The Complementary Role of Buddhism and Taoism Thought to Confucian Indoctrination in "Xuan Guai Lu"

Abstract

Studying the Buddhist and Taoist thought in the book "Xuan Guai Lu" not only helps us to understand the Tang Dynasty literature and history but also enables us to explore the changes socially and morally and the religious factors behind them. This paper aims to study the embodiment and integration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in "Xuan Guai Lu", and how they cooperate in moral education. This paper summarizes and outlines previous studies through a literature review, counts the specific forms of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in the existing 57 articles of 5 volumes of "Xuan Guai Lu", and analyzes some chapters in detail through text analysis. This paper believes that "Xuan Guai Lu" embodies rich Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist thoughts, and the three are integrated. It judges good and evil with the Confucian criteria of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, trustworthiness, gentleness, kindness, respectfulness, thriftiness, complaisance, loyalty, filial piety, integrity, shame, courage ". It guides people to be good with supernatural means and the transcendental realm of Taoist immortals and alerts people with the Buddhist concepts of reincarnation and hellish suffering. It also criticizes the privileges of the ruling class. In the late Tang Dynasty, when Confucianism was declining, the intervention of immortals and ghosts ensured the mystery and dignity of moral education, providing great assistance to the implementation of Confucian moral education.