eating
in the presence of grains and cereals, or put
an end to all further toasting and pledging in
the presence of wines and liquors?
Unless it is perfect contentment, how can it be
a means to free wandering?

Therefore real satisfaction, ultimate happiness, has
to go beyond the limits of one's needs, one's
instincts, one's inborn nature. Neither the P'eng
bird nor the quail reach that. The Chuang-Tzu agrees,
stating that even though these two birds follow their
in-born nature, they still rely on something. True
freedom, however, is non-reliance (wu-tai(k)) "If he
had only mounted on the truth of Heaven and Earth,
ridden the changes of the six breaths, and thus
wandered through the boundless, then what would he
have had to depend on?"(15)
In summary, the first encounter of Chuang-Tzu my-
sticism with Buddhism effected an extension of
Chuang-Tzu philosophy on three planes: (1) cosmology
-the philosophical concept of the emptiness of
matter; (2) psychology-the analytical understanding
of life and body as conditioned and the introduction
of the concepts of the skandhas, etc., and (3)
action-the practical way of the denial of instincts
and the life of a monk. Despite

P.416

these additions, the Chuang-Tzu remained the basic
system of mystical philosophy. This is also reflected
in the use of "matching the meaning" (ko-i)(l) as a
method of translation.
Hsi Ch'ao(m) (336-377)(16),a layman who came from
a family with both Taoist and Buddhist connections,
probably knew Chih Tun as they were both active in
the capital about the same time. His religious
thought documented in his only surviving work, the
Feng-fa-yao(n),(17) appears to be more practically
oriented than Chih Tun's. His major concern is
retribution and the role of morality in man's life,
but he also deals with the absolute state beyond
karma and retribution, with prajna, nirvana, and
sunyata.
To reach the Absolute, Hsi Ch'ao maintains, man
must first realize his own suffering and his sinful
life, then change morally to ensure happiness and
good luck through reward in the course of
retribution. This statement reminds one of Kuo
Hsiang's claim that the true man will always
encounter good luck, understood as situations
appropriate for him. (Comm. ch. 5)The devotee of Hsi
Ch'ao, like Kuo Hsiang's sage, mysteriously responds
to the world, having emptied his mind of "gain and
loss, slander and fame, praise and ridicule, sorrow
and joy."(18) "Forgetting mind" is the practice of
the Way, and non-knowledge is the wisdom (prajjna) of
the sage who rests his mind in the complete stillness
of nirvana. For Hsi Ch'ao,

"emptiness is an expression for having
forgotten all attachments; it is not a term
denoting a space to dwell in. Non-being means
just non-being; if one imagines it as a
concrete entity, one will be impeded by
categories (feng(o) ).(19) Similarly, being
means just being. Forgetting both is the way to
mystical liberation, as being and non-being
actually issue from mind and have no reality
whatsoever."(20)

That all dharmas issue from mind is also stated
in the Vimalakirti Nidesa, in much the same way as
nirvana is described as utter stillness in the
Nirvana sutra. Yet Hsi Ch'ao's system of thought is
still firmly rooted in the Chinese tradition. In
addition to the progress of Chuang-Tzu mysticism
wrought by Chih Tun, here psychological details of
Buddhist mind-analysis along with the theory of karma
and retribution as an individual issue are more
significantly stated. It is obvious that the
literati, after having been

