Editor's note: In order to promote scientific atheism, from September 10, we will serialize Li Shen's monograph "History of Atheism in China". Li Shen, born in April 1946, is a native of Mengjin County, Henan. He graduated from the Department of Atomic Physics of the Harbin Military Engineering College in 1969; in 1986, he graduated from the Department of World Religion Studies of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with a doctorate degree in philosophy; in 2000, he became a researcher, doctoral supervisor, and director of the Confucian Research Office of the Institute of World Religions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 2002, he became a professor at the Department of Philosophy of Shanghai Normal University. He is currently an advisor to the Chinese Atheist Society, an advisor to the International Confucian Federation, and a vice president of the China Anti-Cult Association.
Chapter Seven: Atheistic Thought During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties
V. From the Confucian Theory of Destiny to the "Theory of Three Reports" of the High Monk Huiyuan
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Confucian Dai Kui wrote the "Theory of Interpretation of Doubts", advocating the theory of predestination. After enumerating the exposition of the Yi Chuan on the accumulation of good and evil and the judgment of Lao Tzu that "the Heavenly Dao has no relatives", he said that these teachings of the saints show that the good and evil of people are determined by their predecessors, and the good and evil of their own words and deeds are meaningless: "It is good that there is a definite family of good and evil, and the practice of future generations is beneficial." Then he enumerates the historical facts of the retribution of good and evil:
There was also Shu Xiu's words and deeds that were harmless, and Heaven punished Chu Bailuo to prepare a baby. Willful and wanton tyranny, shengbao glory and noble descendants are flourishing. Extrapolating from this, what does the reward of goodness care!? (Dai Kui's "Interpretation of Doubts")
Therefore, there is no such thing as a good reward. He concluded:
Therefore, knowing that the wise and the foolish, the good, the evil, the short and the poor have their own destiny, and they are not caused by accumulation.
That is to say, the length of people's life span, the poor and the poor, all have "life". One's own words and deeds have no effect on one's own encounters. As for the teachings of Yi Chuan and Lao Tzu, in his opinion, they are only exhortations to do good deeds, not a fact.
Dai Kui gave his thesis to the senior monk Hui Yuan, who asked Zhou Xuzhi to answer Dai Kui's question.
Zhou Xuzhi listed the facts in history that were rewarded for good deeds, showing that the teachings of the saints could not be wrong. As for those things that have not been rewarded, it may be because the retribution should be in the dark and unknown. But retribution does exist.
However, Dai Kui grasped zhou's statement that he was blessed due to the good deeds of his predecessors and said, Isn't this exactly what I said about predetermining fate, and his own deeds are meaningless? Dai Kui also said that if retribution really exists, it should be like governing the country with a reasonable family, so that "good is not rewarded, and evil is punished without fiber." Let the practitioners keep their feet in good hands, and the extremely rebellious ones suffer from their cruelty. In this way, the words "the house of good will have a remnant of celebration, and the house of the unkind will have a remnant" will be convinced by future generations. But the reality is just the opposite:
Not today. Or evil is deep and unspeakable, or good is accumulated and evil is perfected, or it is righteous and righteous, or it is wreaking havoc and blessings, is it not a matter of division without a commandment. (Dai Kui's "Answer to zhou jushi's difficult to explain doubts")
Dai Kui went on to say that if the good and the good are indeed not false, the arrival of the retribution can be sooner or later, but the good and evil should not be wrong, and the right and wrong should not be reversed: "But when the report is not cut to the ear of the late, it is not untestable for the good and the evil to be wrong" (Dai Kui's "Answer to the Difficult Doubts of Zhou Jushi"). So he reiterated his conclusion that:
As far as Push is concerned, human life is also divided into dreams. The good one is self-good, not first having his own life and then doing good so that he is good; the evil one is evil from himself, and he who does evil without evil does not have a duty and does evil in order to gain evil. Therefore, knowing that the poor reach good and evil, and the foolish wisdom and longevity are nothing more than life. The division of life is set at the beginning of the meditation, and the practice of the foot can be easily natural.
Dai Kui attributed his destiny to nature. That is to say, in his view, predetermined fate is the natural result of the Heavenly Dao. This is the manifestation of The Way of Heaven in the matter of personal destiny.
