THE MANUSCRIPT CULTURE OF CONFUCIANISM AND BUDDHISM IN THE WEI, JIN, NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN DYNASTIES, SUI AND TANG CHINA

Abstract

The Medieval China is a “Manuscript era”. The four divisions of Jing, Shi, Zi, Ji, and the documents of Buddhism and Taoism, all have to be considered based on this general background. For the first part of this paper, the keyword used in the comparison with “Buddhism” in the Medieval China is “Confucianism” rather than “Confucian classics”. Then, the concept and classification of Jiyi (collection of the lost parts of classics) are explained. The second part, starting from the newly published Lunyu Yi shu in Japan in 2020 and integrating with Jiang Zhou yi shulunjia yi ji and other manuscripts, is to analyze some Buddhist factors in the study of Confucianism Yi shu. The third part, from the East Asian Civilization sphere, explores the academic significance of Chinese Buddhism under the perspective of the integration of the Three teachings in the Middle Ages. Special attention will be paid to the Japanese written Guketsu getensho, and how the text form absorbed the Confucian thought will be analyzed. Through these cases, a preliminary conclusion about the relationship between the manuscript culture of Confucianism and Buddhism in the medieval China will be made.