Yang Shi’s Confucian Quiet-Sitting Meditation: A Distinction from Cheng Yi and Huayan Buddhism
Religions December 16, 2024 DOI: 10.3390/rel15121537 via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractYang Shi pioneered a Neo-Confucian method of self-cultivation centered on quiet-sitting, which involves techniques like breathing and calming the mind to return to a state of centrality. This state, once achieved, is preserved and expanded in everyday life. The practice is grounded in a moral psychology and metaphysics where Tianli, the comprehensive pattern-principle of the universe, becomes fully manifest in the human heartmind. Yang's approach inherits key features from Cheng Hao's philosophy while diverging from Cheng Yi's. Despite his metaphysical views aligning more closely with Huayan Buddhism's idea of perfect fusion between pattern-principle and things, Yang insisted that his quiet-sitting philosophy remained distinctively Confucian.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | quiet-sitting breathing calming the mind |
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Keywords | Philosophy Contemplation Sitting |
| Key finding | Yang Shi's quiet-sitting practice returns the practitioner to a state of centrality where Tianli is fully manifest, and he distinguishes this Confucian method from Buddhist contemplative practices despite metaphysical similarities. |
Abstract
Yang Shi initiated the Neo-Confucian methodology of self-cultivation centered on quiet-sitting, and focusing on Yang Shi may shift the study of Confucian quiet-sitting to a more chronologically appropriate “beginning-forward” approach. Incorporating techniques such as breathing and calming the mind, Yang’s approach to self-cultivation follows a model of returning to the state of centrality through quiet-sitting, and then preserving and expanding that state in moments of everyday life. This model is based on a moral psychology and metaphysics that views the comprehensive pattern-principle of the universe, Tianli, as fully manifest in the vital state of the human heartmind achievable through the practice of quiet-sitting. This view inherits major features of Cheng Hao’s philosophy while distinguishing itself from Cheng Yi’s. Yang Shi’s reflections on the differences between Confucian and Buddhist contemplative practices also indicate, despite his view being closer to the Huayan Buddhist metaphysical perspective of perfect fusion between pattern-principle and things compared to Cheng Yi, an insistence on characterizing his quiet-sitting philosophy as distinctively Confucian.