The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were a period of feudal warlords' separatist rule. During this period, under the dominance of metaphysics, a laissez-faire educational trend that was opposed to Confucianism emerged. The implementation of the nine-level Zhongzheng system , the trend of metaphysical talk, and the laissez-faire educational trend have hindered the development of education. Long-term unrest has affected the normal order of schools. Official education has declined, showing a state of prosperity and decline. Local private schools have prospered, and family education has been further developed.
During the Cao Wei period, wars were frequent and education was dying. After Cao Pi came to the throne, he implemented the nine-grade Zhongzheng system. The gentry obtained official privileges without having to go through school training. They also advocated metaphysics and opposed Confucian etiquette and complicated classics. The gentry were unwilling to open more schools and had no interest in setting up Confucian-style schools, which objectively promoted the development of private schools.
During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the county school system was generally established in local areas. Chen County had a township school with 2 doctors, 2 teaching assistants, and 60 students. It was stipulated that doctors should be knowledgeable in classics, have high moral standards, and be over 40 years old; There were schools in prefectures and states in the Western Han Dynasty. Emperor Ping of the Han Dynasty ordered the establishment of academic officials in all prefectures and states. However, the establishment of the school system in prefectures and states began in the Northern Wei Dynasty. During this period, children's education books included Fan Xiu's "Xue Xun", Wang Bao's "Young Training", and The Thousand Character Essay written by Zhou Xingsi during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang.
Han Xiaowen statue rubbings
Since the late Han Dynasty Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the academic atmosphere has been contrary to the simplicity of the Han Dynasty and has generally tended towards metaphysical pursuits. Buddhism and Taoism have spread widely and become increasingly developed. Buddhism was introduced to China in the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism became popular and a large number of temples were built. Xihua CountyBuddhist temples were built in the Northern Wei Dynasty or even earlier. According to "Shui Jing Zhu·Ying Shui Tiao": Xiyang City "has a Tucheng behind the village and an ancient temple in the southeast corner, which is now abandoned."
Fugou CountyBuddhist temples were first built in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the autumn of 1991, a stone tablet with a statue of Han Xiaowen dating from the second year of Yong'an in the Northern Wei Dynasty (529) was unearthed in Shilitian Village, Jiuyuan Town, Fugou County. The stele is 175 cm high, 43.5 cm wide at the top, 46 cm wide at the bottom, 7 cm thick at the top, and 8.5 cm thick at the bottom. It has a statue on the front and an inscription on the back. The statue is divided into three niches: upper, middle and lower. In the middle of the upper niche sits Sakyamuni, with Manjusri Bodhisattva on the left and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva on the right. The statues in the middle niche and the lower niche are slightly the same as those in the upper niche. The inscription is divided into upper and lower parts. The upper 87 cm is the main text of the statue stele, with 14 lines, and the full line is 30 characters. The characters are bounded; the lower part 88 cm is the inscription of the statue stele in 3 columns, with each column ranging from 7 to 10 lines. It records the names of the owner of the statue, Han Xiaowen, his wife Zhang Nu, and his son Han Shaozu. The unearthed statue stele can be seen from the crowd of believers and the presence of eminent monks when the Buddha statue was consecrated. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty more than 1,400 years ago, Buddhism had flourished in Fugou . During the Northern Qi Dynasty, Zhiting Temple was built in Fugou County, located between Siqian Village and Sihou Village in Chaigang Township today. According to the stele record of Zhiting Temple in the 10th year of Jiajing's reign in the Ming Dynasty (1531): "In the southwest corner of the city, fifteen miles away from the city, there is a temple called Zhiting. It is a world-famous temple. It dates back to the Daqi period and continues to this day." It is said that the temple was built under the leadership of Dr. Zhang Sibo, the Imperial Academy doctor Zhang Sibo , ordered by Emperor Wenxuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty. The incense is still flourishing. The temple originally had dozens of houses. Schools were run here during the Republic of China. They were subsequently renovated and now only three side rooms remain. There is an ancient locust tree outside the mountain gate, more than 10 meters high, with a trunk circumference of 4 meters, with lush branches and leaves, and lush shade. There are still several stone tablets in the temple, which have been used as house foundations. Due to the damage of the tablets, the inscriptions are unclear. Fugou County Museum contains a gilt bronze statue of Guanyin in the Northern Qi Dynasty.
The gilt bronze statue of Guanyin in the Northern Qi Dynasty
There is a north-south mound in the east of Zhaozhai Village, Gaolang Township, Taikang County. It is said that a temple was built on the mound in the early years (no longer exists today). In the early 1970s, a villager accidentally discovered a statue of the "Seven Years of Wu Ding" while digging soil on a hillock. He dug out the monument and carried it home to use as a chicken coop door. In the winter of 1977, when the cultural relics cadres of Taikang County Cultural Center went to the countryside to conduct a census of cultural relics, they discovered and collected them in the county cultural center. In 1989, the county cultural management office was established, and the cultural center transferred them to the county cultural management office for collection.