P.417

confronted with the active practice of Buddhism and
its world-view,now try to properly understand it
without letting go of their inherited views. The
Feng-fa-yao in this sense belongs together with Sun
Cho's Yu-tao-lun, a text documenting the attempt to
harmonize the three doctrines of Buddhism,
Confucianism, and Lao-Chuang.(21) Members of the
elite, searching for an individual personal
realization of the universe, had grown conscious of
the implications of Buddhism and accepted its
doctrines, yet ultimately remained Chinese.
This also holds true for Tao-an(p) (312-385), the
leading Buddhist figure in the north who "was unable
to break with his own Chinese past, particularly with
the notion that the Chinese classics contain in germ
everything a man must have for a complete life."(22)
His teaching of' "the original nature of dharmas"
(pen-wu(q)) represents a thorough mixture of Buddhism
and Lao-Chuang aptly described by A.Link whose
findings I will summarize below.(23)
According to Tao-an, being and non-being together
constitute the whole of existence (tzu-jan(r)'), the
nature of which is pen-wu, "transcendental
emptiness". The creation of the world is a continuous
process,latently present all the time as pen-wu.
Likening it to the Taoist "numen of the valley"
(Tao-re-ching (6) ) , Tao-an describes "original
non-being" as hsu-k 'uo(s),"empty openness... a gap
or hollow space which is open at both ends."(24) To
realize this empty openness,to lodge one's mind in
original non-being,means the end to all involvement
with reality, a mystical union with the cosmos. The
pro- cess is described as follows:

The sage wards off lust with the four dhyana so
that there is no remainder of lust left, and
puts an end to existence with the four
attainments of emptiness.(25)

Again we find the notion of two basic states of mind:
one is distorted, full of lust: the other, origirial,
pure, empty, open. "By becoming consciously aware of
our identity with that living trunk which supports
and nourishes our life, we can achieve the calm
stillness and certainty of the original "(26) The
very life of the sage thereby becames a sermon, a
realization of truth on earth.
Hui-yuan(t) (334-416), Robinson says, "strove to
pour foreign wine into native bottles, to find a
hidden meaning in Chuang-Tzu and the I-Ching."(27)

P.418

Even though he felt himself a Buddhist,he could not
but explain his concepts in the traditional
terminology,(28) yet he remained conscious of the
difference. Like Hsi Ch'ao, his main concern was the
practice of Buddhism; in Hui Yuan's case, it was the
position of the sangha. A monk, he claimed,has cut
off all the "traces" of the world, so that there was
no need for him to obey mundane rules. On the other
hand, a monk was to serve as an example for the
world, as a teacher to the unenlightened, and as such
he had a social responsibility. By cultivating
himself spiritual power would radiate,leading to a
rectification of the world which in turn would bring
about universal salvation. Basically this conception
is Confucian and found in the Great Learning. It
shows the strong ties Hui-yuan had with the Confucian
elite. His organization of the "transcendental"
Buddhist church was so fully embedded in "mundane"
Confucian issues that Fu kunaga even calls Hui-yuan
"the most Confucian monk in Chinese history."(29)
Though Hui-yuan did not make any significant con-
tributions to the theory of Chinese mysticism, his
position is important for its overall development.
The solid organization of the priesthood and its
political stance was to remain, as well as the
devotional practices of chanting, making vows, etc.,
all of which are typical for the Pure Land sect
originated by Hui-yuan. Whereas the mystical
development from the ordinary to the true man had
been considered a philosophical and individual issue
until then, it now began to be seen as a group
responsibility which was best realized within the
community of monks, whose merits would also benefit
all other beings. The insight, on the other hand,
that a regimented life full of devotion did not
always suffice to alter the individual's
consciousness, was one of the main pillars for the
establishment of independent communities. One of
these, the Tung-shan community around Tao-hsin and
Hung-jen of the 6th century, became the core of the
Ch 'an school.
The two early Buddhist thinkers who were of the
most importance in shaping Ch'an thought were
Seng-chao(u) (374-414) and Tao-sheng(v) (ca.
360-434).(30) With them, at the beginning of the 5th
century, Chinese intellectual mysticism enters a new
phase,brought about by a better understanding of
Buddhism through texts translated by Kumarajiva and
also by the fact that literati with religious
aspirations had become accustomed to seeing the world
in terms of Buddhism, Thus, Seng-chao, in spite of
the fact that he relied heavily on Kuo Hsiang and
freely used Lao-Chuang vocabulary, did not con-