Dai Kui and Zhou Xuzhi both mention Sima Qian's doubts about retribution. In Dai Kui's view, Sima Qian's doubts were correct, but they lacked arguments. In Zhou Xuzhi's view, Sima Qian's argument showed that his learning was superficial. Whatever their assessment, it shows that Sima Qian's past unheeded doubts had a wide impact during this period.
Hui Yuan saw that Zhou Xuzhi could not convince Dai Kui, so he personally wrote the "Three Reports Theory". Hui Yuan then said that Dai Kui's only "report to the late and not cut the present" said that there should be three kinds of retribution. The first is the present retribution, that is, whether to do good or evil, there will be retribution when you are alive. The second is the retribution of life, that is, there will be retribution in the next life. The third is the post-retribution: "The latter who has been retributed, or has been born for two or three lives, and then receives." "Although the retribution comes sooner or later, but the retribution must be realized, it is certain:
If there is no master, it will be by the heart. The heart is uncertain, and the feelings are reciprocal. There should be a delay, so there is a priority for reporting. Although the succession is different, the saltiness is right as it is encountered. There are strengths and weaknesses, so the weight is different. The reward and punishment of nature, the great reward of the three rewards. (Hui Yuan's "Three Reports")
The situation of retribution in the next life or even in the second and third lives is not only difficult to verify, but also impossible to verify. So Dai Kui had nothing to say.
In this way, Hui Yuan's "Theory of Three Reports" not only saved the Buddhist theory of retribution, but also saved the Retribution Theory of Confucianism and Taoism. According to the Retribution of Confucianism and Taoism, the bearer of retribution is the descendant of the actor. At least since the Spring and Autumn Period, special attention has been paid to the Chinese of history, and not only the good and evil of famous actors will be recorded, but also the situation of their descendants will be quite well understood. Therefore, whether retribution is realized or not, even if the world does not know it, in a hundred years or a thousand years, future generations will know. Beginning with Sima Qian, when people discussed the issue of retribution, they often quoted the historical data that was well documented.
But what the high monk Huiyuan said about retribution is based on the Buddhist concept of retribution. One of the major differences with Confucianism and Taoism is that retribution is not repaid to the descendants, but to oneself, and is borne by one's own descendants. But for whom is his own reincarnation in the next life? Does anyone know? Not to mention whether he suffered the consequences of good and evil in his previous life. Speaking of such a degree, Dai Kui naturally had nothing to say.
Nevertheless, during the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, the famous Confucian Liu Jun wrote "The Theory of Discernment", which continued to expound the idea that fate is predestined and that good and evil have no retribution.
The Apologetics does not first invoke facts, but first proceeds from the philosophical conception of nature, which holds that all living things, including man, are born of nature. "The natural one who sees things as they are, does not know why they are so, and he who has the same thing, does not know why he gets." If you do not know why they are so, and if you do not know why you have them, then, you do not think that they are the credit for promoting and shaping them; it is not the external credit that fulfills their categorical disposition. Heaven has no intention of producing and nurturing them, nor of the mind to make them die. Therefore, the life and death of all things, the gains and losses of honor and disgrace, are their own affairs.
Therefore, once these classes are formed, they no longer change. Once formed and no longer change, this is their destiny. This life is given by God. "Fixed in the omen of meditation, it will never change. Ghosts and gods cannot predict, and sages cannot plot. In other words, no one, including ghosts and gods, can change. Therefore, Yao also suffered a major flood, and Shang Tang also suffered a major drought. This is the life of everyone. As for others, this is especially true. The length of their lives, the misfortunes of a lifetime of poverty, "saltiness is derived from nature, and it is not false to wisdom." That's why Confucius said, "Death and life depend on fate, and wealth lies in heaven." "Those who are good and have good rewards are just exhortations to do good.
Liu Jun not only denied that there was good retribution for goodness, but also denied that the "Heavenly Dao Blessed, Good, and Evil" (Shangshu Tang Zhen) said in the Book of Shang. He cited the reality of war and chaos in the Central Plains at that time, saying that the Central Plains, which used to be the place where the sages of the previous kings and sages ruled and practiced religion, is now the place where rong di ran rampant. The people of Rongdi, "take the killing as morality, and the steaming as benevolence", why doesn't Heaven punish them? Therefore, the so-called "blessings, goodnesses, and misfortunes" are nothing. So he further concluded: "Evil is due to man, and evil is the life of the evil." "Gentlemen know this, so they do not seek retribution, but only cultivate their virtues and do their duty.
