Zhi Dun, one of the seven monks in Wei and Jin Dynasties, was a man of life and thought.

Zhi Dun (3 14-366), whose real name is Guan, is Daolin. Liu Chen (now Kaifeng City, Henan Province) was born, or he was born in Lv Lin, Hedong (now Linxian County, Henan Province). Monks, Buddhists and writers in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

He first lived in seclusion in Yuhang Mountain and became a monk at the age of 25. He once lived in Shan Zhi, and later built a temple in Xiaoling, Wozhou, Shan County (Xinchang County, Zhejiang Province), with more than 100 monks. When Ai Jindi went to Beijing, he was called to give a lecture at Dongan Temple and died three years later. He is proficient in Buddhism and has poems handed down from generation to generation. According to the literature, the picture of Shenwumen depicts the story of Zhi Dun's love for horses.

Zhi Daolin is a Buddhist. Metaphysics prevailed in Wei and Jin Dynasties, which influenced all aspects of social life and naturally influenced Buddhism. Although Zhi Daolin became a monk, he was quite famous. Be good at cursive writing, travel around mountains and water, and recite poems. He was given several horses, and he kept them carefully. Some people laughed at him for it. He replied, "I love them. I just raise them casually." Later, someone gave him two cranes, which he cherished even more. Soon, he said to the crane, "You are a soaring thing. How can you be a plaything for your eyes and ears?" So he set the crane free. All these are in line with the behavior of metaphysical celebrities at that time, so contemporary celebrities especially like to associate with him and compare him with metaphysical celebrities.

Sun Chuo once wrote an article in On Daoxian, comparing seven Buddhists (Zhi Daolin, Guardian, Sifazu, Facheng, Zhu Daoqian, Yu Falan and Yu) to "Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest", and thought that both of them (one of the Seven Sages) loved Zhuang and Lao. Although they are different, their literary talents and hobbies are similar. Therefore, Zhi Daolin, as a monk, is actually a celebrity. At that time, people commented that he was a "celebrity in cassock". He also said that he "feels Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, and the wind talks about guests." Before that, metaphysical scholars did not talk about Buddhism or even associate with Buddhists. Zhi Daolin initiated the combination of metaphysics and Buddhism. When Aidi allowed him to go back to the mountain, a generation of celebrities came to see him off, showing the admiration of celebrities for Zhi Daolin.

It is of course not only because of his celebrity demeanor, but also because of his thoughts and talents. In addition to writing poems, Zhi Daolin also wrote many important academic works, such as Metaphysics of Sex, Distinguishing Sages, Pursuit of Tao, Learning Tao, Comparison of Great Prose, Freedom and so on. Although most of his works have been lost today, judging from some articles and fragments that still exist, Zhi Daolin really has high attainments in Buddhism and Zhuangzi.

In Buddhism, the main achievement of Zhi Daolin is Prajna. In the Prajnaparamita school of Buddhism "six schools and seven schools" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, he represented Sezong. The basic view of Sezong is that "color is not its origin, although it is empty, it is empty, and color is empty." Although his meaning of color is not accurate enough, it is closer to the prajnaparamita empty view than other schools.

After Zhi Daolin moved to Shicheng Mountain, he studied Prajna and emphasized Zen. His book On Sexy Metaphysics explains Zen from a pornographic perspective. He believes that the world is "empty" and does not deny "heart". His understanding of Zen is careless and carefree, or there is no persistent realm, which is different from the peaceful Zen introduced from Han Dynasty.

Zhi Daolin's study of Buddhism made him a famous monk at that time. More influential, he explained Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi with Prajna, thus becoming a contemporary celebrity.

Zhi Daolin once talked with Liu Xi and others about Zhuangzi Xiaoyao in White Horse Temple. Liu Xi and others thought that "each is suitable for freedom", but Zhi Daolin said: "Otherwise, Jie and Zhi are cruel. If they are suitable for freedom, they are also free." So I made a comment on my point of view called "Have a nice trip", and everyone was full of praise after reading it. Prior to this, the masters of metaphysics, Guo Xiang and Xiang Xiu, annotated Zhuangzi. For these two notes, no one has ever played a new role except Guo and Xiang. In other words, these two notes became the insurmountable peak of Zhuangzi's research at that time. On the basis of two annotations, Zhi Daolin expounded the deeper meaning, and many profound and difficult truths were made clear by him, so philosophers regarded his explanation as "branch theory" and adopted it when talking about Zhuangzi from now on.

The reason why Zhi Daolin's Notes on Zhuangzi is "new" is that he introduced Buddhism into Zhuangzi and explained the carefree meaning of Zhuangzi with the present meaning. The metaphysical Guo Xiang's annotation of Zhuangzi Xiaoyao Tour is to look at the problem from the perspective of Zoroastrianism and nature, and thinks that everything has its own unchangeable nature. "Benevolence" is "humanity". To be self-sufficient, that is, "harmony without difference, self-sufficient", so as to achieve the realm of freedom. The so-called "saints" and "people" are just "sex".