P.419

sider himself an heir to the Chuang-Tzu tradition,
but a Buddhist, a student of Kumarajiva. As such he
showed a "thorough familiarity with sutra sunyavada,
he understood epistemology, ontology, and the theory
of language of the Prajnaparamita Sutras and of the
Vimalakirti Nidesa."(31) He accepted the doctrine of
two truths (satyadraya) (32), assuming that bodhi,
the state of true enlightenment, was a mental state
completely cut off from ordinary sense-spheres, a
state of no-mentation. Ultimate reality is the One,so
"how could what is All be this or that? It is our
human mind that makes distinctions."(33)
According to Liebenthal, Seng-chao's mysticism
culminated in a state of ecstacy reached through
meditation. "What he saw must have been what the
Indian meditators also experienced when they entered
the meditative state of samadhi. "(34) Robinson
criticises this saying that Seng-chao understood the

"ultimate relation between logical and
dialectical forms and the mystery of reality-he
saw the road to bodhi not in the practice of
trances, but as a journey through, on, and over
propositions about existence and inexistence."
(35)

Be that as it may, Seng-chao's major concern lay
with the human mind, its distortion and purification.
In his important essay on "Prajna as Nonknowledge",
he pictures the true man's mystical mind as empty,
pure, reflecting - in the same terms as the
Tao-te-ching and the Chuang-Tzu. As is the Taoist
sage, Seng-chao's ideal man appears dull and stupid
when compared to ordinary folk who:discriminate and
judge their surroundings. The pure mind is
inexhaustible and unceasing, in that it has the
qualities of the Tao itself. Resting in itself, it
functions by responding, like the axis of a wheel. It
is utterly free from thoughts, worries, and all
mundane strivings. Thus the quality of no-mind,
central to Chuang-Tzu and Ch'an, is realized. It
transcends all opposites yet endlessly responds to
them.
Comparing Seng-chao's concepts with the Chuang-
Tzu, we find that the true man of old has not changed
in substance, but the description of no-mind has
grown in complexity. The frequency of quotations from
the Tao-te-ching and the Chuang-Tzu shows that
Chinese mystical thought was significantly formed by
these two classics. The two major features of

P.420

Lao-Chuang mysticism are still conspicuous: the
underlying pure entity which is just there (the One,
the Tao), and the perfect man who is not bound by
perception and emotion. No flight from the world is
advised by Seng-chao, but a reflective, responsive
attitude towards it. "Because the true man views the
transformations of the universe as all of one breath,
he passes through, adapting himself to whatever he
encounters."(36)
To illustrate the use of Lao-Chuang thought by
a direct forerunner of Ch'an Buddhism, the example of
Shih Wang-ming(w) may serve. His original name was
Sung Kuan-tai(x).(36) Born around 516, he strove for
the spiritual from an early age and harbored a wish
to renounce the world. He was raised in the
atmosphere of Pure Talk and Lao-Chuang philosophly,
and wandered around sacred mountains for spiritual
consolation. In his biography, he is called an heir
to Juan Chi and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove.
In 553, he accepted an office under Yuan-ti of Liang,
but upon the fighting over the issue of his
succession that ensued in 555, he left the capital
again in 557. This time he turned to Ssuch'uan with
the intention of renouncing the world. There he found
a gifted teacher, the famous meditation master T'o.
When Emperor Wu of the Northern Chou ascended the
throne in 561,he conferred a title upon Wang-ming and
invited him to take office, but he steadfastly
refused to be involved in political affairs. He kept
this attitude though urged to accept office again in
567.
By that time his fame had spread throughout the
empire and in order to satisfy the numerous nobles
who came to learn from him, he composed the
Pao-jen-ming(y).(38) This is a rather excentional
piece for a scholar-meditator. As Robinson rightly
noted in the case of Seng-chao, mystical philosophers
in China often have "left not so much as one sentence
of explicit spiritual autobiography."(39) Wang-ming
says:

When I was 15, I valued study and texts. At
30,I thought power and postiion all-important.
Then I was confronted with upheaval and
destruction in the capital, ruin and loss of
office. All the intellectuals within the four
seas were left standing alone and in imminent
danger of death. Thereupon I realized with a
deep sigh: There is a power which overturns
Heaven and topples the sun. All perishes within
a short morning, even things as hard as the
rocks of Mount T'ai collapse and vanish in an
instant. The

P.421

only thing I know for sure is that this
phenomenal world is without any permanence,
that this floating life is empty and vain. Its
solidity is like the morning dew; how long does
it last. The true man should fight evil in his
life, and with his death feed a tiger. This is
the only way. Practising meditation is perfect
to nourish the will, and studying the sutras is
good enough to bring me pleasure. Riches,
honor, fame, and praise are but vain endeavors
of man. Therefore I cast off those ornaments
and judgements, cut my hair and took the monk's
robe... Strivings and efforts, knowledge and
struggle only exhaust one's pure mind and
injure one's life. As long as the Tao is
diminished day by day, what use is there of
much knowledge^ I vow to make my body like a
withered tree, my thoughts like dead ashes. I
will exorcise those fetters of worry and search
for emptiness and vastness.

This document heavily relies on Chuang-Tzu
vocabulary, especially where the final
realization is concerned: the meditator's ideal
is being in a trance like "a withered tree and
dead ashes", the ultimate goal being the vision
of "emptiness and vastness".(40) The same
terminology is found in the description of
Bodhidharma's teaching:(41) Entering the true
principle consists of the following: Remain
solid without moving, never follow alien
doctrines, experience mystical union with the
Tao and live non-action in emptiness.

The initial insight instigating the renunciation of
the world, however, reflects Buddhist thought and
imagery: the impermanence of all phenomena, vanishing
like dew; and the true man's life as beneficial to
all beings.
Wang-ming here represents the well-educated of-
ficial who likes to philosophize. When his world is
shattered to the foundations, he commences the search
for the one ever-lasting principle, the One that
survives even the overturning of Heaven and Earth.
His combination of Lao-Chuang philosophy and Taoist
vocabulary with Buddhist thought and practice
illucidates the early formative phase of the Ch'an
world-view. His position is even more obviously seen
in the fact that his main philosophical treatise, the
Hsi-hsin-

P.422

ming(z) (on "Restmg the Mind") was included in
chapter 30 of the Transmission of the Lamp, the
history of Ch'an compiled under the Sung. Kamata
points out that this chapter contains only works
thought important and representative for Ch'an
philosophy, as there are Fu Ta-shih's Hsin-wang-ming.
Seng-ts'an's Hsin-hsin-ming, Niu-t'ou Fa-jung's
Hsin-ming, et. al. All these are concerned with man's
mind and reflect the Ch'an concept of consciousness,
which is central to the practice and theory of
meditation.
The Hsi-hsin-ming offers fervent advice to stop
thinking and worrying:

Don't think much, don't know muchl Much
knowledge means deep involvement, it is much
better to rest the will. A head full of worries
means many failures; how much better to 'guard
the One'?

It promises tremendous results:

When all mentation and thoughts cease,life and
death (=samsara) will be cut off permanently.
No more death, no more life, no Phenomena, no
names. One Tao in emptiness and vastness, the
myriad beings all made equal.

The same attitude towards conscious thinking is
also found in another text by Wang-ming, the
"Admonition to Abolish Learning" (Ch
'ueh-hsueh-chen(aa). It postulates the uselessness of
scriptures and teachings of the sages. This
postulation is typical for Ch'an Buddhism and again
has a forerunner in the Chuang-Tzu:(42)

When the men of old died, they took with them
the things that could not be handed down. So
what we are reading must be nothing but the
chaff and dregs of the men of old.

Wang-ming's work was discovered in Tun-huang and is
largely identical with the Hsi-hsin-ming to which it
adds,

Charts and scriptures, pens and scrolls are not
permanent in their use.(43)

P.423

The rejection of learning voiced here can be linked
to the absurdity of all efforts and practices
postulated much more radically by Niu-t'ou Fa-jung:
"Stop meditating and forget all practice." And it is
certainly linked to Lin-chi's lesson:(44)

What are you seeking in the realms of changing
dependence? The Three Vehicles and the Twelve
Divisions of the teaching all are so much old
paper to mop up messes. The Buddha is an
illusory phantom. The patriarchs are old monks.

