Since Buddhism was imported from India, there had been some conflicts between Buddhism and Confucianism. The inner conflict was that the nirvana of Buddhism was contradictory to the value of mercifulness and filial piety. The external conflict was that the divergent directions on “forsaking the world” and “entering the world” displayed two different life styles of monks and confucianists. The confucianists felt a huge burden of responsibility to put chaos back in order and hoped to recover the Confucian orthodoxy while Buddhism was spread. Therefore two huge movements of confucianization were risen. The first one was the emergence of Chinese Zen. Hui-neng was the symbolic figure who made Buddhism independent from Indian Zen. The second one was Neo-Confucianism, a deeper movement of confucianization. This movement was even thought to depart from Buddhism thoroughly. Hui-neng's teachings, as an open system in Chinese history, constantly adjusted his teachings to the need of the new ages. Actually in China it was confucianization. Based on the history background and the adding of the Platform Sutra, this essay will elaborate that Hui-neng indeed put his aspiration of rescuing all living creatures into practice during the progression of the Confucianization of Hui-neng's Teachings.
