Thomé H. Fang, Tang Junyi and the Appropriation of Huayan Thought A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2014 King Pong Chiu School of Arts, Languages and Cultures TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents 2 List of Figures and Tables 4 List of Abbreviations 5 Abstract 7 Declaration and Copyright Statement 8 A Note on Transliteration 9 Acknowledgements 10 Chapter 1 - Research Questions, Methodology and Literature Review 11 1.1 Research Questions 11 1.2 Methodology 15 1.3 Literature Review 23 1.3.1 Historical Context 23 1.3.2 Thomé H. Fang and Huayan Thought 29 1.3.3 Tang Junyi and Huayan Thought 31 Chapter 2 – The Historical Context of Modern Confucian Thinkers’ Appropriations of Buddhist Ideas 33 2.1 ‘Ti ’ and ‘Yong ’ as a Theoretical Framework 33 2.2 Western Challenge and Chinese Response - An Overview 35 2.2.1 Declining Status of Confucianism since the Mid-Nineteenth Century 38 2.2.2 ‘Scientism’ as a Western Challenge in Early Twentieth Century China 44 2.2.3 Searching New Sources for Cultural Transformation as Chinese Response 49 2.3 Confucian Thinkers’ Appropriations of Buddhist Thought - An Overview 53 2.4 Classical Huayan Thought and its Modern Development 62 2.4.1 Brief History of the Huayan School in the Tang Dynasty 62 2.4.2 Foundation of Huayan Thought 65 2.4.3 Key Concepts of Huayan Thought 70 2.4.4 Modern Development of the Huayan School 82 2.5 Fang and Tang as Models of ‘Chinese Hermeneutics’- Preliminary Discussion 83 Chapter 3 - Thomé H. Fang and Huayan Thought 87 3.1 Thomé H. Fang’s General Philosophy 87 3.1.1 The Life of Fang and Characteristics of his Works 87 3.1.2 Fang on ‘Scientism’ and the Failure of Western Culture 91 3.1.3 Fang on the Purpose of Philosophy and the Characteristics of Metaphysics 93 3.1.4 Introduction to the ‘Correlative Structure of Men and the World’ or ‘Blueprint’ 95 2 3.1.5 The Force behind Self-Exaltation - Creative Creativity 101 3.1.6 ‘Comprehensive Harmony’ as a Criterion for Evaluation 105 3.1.7 Discussion of Fang’s Thought 106 3.2 Thomé H. Fang’s Interpretation of Huayan Thought – A Critical Review 111 3.2.1 Fang’s Overall Interpretation of Huayan Thought 111 3.2.2 Fang’s Criterion in ranking Buddhist Theories – Extent of Harmony 119 3.2.3 Insights and Limitations of Fang’s Interpretation of Huayan Thought 121 3.3 Conclusion 125 Chapter 4 – Tang Junyi and Huayan Thought 126 4.1 Tang Junyi’s General Philosophy 126 4.1.1 The Life and Works of Tang Junyi 126 4.1.2 Tang on the Purpose of Philosophy 128 4.1.3 The Existence of Mind as a Theoretical Prerequisite 131 4.1.4 The Characteristics of Mind 132 4.1.5 Introduction to the Theory of ‘The Nine Horizons of the Mind’ 135 4.1.6 ‘Universal Observation’ on universal observations 141 4.1.7 Theory of Practice: A Preliminary Discussion 144 4.1.8 Tang on the Failure of Western Culture 146 4.1.9 Conclusion: A Critical Review of Tang’s Thought 147 4.2 Tang Junyi’s Harmonization of Thomé H. Fang’s Thought 153 4.3 Tang Junyi’s Interpretation of Huayan Thought – A Critical Review 156 4.3.1 Tang’s Overall Interpretation of Huayan Thought 156 4.3.2 Tang’s Criterion in ranking Buddhist Theories: Harmonization of Values 167 4.3.3 Insights and Limitations of Tang’s Interpretation of Huayan Thought 168 Chapter 5 – Fang’s and Tang’s Appropriations of Huayan Thought and ‘Scientism’ 171 5.1 ‘Scientism’ as an Issue: From the Point of View of ‘Ti ’ and ‘Yong ’ 171 5.2 Ancient Chinese Thought as a Means for Enhancing ‘Ti ’ 174 5.3 Revisiting the Role of Huayan in Fang’s and Tang’s Response to ‘Scientism’ 175 5.3.1 Fang, His Appropriation of Huayan Thought, and ‘Scientism’ 176 5.3.2 Tang, His Appropriation of Huayan Thought, and ‘Scientism’ 179 5.4 The Writings of Fang and Tang in terms of ‘Chinese Hermeneutics’ 185 Appendices 1 Reply from the University of Wisconsin about Fang’s Status 189 2 Prolegomena to a Comparative Philosophy of Life: An Outline 190 Bibliography 193 Word Count (including footnotes): 93,550 3 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1 – The correlative structure of men and the world by Thomé H. Fang 98 Table 1 - Comparison between Fang’s blueprint and Huayan thought 120 Table 2 - Summary of Tang Junyi’s Theory of ‘The Nine Horizons of the Mind’ 137 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Works by Thomé H. Fang CMN Creativity in Man and Nature: A Collection of Philosophical Essays CPSD Chinese Philosophy: Its Spirit and Its Development CVL The Chinese View of Life FDXY Fang Dongmei xiansheng yanjiangji 方東美先生演講集 HZ Huayanzong zhexue 華嚴宗哲學 KZR Kexue zhexue yu rensheng 科學哲學與人生 SSD Sheng sheng zhi de 生生之德 XRZSJ Xin