Chongxuan School

TheChongxuan School(Chinese:Trọng huyền,pinyin:Chóngxuán) was aTaoist philosophical currentinfluenced byBuddhistMadhyamakathought.It first appeared in the fifth century, and was influential from the eighth to tenth centuries during theTang dynasty.It was not a structured philosophical school; it was identified and named by theDaodejingcommentator Du Guangting ( đỗ quang đình, 850-933).Chongxuan's most important representatives wereCheng Xuanying( thành huyền anh, fl. 631-655) and Li Rong ( Lý vinh ), both from the seventh century CE.

Chongxuan is also an appellation of the immortal embryo ininternal alchemy,or Neidan, reflecting some influence of Chongxuan thought on Neidan.

Thought

The Chongxuan authors continue the interpretation of aDaodejingphrase first used by theXuanxueexegetical school, "mysterious and again mysterious".The Xuanxue thinkers deduced from this phrase the infinite depth, hence the transcendence of theDao,and its empty nature (wúVô ). The Chongxuan school, inspired by theMadhyamakathought of theSanlun Schooland the Buddhist philosopher and monkJizang,considered the phrase to mean that there are two stages to attaining the Dao: first, to get rid of the mental illusion of being, and then that of nonbeing. A similar phrase in Daodejing chapter 48, "diminish and again diminish",is interpreted as meaning the erasure of desire in two stages: first, to eradicate desire, and then to eradicate the ultimate desire of wanting to have no desires. In practice, Jizang's "forgetfulness in two steps" (jiānwàngKiêm quên ) will be accomplished; this inspired theShangqingpatriarch Sima Chengzhen's seven-step instructions of theZuowanglun.Similarity toMahāyāna Buddhismand the soteriology of theLingbao Schoolis also found in some Chongxuan authors' idea that after the sage completes their spiritual path for their own benefit, they must benefit others.

On the other hand, Chongxuan thinkers also relied on theZhuangzi,many of whose passages center around the overcoming of conceptual oppositions.Cheng Xuanying's commentary to the Zhuangzi is of great importance here.

Active at a time when theTangstate had great influence over and gave patronage to Daoist teachings, Chongxuan thinkers generally admitted the existence of social and spiritual inequality between humans, which they explain as divergence on the part of the Dao or Taiyi universal forcereceived at birth,and by the interplay ofqi,both of which depended on circumstances. This point of view already existed withGuo Xiang.On the level of chances for the advancement of spiritual progress, they distinguished brilliant minds who quickly reached the Dao, and lesser minds which needed to be guided step-by-step by a master. In politics, Chongxuan thinkers advocated awuweiphilosophy for the sovereign.

Authors

Apart from Cheng Xuanying and Li Rong, the following people are also mentioned as Chongxuan thinkers: Sun Deng tôn đăng (third century), Meng Zhizhou Mạnh trí chu and Zang Xuanjing tang huyền tĩnh (fifth century), Zhu Rou chư nhữu and Liu Jinxi Lưu tiến hỉ (sixth century), Cai Zihuang Thái tử hoảng, Che Xuanbi xe huyền bật, Zhang Huichao trương huệ siêu, and Li Yuan xing lê nguyên hưng (Tang dynasty), and Shao Ruoyu Thiệu nếu ngu and Dong Sijing đổng tư tĩnh (twelfth century).