All there is to be done in order to fulfil the quest
is to simply stop the workings of one's mind and look
no further outside oneself. Then one will realize
no-mind, be free from all mentation, and be
everywhere released. One can go back to everyday
life. The Transmission of the Lamp states: "Live a
normal life, but don't attach yourself to the things
of purposeful activity."(45) So here again we meet
the true man who, like Kuo Hsiang's sage, lives his
life in society, but is free from anxieties and
hopes. Because he realizes his "true inborn nature,he
is indifferent to life and death."(46)
A Ch'an mystic, after coming to understand the
other side, can come back to work on this side.
"After his enlightenment, Fa-jung, instead of sitting
in the rock cave, ignored his visitors, went down the
mountain, asking alms and carrying riches for 300
people to the temple."(47) The strong emphasis placed
by Ch'an Buddhists on manual work, "in carrying water
and chopping wood is the wonderful Tao", has to be
understood in connection with their concern with the
human mind, with a salvation in the here and now. As
Lin-ch'i puts it:(48)

You seek escape from the three worlds. You
foolish people, if you want to get out of the
three worlds, where can you go? The Buddhas and
patriarchs are only phrases of adoration. Do
you want to know the three worlds? They do not
differ from the sensation of your listening to
the Dharma now. One of your passionate urges is
the world of desire. A momentary anger is the
world of form. And a second's foolish ignorance
is the form-less world....we are the three
worlds.

P.424

Radical agnosticism and analysis of mind is what
attracted Chinese intellectuals to the particular
practice of Ch'an Buddhism, which in turn is
distinctive because of its "recognition of the
individual need."(49) In this respect, it is heir to
a long line of mysticism shaped by individual
literati who searched for spiritual guidance in
Lao-Chuang and later in Buddhism. In summary, Ch'an
and Lao-Chuang are two different manifestations of
the same latent tendency, of the search for "a truly
free way of life for mankind"(50) and, in particular,
for themselves. They did not always achieve it
completely, some reached only rare moments of freedom
in ecstacy or drunkenness, while others found the
truth in their office or their garden. But many
became monks, meditated and philosophized. The trend
remained, the forms changed. Because the basic
mystical doctrine came to be Buddhist, the enterprise
was raised from private to monastic level.
Thereafter, individual freedom had to be fought for
anew, and was finally gained. That there is only one
truth in the cosmos, and that all men and all things
are endowed with it, has remained the basic credo
over the ages. Simililarly, all these mystics shared
the vision of the true man, the individual with a
pure mind of truth who is free from anxieties and
hopes, lov1e and hate. No god, they realized, can
bestow this state of realization; everyone must work
for it by himself. There is not an otherworldly being
existing somewhere beyond, but a reality of this
present actual world. One begins the search upon
realizing the vicious circle of thoughts and
emotions. One fulfills the quest in the mystical
vision of one in all, then one goes back to normal.
The true man does not look, smell or act any
differently. "In the last resort, nothing is
gained".(51)

In the square pool there is a turtle-nosed serpent.
Ridiculous,indeed, when you come to think of it.
Who pulled out the serpent's head?
In the square pool there is a turtle-nosed serpent.

