護法論

Hùfǎ lùn 護法論

Treatise in Defence of the Dharma

written by 張商英 (Zhāng Shāngyīng / Wújǐn jūshì 無盡居士, 1043–1121, 述)

About the work

A 1-juan Northern-Sòng lay Buddhist apologetic treatise by Zhāng Shāngyīng 張商英 (1043–1121), the Northern-Sòng grand-secretary, briefly grand councillor under Huīzōng 徽宗 in 1110–1111, and major lay-Buddhist scholar. The work is the principal Sòng Buddhist counter-attack on the Northern-Sòng Confucian-Buddhist controversy initiated by Hán Yù 韓愈 (768–824) in the Yuándào 原道 (820) and continued by Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修 (1007–1072) in the Běnlùn 本論. Composition is bracketed by 1101–1121 — Zhāng’s senior official career and lay-Buddhist apologetic activity.

The work is reported by the Yuán-period reprint preface (preserved in the Taishō paratext) to comprise 12,345 characters (“凡一萬二千三百四十五言”). Transmitted in Taishō 52 as T2114.

Prefaces

The Yuán-period reprint preface (by Sūzhōu Kāiyuánsì zhùchí Huànwēng chánshī Duānwén 蘇州開元住持煥翁禪師端文) explains the textual history: an earlier Mín 閩 (Fújiàn) print by Mǐn sēng Huìqīn 閩僧慧欽 had been prefaced by the Hànlín shìjiǎng xuéshì Yú Jí 虞集 (1272–1348) — the great Yuán literatus — fixing the Yuán-period circulation. The reprint was undertaken to extend the work’s circulation.

Abstract

The work is structured as a comprehensive defence of Buddhism against the Confucian critique. The principal targets are:

1. Hán Yù 韓愈’s argument in the Yuándào 原道 — that Buddhism is foreign and anti-Confucian-ethical;
2. Ōuyáng Xiū 歐陽修’s argument in the Běnlùn 本論 — that Buddhism’s spread reflects a failure of Confucian education and can be reversed by educational reform;
3. The general Northern-Sòng gǔwén 古文 critique of Buddhism as a degeneration from the classical Confucian tradition.

Zhāng’s defence proceeds on multiple fronts:

• Doctrinal-philosophical — Buddhism’s metaphysics is more comprehensive and more theoretically rigorous than the comparatively undeveloped Confucian metaphysics;
• Ethical-social — the Buddhist precepts and bodhisattva path produce ethical-social outcomes superior to the Confucian lǐ (ritual-propriety) framework;
• Historiographical — Confucian historical sources themselves preserve evidence of Buddhist practice (or its analogues) in the deep antiquity Confucianism claims as its own;
• Personal-spiritual — the Buddhist contemplative tradition addresses spiritual problems that the Confucian xiūshēn (self-cultivation) tradition cannot.

The work is the principal Sòng-Buddhist counter-attack on the Northern-Sòng Confucian critique, alongside Qìsōng’s 契嵩 Tánjīn wénjí (KR6r0148, T2115, 19 juan) — the two together constituting the documentary core of Sòng Buddhist apologetic literature.

Translations and research

• Robert M. Gimello, “Marga and Culture: Learning, Letters and Liberation in Northern Sung Ch’an,” in Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Robert M. Gimello, eds., Paths to Liberation (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1992) — uses the Hù-fǎ lùn in the broader treatment of Northern-Sòng Chán-Confucian scholarly relations.
• Albert Welter, Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) — discusses Zhāng Shāng-yīng’s apologetic project.
• Patricia Ebrey, Emperor Huizong (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 2014) — biographical context.
• Christian Cochini, L’origine du célibat ecclésiastique (Roma, 1981) — uses Zhāng’s argument on monastic celibacy.
• Yu Chün-fang on Zhāng Shāng-yīng and the late-Northern-Sòng lay Buddhist apologetic.

Other points of interest

The work was a major source of authority for subsequent SòngYuánMíng Buddhist apologetics against Confucian criticism, and is cited extensively in later Buddhist polemical literature down through the Míng. Zhāng’s combination of senior-official rank and accomplished lay-Buddhist scholarship made him a particularly compelling figure for the Sòng Buddhist establishment’s self-presentation to the Confucian court.

Links

• CBETA: T52n2114