History of Chinese Philosophy/Chapter 11

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History of Chinese Philosophy

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Chapter 11: Sui-Tang Philosophy — Buddhism at Its Height and the Confucian Response (589–907)

1. Chan (Zen) Buddhism: Origins, Lineage, and the Question of Transmission

The Sui-Tang period (589–907) represents the apex of Buddhist philosophical creativity in China and, simultaneously, the beginning of the Confucian counter-movement that would eventually transform the Chinese intellectual landscape. It is a period of extraordinary philosophical richness — one in which the major Chinese Buddhist schools reached their mature form, the "Three Teachings" (三教, sanjiao) of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism achieved a complex equilibrium, and the seeds of the Neo-Confucian revival were first planted. The reunification of China under the Sui dynasty (589–618) and the subsequent establishment of the Tang dynasty (618–907) created the political stability, economic prosperity, and cosmopolitan openness that allowed these intellectual developments to flourish on an unprecedented scale.

No school of Chinese Buddhism has exercised a more profound and lasting influence on Chinese — and indeed on East Asian — civilization than Chan (禅, from Sanskrit dhyana, "meditation"), known in Japan as Zen. Chan became not merely a school of Buddhist philosophy but a cultural force that shaped Chinese aesthetics, literature, painting, calligraphy, garden design, martial arts, and the arts of tea and everyday life. Yet the historical origins of Chan are shrouded in legend, and the relationship between the tradition's self-understanding and the historical record is one of the most contested questions in the study of Chinese Buddhism.

The traditional Chan lineage traces its origins to a wordless transmission of the dharma from the Buddha Shakyamuni to his disciple Mahakashyapa, who is said to have received the Buddha's teaching not through words or scriptures but through a direct, mind-to-mind communication symbolized by the Buddha's famous gesture of holding up a flower and smiling. This lineage was then transmitted through a series of Indian patriarchs to Bodhidharma (菩提达摩, Putidamo), who is said to have arrived in China around 520 CE and to have become the First Patriarch of Chinese Chan.

Bodhidharma is one of the most iconic and least historically verifiable figures in Chinese Buddhism. The traditional accounts — many of which were composed centuries after the events they describe — portray him as a fierce, uncompromising teacher who rejected the conventional Buddhist practices of sutra study, image worship, and merit-making in favor of direct meditation and the immediate realization of one's own Buddha-nature. The famous story of Bodhidharma's encounter with Emperor Wu of Liang (梁武帝, r. 502–549) — in which the emperor, a devout Buddhist who had built countless temples and supported vast numbers of monks, asked Bodhidharma what merit he had earned, and Bodhidharma replied "No merit whatsoever" (无功德, wu gongde) — encapsulates the Chan rejection of external forms of religious practice in favor of inner realization. Whether or not this encounter actually took place, it expresses a philosophical position of profound importance: that Buddhist practice is not a matter of accumulating merit through good deeds and ritual observances but of directly realizing the nature of mind.

The lineage from Bodhidharma through the Second Patriarch Huike (慧可, 487–593), the Third Patriarch Sengcan (僧璨, d. 606), the Fourth Patriarch Daoxin (道信, 580–651), and the Fifth Patriarch Hongren (弘忍, 601–674) is presented in Chan sources as a direct, unbroken transmission of the "mind-seal" (心印, xinyin) — the authentic realization of enlightenment passed from master to disciple. Modern scholarship has demonstrated that this lineage was largely a retrospective construction created by later generations of Chan practitioners to legitimize their own claims to authority and authenticity. But the philosophical significance of the lineage concept itself should not be underestimated: it expresses the Chan conviction that authentic understanding cannot be transmitted through texts or doctrines alone but requires a direct, personal encounter between teacher and student — a living transmission that cannot be captured in words.

2. Huineng, the Platform Sutra, and Sudden Enlightenment

The most dramatic and philosophically consequential episode in Chan history — the succession crisis following the Fifth Patriarch Hongren — shaped the development of Chan Buddhism for centuries and produced one of the most important texts in the Chinese philosophical canon: the Platform Sutra (六祖坛经, Liuzu Tanjing).

According to the traditional account, the Fifth Patriarch Hongren summoned his disciples and asked each to compose a verse demonstrating his understanding. The leading disciple, Shenxiu (神秀, 606–706), wrote:

身是菩提树 — The body is the bodhi tree,

心如明镜台 — The mind is like a bright mirror's stand.

时时勤拂拭 — Diligently wipe it constantly,

莫使惹尘埃 — Do not let dust collect upon it.

This verse presents enlightenment as the result of a gradual process of purification — the mind, like a mirror, must be constantly polished to remove the dust of delusion and reveal its inherent clarity. It is a plausible and perhaps even commonsensical account of the spiritual path.