rujia zhexue shiba jiang 新儒家哲學十八講 YRDZ Yuanshi rujia daojia zhexue 原始儒家道家哲學 ZDF Zhongguo dasheng foxue 中國大乘佛學 ZRZ Zhongguo rensheng zhexue 中國人生哲學 ZZJF Zhongguo zhexue jingshen ji qi fazhan 中國哲學精神及其發展 Works by Tang Junyi DZZJ Daode ziwo zhi jianli 道德自我之建立 NZX Nianpu; Zhushu nianbiao; Xianren zhushu 年譜；著述年表；先人著述 RJZC Renwen jingshen zhi chongjian 人文精神之重建 RZT Rensheng zhi tiyan 人生之體驗 5 RZTX Rensheng zhi tiyan xubian 人生之體驗續編 SCYXJ Shengming cunzai yu xinling jingjie 生命存在與心靈境界 WYYDL Wenhua yishi yu daode lixing 文化意識與道德理性 XWYR Xin wu yu rensheng 心物與人生 ZG Zhexue gailun 哲學概論 ZL Zhexue lunji 哲學論集 ZRDS Zhonghua renwen yu dangjin shijie 中華人文與當今世界 ZRDSB Zhonghua renwen yu dangjin shijie bubian 中華人文與當今世界補編 ZTS Zhi Tingguang shu 致廷光書 ZYDL Zhongguo zhexue yuanlun. Daolun pian 中國哲學原論．導論篇 ZYYD Zhongguo zhexue yuanlun. Yuandao pian 中國哲學原論．原道篇 ZYYX Zhongguo zhexue yuanlun. Yuanxing pian 中國哲學原論．原性篇 Others DZJ Dazheng xinxiu dazangjing 大正新修大藏經 6 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the rationale behind the work of Thomé H. Fang 方東美 (Fang Dongmei, 1899-1977) and Tang Junyi 唐君毅 (1909-1978), two of the most important Confucian thinkers in twentieth-century China, who appropriated aspects of the medieval Chinese Buddhist school of Huayan to develop a response to the challenges of ‘scientism’, the belief, widespread in their times, that quantitative natural science is the only valuable part of human learning and the only source of truth. As the status of Confucianism in China had declined from the mid-nineteenth century, non-Confucian ideas were appropriated by Chinese thinkers for developing responses to ‘scientism’, adopting the principle of fanben kaixin 返本開新 (going back to the origin and developing new elements). Buddhist ideas from a range of schools played an important role in this. Unlike other thinkers who turned to the schools of Consciousness-Only and Tiantai, Fang and Tang, for reasons of their own, saw the thought of the Huayan school as the apex of Buddhism and so drew on selected aspects to support and develop their own views. Fang regarded Huayan thought as a fine example of the idea of ‘harmony’, since in its vision of the perfect state all phenomena co-exist without contradiction. Interpreting the explanation of this given by Dushun 杜順 (557-640) in his own way, Fang argued that human beings are able to integrate physical, biological and psychic elements of the ‘natural order’ with values such as truth, beauty and goodness which belong to the ‘transcendental order’. He thus proposed that scientism’s view of humanity as matter could be incorporated without contradiction but also without excluding ‘non-scientific’ aesthetic, moral and religious values. By contrast, Tang stressed the characteristics of Huayan’s theory of ‘doctrinal classification’, as developed by Fazang 法藏 (643-712). Interpreting this to mean that different ideas could be applicable in different periods, Tang argued that the worldview of ‘scientism’ may indeed help solve problems in its own sphere, such as the desire for scientific development. Other paradigms, however, are preferable in discussing moral issues. In other words, this Buddhist theory allowed him to claim that both Confucianism and ‘scientism’ have their own value. Neither of them should be negated in principle. I argue that Fang’s and Tang’s selective appropriations of Huayan thought not only paid heed to the hermeneutical importance of studying ancient texts in order to be more responsive to modern issues, a concern hotly debated in the field of Chinese philosophical studies, but also helped confirm the values of Confucianism under the challenge of ‘scientism’. In short, by absorbing ideas from Huayan thought, both Fang and Tang, to different extents and in different ways, provided responses to the challenge of ‘scientism’ which gave a place to science without rejecting the importance of human faculties such as aesthetic appreciation and moral judgment or asserting the dominance of perception and cognition over other human faculties, the ultimate cause, as they saw it, of ‘scientism’. 7 DECLARATION I confirm that no portion of the work contained in this thesis has been submitted for any degree or qualification of this or any other university. All the material, including translation, is solely my own work unless indicated otherwise. COPYRIGHT The author of this thesis (including any appendices and / or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the ‘Copyright’) and he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright including for administrative purposes. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time.