Yuan Hongdao
[2][3] During his years in the capital he also developed an interest in Buddhism, influenced by other elite Buddhist laymen of the time, like Jiao Hong.
[2][3] He was close friends with the radical Neo-Confucian (Yangmingist) and Buddhist philosopher Li Zhi 李贄 (1527-1602) who promoted the “Crazy Chan” (Ch.
[2] The main tenet of this school of poetry was that good writing was a result of genuine emotions and personal experience.
[2] During this retired period he spent some time with the eminent monk Yunqi Zhuhong at Yunqifa temple, later known as a patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism.
Yuan also wrote a treatise on Pure Land Buddhism which made its way into the Chinese Buddhist canon.
[2] In this work, Yuan breaks with the radical antinomian Chan of his teacher Li Zhi, advocating for a kind of Buddhism which affirms the importance of moral and religious cultivation.
[2] Yuan's Comprehensive Treatise on the West [Pure Land] (Xīfāng hélùn 西方合論) is his most extensive work, and what he is most well known for today in Chinese Buddhism.
The work answers numerous questions and critiques of Pure Land Buddhism with rational arguments and scriptural citations.
[3] Yuan himself writes that the main reason he wrote the work was to counter the influence of "Crazy Chan" which overemphasized emptiness and rejected all other tradition Buddhist practices like nianfo and keeping precepts as a kind of grasping.
[2] According to Yuan, an overemphasis on negation had led to a problematic nihilistic state of Chan:Those who are attached to the attributes of phenomena and the mind are all victims of conditioned processes.
[9] According to Yuan, these Chan teachings on non-grasping and the provisional nature of Buddhist practice is like water, which can put out a fire.
As such, Yuan wanted to bring some balance back to Buddhism by emphasizing the conventional truths of classic Buddhist practices.
[2] In this, Yuan was influenced by earlier figures like Zhiyi, Li Tongxuan, and Yongming Yanshou, as well as by the Da Zhi Du Lun.
[2] However, according to Yuan, the Buddha knows how to make use of the very dualistic viewpoints of ordinary beings in order to guide them to awakening through skillful means.
[2] Various scholars have also noted how Yuan makes extensive use of Huayan thought in his treatise, especially the philosophy of Li Tongxuan.
[2] In fascicle five of the Xīfāng hélùn, Yuan discusses the relationship between the practitioner and Amitabha, as well as self-power and Buddha's other-power.
"[2] Thus, even if one is an unenlightened being or has different understandings of how other-power works, one can practice chanting the Buddha's name and one will still achieve the result of birth in the pure land.
[2] He also argues that the simple recitation of the nianfo, when done with a mind of compassion, bodhicitta, and coupled with a moral life, fulfills all Buddhist principles.
[2] Yuan also strongly defends the traditional Buddhist course of practice, including generating faith, taking vows, keeping precepts, living with good companions etc.
As such, the Yuan brothers rejected the idea that writers had to mimic the work and styles of past Tang masters like Li Po.
[11] Yuan also admired the writings and literature of folk composers and vernacular Chinese authors, including Shi Nai'an's Water Margin.
The following poem from Yuan Hongdao captures the unity of stillness and movement, the interfusion of all phenomena, including human and natural events:[9] The cloud rises; a few peaks darken; The light of the stream evokes dreams of Duke Wu.
(雲起数峰幽 溪光夢武侯 樹深雲鳥怪 村靜細泉流 頑石虛龍臥 春花上貉丘 誰將日高睡 易彼鼎分愁)You have turned your back on the busy crowds of the world and chant to yourself from secondhand books.
Your official post is not important you have few contacts with people; a long stay in the capital has brought new wrinkles to your face.
This Buddhist monk has long hair and whiskers, this Taoist immortal makes love to beautiful women.