Zhi Daolin believes that all sentient beings have different natures, and only "extreme" can not only conform to the natural nature of heaven and earth, but also be persistent, so as to achieve "comprehensive observation of wonderful groups, mysterious response, feeling bad", thus "indifferent" and "selfless", which is "carefree"

Zhi Daolin's interpretation of Zhuang by Buddhism shows that metaphysics itself has reached the limit of its thought in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and its combination with Buddhism has made it develop better. The great influence of Zhi Daolin at that time and its important position in the history of China thought and Buddhism were reflected here. He is a pioneer in the combination of metaphysics and Buddhism.

Ideological significance

As a representative figure of Buddhism in China during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Zhi Dun's thoughts were widely valued by academic circles. For a variety of reasons, the academic research on Zhi Dun's Buddhist thought mostly focuses on his "theory of color", "theory of freedom" and western pure land thought, but the research on his Buddhist thought is relatively weak, which also affects the comprehensive evaluation of Zhi Dun's Buddhist thought and its position in the process of Buddhism China.

Buddhism in China was formed on the basis of Indian Buddhism by absorbing and integrating relevant factors of local traditional culture. Wei and Jin Dynasties can be called the construction period of Buddhism in China. At the beginning of this period, the translation of Sanzang classics, the interpretation of righteousness and principles and the development of practice methods all took shape. Both monks and laymen consciously or unconsciously use China Thought to understand and popularize Buddhism. For example, the Prajna Sutra, named after the Infinite Great Light Sutra by Zhiqian, is interpreted by Geyi, which is necessary and beneficial to the disseminators and audiences of Buddhism. Through this process, Buddhism has not only achieved great development in China, but also gradually formed China Buddhism, which is different from Indian Buddhism. Therefore, it is a necessary means to understand Buddhism with China Thought or to endow Buddhism with some form of China.

When Buddhism was first introduced into China, it was mainly Hinayana Buddhism introduced from An Shigao and Mahayana Buddhism introduced from Zhi Zhi, so should the inheritance of Zen Buddhism. However, although the early Zen Buddhism also had the characteristics of communication, An Shigao was still the most important one in terms of social acceptance and influence. This is related to the fact that Buddhism was more regarded as "magic" when it was first introduced to China, and meditation was more likely to be regarded as similar to magic. The early famous eminent monks, such as the Kangsenhui, were different and all belonged to An Shigao. This situation even lasted until the activities of Dharma in China during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. "Continued Biography of Monks" records that Dharma "first reached South Vietnam in the Song Dynasty, and then reached Wei in the North. Stop it and teach Zen. At that time, he was giving lectures in Hong Sheng. When he first heard the law, his mouth was full of ridicule. " (Biographies of Monks, photocopied by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 199 1 year, 23 1 page. The specific content of Dharma Zen is here, but its connotation trend is undoubtedly Mahayana system, which people did not understand at that time. It can be speculated that the popular Zen at that time at least contained more fun of Hinayana Zen.

It was Kumarajiva who introduced the Mahayana Zen thought systematically. The second volume of Three Monks of Chu records the translation of three Zen classics in Chang 'an period: Zen Righteousness (a Zen classic), Zen Sutra (a Buddhist sutra, the same as the Samadha Sutra) and Zen Method Essentials (Three Monks of Chu), and the rise of Mahayana Zen is also obvious. If the above analysis is established, then people can just understand the reason why Zhi Dun's Zen thought has been neglected under this general trend, and at the same time, they can position Zhi Dun's Zen thought more appropriately. Zhi Dun's Zen thought, on the one hand, pays attention to the concept of calculating profit as the initial achievement, on the other hand, it pays more attention to the realm of prajnaparamita achieved through Zen, and to some extent, it promotes Zen from "magic" and "supernatural" to "fixed learning", which has become the intermediate link of the transformation from Hinayana Zen taught by An Shigao to Mahayana Zen translated by Kumarajiva, changed the image of Zen in the eyes of China scholars, and made it possible for Zen to spread in the upper classes of society. At the same time, the Taoist style of Zhi Dun's Zen thought links Zen with Zhuangzi's free and unfettered transcendence and fasting for immortality, which not only endows Zen with a China form and makes it easy to be accepted by scholars and people in China, but also gets rid of the asceticism of early Indian and China Zen and becomes an interesting attitude and behavior towards life, which is both secular and beyond the secular. In a sense, the later Zen Buddhism embodies such characteristics. The infiltration of Buddhism and Taoism and the blending of Buddhism and metaphysics were originally a major feature of the ideological environment in Wei and Jin Dynasties. As far as Zen is concerned, Zhi Dun made his own interpretation of Zen Buddhism in the form of China, and improved the status and expanded the influence of Zen Buddhism through practice, which is the significance of Zhi Dun's Zen thought.