Learning to Emulate the Wise: The Genesis of Chinese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline in Twentieth-Century China

3. Zhang Taiyan, Yogācāra Buddhism, and Chinese Philosophy

Chapter 3 Zhang Taiyan, Yogācāra Buddhism, and Chinese Philosophy John Makeham Historians generally describe Zhang Binglin 章炳麟 (Taiyan 太炎; 1869– 1936) as an anti-Manchu revolutionary and treat his Buddhism as subordinate to this larger political project. Far less commonly understood is Zhang’s role in preparing the groundwork for the establishment of Chinese philosophy as an academic discipline.1 Like a number of influential figures of the day, Zhang regarded Yogācāra as a sophisticated knowledge system which could serve as an authoritative alternative to the knowledge systems being introduced from the West. For Zhang it was an indigenized intellectual resource which could be co-opted to counter the challenges posed by the logic, philosophy (then including psychology), and science of the West, even if that did mean adopting the categories of the West for that engagement. I begin this chapter by showing how Zhang attempted to build a philosophical edifice on the foundations of an ontology and cognitive epistemology that exclusively privileged the Yogācāra Buddhist teachings of the “three natures” (三性; tri-svabhāva) and the “four aspects of cognition ” (四分).2 I then turn to elucidate Zhang’s belief that Buddhist logic (yinming 因明)3 enables one to uncover the true meaning of certain pre-Qin writings on logic and reasoning in a way that Western philosophy cannot. Against the backdrop of an intellectual climate in Japan and China during the decades either side of 1900, in which a premium had come to be placed on logic as a precondition for the development of philosophy, Zhang was one of the first Chinese intellectuals to follow the lead of Japanese scholars such as Kuwaki Genyoku 桑木嚴翼 (1874–1946) and Murakami Senjō 村上 精 (1851–1929) in maintaining that classical Chinese philosophers had developed indigenous forms of logic. Significantly , he further argued that Chinese versions of Yogācāra texts on Buddhist logic and reasoning—having only recently become available 104 · John Makeham again after a hiatus of many centuries—made it possible once again to gain a proper understanding of China’s earliest writings on logic. In the second half of the chapter I show how Zhang applied the benchmark of Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy to assess the philosophical merit of individual pre-Qin texts such as Xunzi, Mozi, and Zhuangzi. I argue that Zhang sought to establish that early Chinese texts “bear witness” to insights into realities which transcend individual cultures but are most fully and systematically articulated in Yogācāra systems of learning; and that classical Chinese philosopher-sages had attained an awareness of the highest truths, evidence of which can be found in their writings. In short, Zhang used Yogācāra to affirm the value of “Chinese philosophy” and, in doing so, helped shape its early definition. 1. Yogācāra Buddhism Yogācāra (Yujia xing pai 瑜伽行派; Yogic practice) is one of the two most influential philosophical systems of Indian Buddhism, along with Madhyamaka. As the name implies, it focuses on meditative practice, as well as epistemology and logic. Competing traditions of Yogācāra thought were first introduced into China during the sixth century, with the Weishi 唯識 (Skt. Vijñaptimātra; nothing but consciousness) school rising to preeminence in the seventh century. By the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), however, the major commentaries of this school had ceased being transmitted in China, and it was not until the end of the nineteenth century that a number of them were re-introduced into China from Japan where their transmission had been uninterrupted. Crucial to this revival was the friendship between Japanese scholar Nanjō Bun’yū 南條文雄 (1894– 1927) and lay Chinese Buddhist scholar Yang Wenhui 楊文會 (1837–1911). Between 1891 and 1896, Nanjō sent a total of 235 Buddhist texts to Yang, including 30 Yogācāra texts that had long ceased being transmitted in China.4 Within the context of a broader renewal of interest in traditional philosophical writings (including other indigenous Chinese Mahāyana texts) in the late Qing, the corpus of Yogācāra writings attracted unparalleled attention. China’s Yogācāra revival—in particular the Weishi school—from the late 1890s to the 1930s was spearheaded by two generations of prominent intellectuals, including Yang Wenhui, Wen Tingshi 文廷式 (1856–1904), Tan Sitong 譚嗣同 (1865–1898), Ouyang Jingwu 歐陽 竟無 (1871–1943), Liang Qichao 梁啟超 (1873–1929), Lin Zaiping 林宰平 Zhang Taiyan, Yogācāra Buddhism, and Chinese Philosophy · 105 (1879–1960), Han Qingjing 韓清淨 (1884–1949), Xie...