Liu Jun, the character XiaoBiao, whose "Commentary on the New Sayings of the World" has been handed down to this day, is a famous work in the ancient Chinese texts.
The doctrine of destiny and retribution are but two different theories of theology. However, under the circumstances at that time, believing in destiny and opposing retribution was not only a denial of the traditional "good and good reward", but also a negation of the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, which had the significance of denying the role of gods, especially the Buddhist theory of reincarnation. However, just by denying retribution, not only was Dai Kui unable to refute the so-called shengbao and post-report, but Liu Jun's "Theory of Discernment" also failed to negate the so-called shengbao and post-retribution. To deny the birth report and the post-report, we must clarify a premise, that is, whether reincarnation is possible. And even in the debate over the existence of retribution, the question of whether reincarnation is possible is also fiercely debated.
Can the powdered body reunite and regenerate?
- The first round of debate about whether reincarnation is possible
During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Confucian Luo Han wrote the Theory of Rebirth, which preached the theory of reincarnation.
According to the Theory of Regeneration, heaven and earth are the general names of all things. Heaven and earth are infinite, but all things are counted. Man is one of all things. There are endless changes between heaven and earth. Change is the change of all things. If everything changes to nothingness and ceases to exist, then one day, all things will disappear. Heaven and earth are the total names of all things, and when all things disappear, heaven and earth will end. Now that there is no end in heaven and earth, it means that all things have not changed into nothingness; and the reason why nothingness has not changed is because all things, including man, are constantly being reborn. One of the proofs of all things being reborn.
The second proof is that tangible things are counted. People and things, the number of which is determined. There is nothing, and nothing can be changed; nothing else can be changed into me. Therefore, people, like all things, change and change, but they still have to become themselves: "Wise and foolish, they still return to the old things; nature runs through the times, and there is no difference." "It's just that this truth is very profound, and few people can understand it." Therefore, all things and people are reborn.
The third proof is that all things between heaven and earth are different from each other, and every thing, every person, has its own nature, its own ancestors and descendants. The death of things and people is nothing more than a temporary separation of form from God. When re-aggregated, they combine again to restore themselves. This is regeneration.
Finally, Luo Han said, people only know that human death is the dissipation of qi, but they do not know that this temporarily separated body and spirit will definitely reunite. The re-assembled me is still the same me as before. That's why those who attain enlightenment will regard death and life as the same, and death and life as sleep and awakening. That's right.
What Luo Han calls "rebirth" is the Buddhist reincarnation. The so-called rebirth is also the first understanding of reincarnation by Chinese scholars. Because this was not previously in traditional Chinese thought, it was refuted by his friend Sun Sheng, a famous Confucian in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
Sun Sheng said that so far, in the process of changing everything, there have been too many things to change into other things. How many of them were able to demobilize the original? It seems to me that the death of things, the form and the spirit, all dissipate together like dust. The things that have turned into dust are mixed and mixed, and then they change into other things, and they have since lost their original appearance and are no longer their original selves. This is why those sentient creatures are sad about death. In this way, you cannot comfort yourself with what regeneration:
I mean that the form is both pink and know. Confusion and confusion, turning into foreign objects and other things, each losing its old. Non-reverted to the past. This sentient being laments. If so, then the foot can not be alone to masturbate also. (Sun Sheng's "Reply to Luo Junzhang's Treatise on Rebirth")
The so-called "form is scattered, knowledge is also the same" is a traditional concept inherent in China. That is, the so-called one breath of all things, gathering is life, scattering is death. Wang Chong likens this process to water condensing into ice, and ice reverting into water. The water is condensed again, and it is impossible that the water of the original ice is still condensed together.
Luo Han naturally could not agree with Sun's opinion. He still insisted that the change of things "does not lose its old body", and believed that this rebirth was an infinite process, not ended in one go. He criticized Sun Sheng: "If you fail to know the present, can An know more?" "Yes, how can you know what will happen after rebirth!" The so-called "failure to ... An Neng" (Luo Han's "Reply to Sun An Guoshu") is a paraphrase of Confucius's "unknown birth, an knowledge of death". That is to say, after death, is the situation of a person becoming a foreign body, or is it reborn? It's a question that no one can figure out. So both sides fell silent.
To understand the so-called "rebirth," the problem of reincarnation, we need to find another way. This new path was opened up later than Luo Han, Sun Sheng's He Chengtian and Yan Yanzhi.