Most scholars study and discriminate Song Confucianism’s attitudes to Buddhism in three ways. Firstly,Song Confucianism excludes Buddhism; secondly,it absorbs Buddhism’s philosophical connotations; thirdly,it excludes Buddhism superficially,but absorbs Buddhism in essence. In Ye Shi’s opinion,Song Confucianism’s attitude to Buddhism is essentially a kind of strategy by which it deals with the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism. Ye Shi thinks that their first strategy is to observe and criticize Buddhism,their second strategy is to make the most use of Buddhism and their third strategy is to set up the theory with their own opinions. Ye Shi’s introspection of Song Confucianism’s viewpoint of Buddhism not only indicates his healthy mind and positive wisdom with independencebut also provides new ways to understand some important academic problems,such as Confucianism’s purity after Confucius and Mencius,the effect and limitation of Song Confucianism’s attitudes to Buddhism,and the style and degree of the mutual combination of Buddhism and Confucianism in New Confucianism.