P.425

NOTES

1. See my paper, " The Habit of Perfection, A Sum-
mary of Fukunaga's Studies on the Chuang-tzu
Tradition", Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 1 (1985), 71.
2. It survived,however,in mystical Taoism, especially
in texts like the Hsi-sheng-ching,the Tso-wang-lun,
etc. Cf. my "Seven Steps to the Tao: Ssu-ma
Ch'eng-chen's Tso-wang-lun ": Monumenta Serica 36
(to appear).
3. T.Izutsu, The Key Philosophical Concepts in Sufism
and Taoism (Tokyo Keio Univ, 1967), 197.
4. On Hun-tun see N.J. Girardot, " Returning to the
Beginning and the 'Arts of Mr. Hun-tun' in the
Chuang-Tzu": Journal of Chinese Philosophy 5
(1978), 21.
5. This is referred to in the term ch'eng-hsin (ac),
realized mind, as formulated in ch. 2 of the
Chuang-Tzu. There are two contradictory
interpretations of this term: one by Kuo Hsiang,
followed also by Fukunaga, Soshi, (Tokyo: Asahi,
1979), I, 72, which sees ch'eng-hsin as parallel
to ch'eng-hsing(ad), realiaed body. Thus the term
comes to mean the manifestation of the True Lord
of the universe, taking his shape and taking his
'mind'. The other interpretation by Ch'eng
Hsuan-ying already shows Buddhist influence. It is
taken up by T'ang Chun-i, Chung-kuo che-hsueh
yuan-lun. (Taipei: Hsueh-sheng, 1966) , 133.
Ch'eng-hsin is explained through the expression
ch'eng-hu-hsin, (ae) formed by mind, appearing in
the text a little later. Thus it means produced,
developed mind, i.e. the basis for categories,
truth distorted.
6. These statements on the true man are taken from
Chuang-tzu 6, B. Watson. The Complete Works of
Chuang-tzu, (New York: Columbia, 1968) , 80;
Chuangtzu 21. Watson p. 221;and Chuang-tzu 23,
Watson p. 253 respectively.
7. Fukunaga Mitsuji, " 'No-mind' in Chuang-tzu and
Ch'an Buddhism" (tr. L. Hur vitz),Zimbun 12 (1969),
16.
8. E.Zurcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China. (Leiden:
E. Brill, 1959) , 116; L. Hurvitz, Chih-i
(Bruxelles, 1963), 46. Chih Tun's biography is in
the Kao-seng-chuan, T. 50, 348. On his works see
Zurcher. Conquest, 360.
9. Fukunaga, " Shi Ton to sane shui " ( "Chih Tun and
his Surroundings") Bikkyo shigaku 5.2 (1956). 101;
Hachiya Kunio, "Soshi shoyoyuu hen o meguru Kaku
Sho to Shi Ton no kaishaku", ("The Commentaries to
the Hsiao-yao-yu Chapter of the Chuang-Tzu by Kuo
Hsiang and Chih Tun"). Hikaku bunka kenkyuu 8
(1967),84.
10.Fukunaga. " Shi Ton ",100; see also Soshi, III.
117; "Traces" in the Chuang-Tzu denote the effects
of something rather than the real thing, "that
which caused the tracer".