The statue is 34 centimeters high and 28 centimeters wide, and is well preserved. There are three statues in the stele, one Buddha and two Bodhisattvas. The original Buddha, Sakyamuni, has a round, bald head with a fleshy bun. He wears an open-shouldered coat with a sheep intestine pattern. He sits on a rectangular Xumizuo . The two Bodhisattvas on both sides are dressed in the same way. The inscription on the back of the stele is in Wei stele script, arranged vertically, with a total of 6 lines and 58 words: In the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Wu of the Wei Dynasty, it was already the second month of Dinghai. On the 15th day of the period, he came to Chou Bhikkhu, and the statue of Pulang was the king of the country.
The statue stele was carved with skillful knives and has a solemn image. The clothing pattern is straight and sheep-gut-shaped. It has the characteristics of the late Northern Dynasties statues and has an exact date. The seventh year of Wuding in the Great Wei Dynasty was the reign of Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, which was 549 AD. The calligraphy on the stele is a typical calligraphy style of Wei stele, which provides precious physical information for the study of Wei stele calligraphy.
The statue of Bhikkhu Lang
Luyuan Temple was founded in the fourth year of Liang Tianjian (505). It is located in the east of Nandun City in present-day Xiangcheng City. It is unknown when it was destroyed.
After the Xie family of Yangxia entered the Southern Dynasties, their religious beliefs basically changed from a Taoist family to a Buddhist family. Xie Lingyun Believed in Buddhism in his early years. He once commented on the Diamond Prajna Sutra and polished the Mahaparinirvana Sutra. He also wrote the famous philosophical treatise "Bian Zong Lun" which explains sudden enlightenment. His Buddhist thought and Buddhist scripture translation theory are unique.
Xie Lingyun advocated resolving the contradictions between Buddhism, metaphysics, and Confucianism. In "Debating Sects with All Taoists," he proposed a new perspective that compromised Buddhism and Confucianism. He believed that "in Shi's theory, although the holy way is far away, the accumulation of Only when you are able to learn to the best of your ability and practice exhaustive practice can you gradually understand. Confucius's theory is that the holy way is wonderful, but although it is a commoner in appearance and has no understanding of the world, the principles are at one extreme." We should "get rid of Shi's gradual enlightenment and take what he can achieve; get rid of Confucius's most common people and take one of its extremes." The argument of combining Confucian sainthood with Buddhist enlightenment thought and using Buddhist principles to enrich and transform Confucian thought was of great significance at the time. Due to the new argument proposed by Xie Lingyun, Xuanyuan's learning took a new direction. Its role was no less than announcing the arrival of the sage, and it was the first of Yichuan's so-called "learning" and even the theory of the sage.
Xie Lingyun has the advantage of being good at Taoism and proficient in Sanskrit. He is "devoted to Buddhism and has many understandings of secular sounds." He once discussed the meaning of words and sentences in Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures with Liu Song famous eminent monk Hui Rui. Later, Hui Rui compiled a book "Eighty-Four Sound Training" based on this. According to the Records of the Four Essays on Mahayana Profound Meaning compiled by Huijun of the Tang Dynasty, Xie Lingyun, on the basis of his proficiency in Sanskrit, summed up the translation rule of "irony into words", which involved dual issues of Chinese and foreign phonology. The book also says: "Xie Lingyun died, and all the scriptures were written in Chinese characters. Who can say it before or after, but it can't be correct. It has been stagnant for generations and can never be solved." It is believed that Xie Lingyun's death is a great loss to the world of Buddhist scripture translation, and many difficult problems will never be solved. This shows Xie Lingyun’s true status and influence from one aspect.
The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were a period when Taoism gradually became mature and qualitative. During the Cao Wei Dynasty, Taiping Road had declined due to the suppression of the Yellow Turban Uprising. The Five Pecks of Rice Road followed its master Zhang Lu and submitted to Cao Cao and immigrated to the north, reaching the mainland of Cao Wei (now Henan and Hebei). Cao Cao and Cao Pi were afraid that the peasant rebels would use religious organizations to rebel, so they adopted a two-pronged policy towards early Taoism: on the one hand, they restricted or suppressed it; on the other hand, they used and transformed it. Cao Cao recruited some influential magical alchemists to his side, so that he could not only seek health-preserving formulas to prolong life, but also prevent them from inciting the people to rebel. Many noble families joined Taoism, which caused Taoism to begin to divide into upper-level immortal Taoism and lower-level folk Taoism. As the Five Pecks of Rice Road gradually spread among the noble families, its status increased day by day, and people gradually changed the name of the Five Pecks of Rice Road to Tianshi Tao.
Emperor Wen of Wei Although Cao Pi did not respect the originator of Taoism Laozi as much as his father Cao Cao, he still paid a certain amount of respect to Laozi.In October of the third year of Huang Chu's reign (222), when Cao Pi returned to his hometown of Jiao (now Haozhou City, Anhui Province) from Xudu, he saw that the Laozi Temple in Lixiang, Ku County was "not in order", so he issued an edict to renovate it. The "Edict of the Governor of Yuzhou under the Wei Dynasty to Repair the Laozi Temple" says: "I am telling the Governor of Yuzhou: Lao Dan A wise man, it is not appropriate to first Confucius . I wonder if Lu County has built a temple for Confucius? Emperor Huan of Han did not learn the holy law and acted as a minister. Lao Tzu, the reason for the prosperity of this temple was Emperor Huan. Emperor Wu believed that Lao Tzu was a wise man and would not destroy his house. People who came here often looked at it, but the buildings were dilapidated and overwhelmed people, so I ordered them to be repaired. "
