When Buddhism was first introduced into China, it faced challenges from local Chinese culture, particularly Confucianism. The criticisms of Confucian scholars were mainly on ethical grounds, because the Buddhist way of life primarily focuses on individual liberation through moral perfection, which is very different from Confucianism, which chie?y focuses on family and society. In particular, the life of Buddhist monks, who were required to be celibate, shave their heads, and leave their homes and families, was incompatible with the Confucian practice of ?lial pity as found in the Xiao Jing . This is re?ected in the Mouzi Lihuolun , a book written in the second century ce to refute such criticisms.
1. Chinese Buddhists made much effort in responding to such criticisms both in theory and practice. As a result, Buddhism eventually became accepted by Chinese society as a religion that also teaches and practices flial piety.This led some early Buddhist scholars such as Kenneth Ch’en to think that ?lial piety occupied a special place in Chinese Buddhism.
2. In fact, as I have already discussed elsewhere that early Buddhism also teaches the practice of filial piety, and Chinese Buddhists made use of this teaching in their response to the Confucian criticisms, even arguing that the Buddhist concept and practice of ?lial piety is superior to that of Confucianism. However, as Professor Chung-ying Cheng points out in his comments on the previous draft of this article, the incompatibility between Confucian and Buddhist concepts and practices of filial piety is never solved as they have two different philosophical views of life.
