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The Religious Thought of Tang Dynasty Scholar-Officials DISCURSIVE RESOURCES AND COLLAPSING POLARITIES: THE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT OF TANG DYNASTY SCHOLAR-OFFICIALS by David W. Tien A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Asian Languages and Cultures: Chinese) in The University of Michigan 2009 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor James Robson, Chair Professor Edwin M. Curley Professor Luis O. Gómez Professor Martin J. Powers To my loving parents, Robert and Ruth ii Acknowledgements This was a long time coming. My greatest debts are due to my parents for their ever-constant support, both financial and emotional, and for their devotion and love to a prodigal son who is still making his way “home.” I must also thank them for letting me leave in their basement for the better part of a decade those mountains of boxes full of my books, clothes, and various other useless things, which I’ve now hauled over to Singapore and currently have sitting unopened in my office. I owe my deepest appreciation to my dissertation adviser, James Robson, who valiantly stepped in about halfway through my doctoral program at Michigan and patiently guided this Confucian-minded student through the intricacies of medieval Chinese Buddhism and religion. My interests in these fields increased considerably after studying with James, as he was an inspiring example of a vibrant scholar. His passion for his research was infectious. My deficiencies in these fields are my own fault and ought not reflect on his teaching ability. Many of the key ideas for this thesis arose in conversations with James, including the phrase and notion of “collapsing polarities.” Sometimes we conducted these conversations over coffee in Beijing on the single day our travel itineraries overlapped. He has also endured my habits of procrastination and delinquence with good cheer and great patience. My only regret is that I spent too many iii months buried in libraries in China when my main source of insight was on the other side of the world, in Ann Arbor and now in Cambridge. My early exposure to Buddhist studies came from Professor Luis O. Gómez, who also assumed directorship of my doctoral program during a crucial period of transition in my time at Michigan. If it were not for his encouragement and guidance, I doubt I would been motivated to stay on. His way of probing using multilayered questions presented in a gentle, non-confrontational manner remain for me a paragon of effective teaching and dialogue. Over the years, his teaching and mentoring have changed my thinking, attitude, and perspective on several different areas of study. The Michigan philosophy department more than satisfied my keen interest in philosophy, especially philosophy of religion. Among the many excellent philosophers in the department at the time, I must single out Professor Edwin M. Curley, whose analytical reading skills continue to astonish me, as does his meticulous style of teaching and research. He graciously invited me to serve in my very first teaching position as his Graduate Student Instructor for the 300-level course in the philosophy of religion. My learning curve was steep, but with his guidance, it proved to be a tremendous learning experience. Although I lack formal training in the history of art, Professor Martin Powers kindly agreed to join my dissertation committee and supplied a fresh source of originality and challenged me to consider questions that had never before occurred to me. The phrase and notion of “discursive resources” first arose in conversation with Marty. I have no doubt done a disservice to his original usage. I trust I have not taken it too far afield. His sharp insight into a great diversity of fields is incredible. iv I also want to thank all my previous doctoral advisers. I owe a huge debt to Philip J. Ivanhoe, a debt that I cannot fully acknowledge here. Those who know his work will see his intellectual imprint throughout the successful portions of this dissertation. His writings were what inspired me to try for a doctorate in the first place. As an employed academic, I now make copious use of his publications in my teaching. If the late Julia Ching had not taken me under her wing in 1998 when I was an undergraduate at Toronto, I would likely have ended up in a different field or profession. Her model of disciplined scholarship is something to which I still aspire. I also wish to express my gratitude to my past teachers at the University of Michigan, especially William Baxter, Robert Sharf, and Shuen-fu Lin. I am also very grateful to my teachers at the University of Toronto, in particular Richard Lynn, Raymond Chu, Andre Schmid, Victor Falkenheim, Graham Sanders, and Vincent Shen. I owe a special debt to Michael Szonyi, who first