P.426

11. Hachiya, "Soshi",86.
12. Ibid.,84.
13. Zurcher,Buddhist Conquest. 129.
14. Translation by R.B.Mather, A New Account of the
World, ( Minneapolis : Univ, of Minnesota Press,
1976), 100.
15. Chuang-tzu 2, Watson. p.32.
16. His biography is in Chin-shu 67; see also Zurcher,
Buddhist Conquest, 134; Fukunaga, "Ki Cho no
bukkyo shiso" ("Hsi Ch'ao's Buddhism") ,
Festschnft for Tsukamoto Senryuu, (Kyoto:
Hosokan. 1961), 631
17. Ed.T.52, 86a-89b, translation Zurcher, Buddhist
Conquest, 164; additional noter, K Ch'en. "A
propos the Feng-fa-yao of Hsi Ch'ao", T'oung-pao
50 (1963). 79. For Hsi Ch'ao's other works, see
Zurcher, Buddhist Conquest, 366.
18. Zurcher,Buddhist Conquest. 17l;text T. 52, 88a.
19. This is a technical term from Chuang-Tzu 2,
denoting the third stage of the decline from pure
mind to istorted perception, i.e. the first
appearance of distinctions and categories.
20. Fukunaga, "Ki Cho", 642;text T.52,89a.
21. The Yu-tao-lun is found in T.52, 16b; translation
by A. Link and T. Lee,Monumenta Serica 25 (1966),
169.
22. See Zurcher,Buddhist Conquest, 186;Hurvitz.Chih-i,
63; A.Link, "Biography of Shih Tao-an", T'oun-pao
46 (1958), 1.
23. D.Bodde/Fung Yu-lan, History of Chinese Philosophy,
Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. 1953), II, 244;
A. Link "The Taoist Antecedants of Tao-an's
Prajna Ontology", History of Religions 9 (1969),
193.
24. Ibid.,197.
25. Ibid., 207 preface to the Ta shih-erh-men ching, T.
55, 46a
26. Ibid.,199.
27. R.H.Robinson, Early Madynamika in India and China,
(Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1967), 106;
Hui-yuuan's biography was translated by Zurcher,
Buddhist Conquest, 240 See also W. Liebenthal,
"Shih Hui-yuan's Buddhism". Journal of the
American Oriental Sociery 70 (1950), 243.
28. Fukunaga, "Eon to Roso shiso" ("Hui-yuan and Lao-
Chuang") , Kimura Eiichi, Eon kenkyuu, (Tokyo:
Sobunsha, 1962) , 398-400, lists numerous
Chuang-Tzu and Tao-te-ching quotations from
Hui-yuan's works.
29. Fukunaga." Eon ", 425 : cf. also Murakami Yoshimi
"Eon no hogai shiso" (The Transcendental
Philosophy, of Hui-yuan") , Rikucho shisoshi
kenkyuu (Kyoto, 1974), 171
30. Bodde/Fung, History. II,388; W.Liebenthal, Chao-
lun; The Treatises of Sengchao. (Hongkong:
Hongkong Univ. Press. 1968).41

P.427

31. Robinson, Early Madyamika. 135; Hurvitz, Chih-i,
73; cf. also Liebenthal, Chaolun; Fukunaga,
"Socho to Roso Shiso" ("Seng-chao and
Lao-Chuang"). Tsukamoto Senryuu, Choron kenkyuu.
(Kyoto: Hosokan, 1955), 252.
32. Robinson. " Mysticism and Logic in the Thought of
Seng-chao ", Philosophy East and West 8 (1958),
105.
33. Liebenthal. Chao-lun.41.
34. Ibid,40.
35. Robinson, "Mysticism and Logic", 120.
36. Liebenthal, Chao-lun, 54; translation of the Pu-
chen-k'ung lun.
37. His biography is in Hsu Kao-seng-chuan 7, T.50,
481b-482b; see also Kamata Shigeo, Chuugoku
bukkyo shisoshi kenkyuu (Tokyo, 1968), 242
38. Ed.in his biography T.50,481c-482a.
39. Robinson, "Mysticism and Logic",108.
40. This is based on Chuang-Tzu 2; Kamata, Chuugoku
bukkyo, 247.
41. Hsu Kao-seng-chuan 16,T.50,511c.
42 Chuang-Tzu 13,Watson, The Complete Works, 153.
43. MS. Stein no.2165; Tanaka Ryosho, "So Bomei soku-
shin mei" ("On Wang-ming's Hsi-hsin-ming"), Indo
bukkyo kenkyuu 23 (1964), 175.
44. Lin-ch'i-lu, Shih-chung 10; I. Schloegl, The Zen
Teaching of Rinzai, ( Berkeley: Shambhala. 1976),
38.
45. Bodde Fung,History, II,403.
46. Chung-yuan Chang, "Ch'an Manter Niu-t'ou Fa-jung
and His Teaching on Prajnaparamita", Chinese
Culture 7 (1967),43.
47. Ibid.,37.
48. Lin-ch'i-lu 27;Schloegl,The Zen Teaching,45.
49. Jan Yun-hua, " Tsung-mi, His Analysis of Ch'an
Buddhism", T'oung-pao 58 (1972),30.
50. Fukunaga, "No-mind", 40.
51. Bodde/Fung, History.
II,401.