got me hooked on Chinese history back in my first foray into East Asian studies at McGill and then when we both transferred to Toronto. My appreciation also goes out to those scholars who believed in my potential even when I was just starting out: T.C. Kline III, Eric Hutton, and Kelly Clark. I hope to begin to repay your kindness. Special thanks are due to my patient tutors in Beijing, under whose tutelage I saw my biggest gains in classical Chinese reading facility. For putting up with me a total of fifteen hours each week for two entire seasons, I must thank Assistant Professor Yu Xueming, Chen Ming, and Dai Lu. v For the necessary and abundant financial support that funded my graduate education and dissertation research, I acknowledge the generosity of the University of Michigan for their Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, as well as several other generous awards; the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan for putting the needs of the student first and providing support whenever necessary; the Harvard-Yenching Institute and Peking University for their Fellowship for Advanced Research in Chinese Studies; the Mustard Seed Foundation; the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan for providing the Katherine Taylor Fellowship that funded the crucial first year in China; and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their doctoral fellowship. My classmates, Eirik Harris, Justin Tiwald, Myeong-seok Kim, David Elstein, Shari Epstein, David Fiordalis, and Uffe Bergeton were a tremendous source of motivation and stimulation. I also wish to thank my sisters for encouraging their quirky brother in his arcane interests and at least acting as if they thought the work was significant. There are a few others I ought to thank, but you are probably now enjoying your life too much to be reading this. Finally, I must thank Gloria Cho. I trust that one day you will think it was all worth it. vi Table of Contents Dedication………………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...iii List of Appendices………………………………………………………………….........ix Chapter 1. Introduction.…………………………………………….................................1 Why These Three Thinkers?..............................................................................9 Scope and Limitations………………………………………..........................11 Confucianism in the Tang……………………………………………………14 ‘Confucianism’: A Working Definition……………………………………...18 Eighth Century Buddhist-Confucian Thought………………………….........20 Methodological Matters……………………………………………………...23 Sources………………………………………………………………….........25 2. The Lives and Careers of Li Hua, Dugu Ji, Liang Su, and Zhanran……………………………………………………………………..28 Li Hua 李華 (c. 710-c. 769)…………………………………………….........29 Dugu Ji 獨孤及 (725-777)…………………………………………………...37 Liang Su 梁肅 (753-793)……………………………………………….........41 Zhanran 湛然 (711-782)……………………………………..........................45 Conclusions…………………………………………………..........................50 3. Syncretism and Discursive Resources in Tang Intellectual History.............................................................................................................52 Beyond Syncretism: Resource, Repertoire, and Religion……………………52 The Discursive Resources of Li Hua, Dugu Ji, and Liang Su……………….61 “This Dao of Ours”…...…………………………………….........61 Starting with the Mind (Xin)..……………………………………72 Extending Li (“Principle”)...……………………………………..75 Nature (Xing) as the Ground of Virtue…………………………..78 The Nature and the Dao………………………….........................82 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………..83 4. Syncretism Revisited: Discursive Resources and Contested Claims in Tang China………………………………...………………………………..85 Essentialism Revisited: Power Struggles and False Dichotomies…………...90 vii Imputing Meaning and Content…………………………………………….103 Claims and Counter-Claims………………………………………………...114 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………124 5. Conclusions……………………………………………...............................126 Appendices……………………………………………………………..........................135 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...159 viii List of Appendices Appendix 1. Sectarianism and Lineage………………………………………………............136 2. Translations……………………………………………………………………..146 ix Chapter 1 Introduction Doctrinal boundaries between religious traditions in medieval China were extraordinarily flexible, and the traditions were constantly shaping and drawing from one another. Yet much of modern scholarship still attends to single traditions, thereby neglecting the complex interplay between the traditions, an integral feature of religion in China. This myopic focus is partly due to the pejorative connotations associated with the notion of religious “syncretism,” in which religious mixtures are supposedly corrupted,
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