But Huineng (惠能, 638–713), an illiterate laborer from the south who had been working in the monastery kitchen, composed a rival verse:

菩提本无树 — Bodhi is fundamentally no tree,

明镜亦非台 — The bright mirror is also not a stand.

本来无一物 — Originally there is not a single thing —

何处惹尘埃 — Where could dust collect?

Huineng's verse denies the very framework of Shenxiu's account. There is no mirror to polish, no dust to remove, because the mind in its true nature is already perfectly enlightened — it has never been defiled, and there is nothing to purify. Enlightenment is not the end-point of a gradual process of cultivation but the sudden recognition of what has always been the case: that one's own mind is already the Buddha-mind. The Fifth Patriarch, recognizing Huineng's superior understanding, secretly transmitted the dharma to him, making him the Sixth Patriarch.

This story — which modern scholarship regards as largely legendary, composed decades after the events it describes to legitimize the "Southern School" of Chan — nevertheless articulates a genuine and profound philosophical distinction between two conceptions of enlightenment. The "gradual" (渐, jian) approach, associated with Shenxiu and the Northern School, understands enlightenment as the culmination of a progressive discipline of meditation, study, and moral cultivation. The "sudden" (顿, dun) approach, associated with Huineng and the Southern School, understands enlightenment as an instantaneous and total transformation of awareness that cannot be produced by any technique or practice but can only arise spontaneously when the practitioner lets go of all conceptual grasping and directly realizes the nature of mind.

The Platform Sutra, attributed to Huineng but probably compiled by his successors in the eighth century, is the only Chinese Buddhist text to be honored with the title jing (经, "sutra") — a title normally reserved for the words of the Buddha himself. This extraordinary designation reflects the Sixth Patriarch's status in Chan Buddhism as virtually an equal of the Buddha — a living embodiment of enlightened wisdom whose words carry the same authority as canonical scripture. The text develops several philosophical ideas of lasting importance. First, it articulates the doctrine of "no-thought" (无念, wunian) — not the absence of mental activity but the freedom from attachment to thoughts, the capacity to think without being caught by thinking. Second, it develops the concept of "self-nature" (自性, zixing) as inherently pure and complete — a concept that resonates with the doctrine of original Buddha-nature but that also, significantly, echoes the Mencian teaching that human nature is originally good. Third, it insists on the identity of prajna (wisdom) and dhyana (meditation): wisdom is not something gained through meditation but the very nature of the mind that is revealed when conceptual grasping ceases.

3. The Flowering of Chan: Lineages, Methods, and Koan Practice

In the generations following Huineng, Chan Buddhism diversified into multiple lineages that developed distinctive teaching methods and philosophical emphases. The two most important were the Linji (临济) lineage, founded by Linji Yixuan (临济义玄, d. 866), and the Caodong (曹洞) lineage, founded by Dongshan Liangjie (洞山良价, 807–869) and Caoshan Benji (曹山本寂, 840–901). These lineages — known in Japanese as Rinzai and Soto, respectively — would come to dominate Chan Buddhism and transmit its influence throughout East Asia.

The Linji school was characterized by its dramatic, confrontational teaching style. Linji Yixuan was famous for his use of shouts (喝, he) and blows as pedagogical tools — sudden, shocking interventions designed to shatter the student's conceptual habits and provoke an immediate breakthrough to direct awareness. His recorded sayings (Linji Lu, 临济录) contain some of the most radical and paradoxical statements in the history of religious thought: "If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha" (逢佛杀佛); "The true person of no rank" (无位真人, wuwei zhenren); "In my teaching, there is no Buddha, no dharma, no practice, no realization." These statements are not nihilistic negations but pedagogical devices designed to liberate the student from dependence on external authorities — including the authority of the Buddha and the dharma themselves — and to compel the student to find enlightenment within his or her own immediate experience.

The Caodong school, by contrast, favored a more subtle and gradual approach. Dongshan Liangjie developed the framework of the "Five Ranks" (五位, wuwei), a sophisticated philosophical schema that maps the relationship between the absolute (正, zheng, "the upright") and the relative (偏, pian, "the inclined") — between ultimate reality and the phenomenal world — through five progressive stages of integration. The Five Ranks represent an attempt to articulate the Huayan insight of the mutual interpenetration of principle and phenomena in terms of the practitioner's experiential realization, providing a systematic framework for understanding the stages of spiritual development that is more nuanced than the simple opposition between "sudden" and "gradual."

The development of the gong'an (公案, known in Japanese as koan) tradition — the use of paradoxical stories, questions, and dialogues as objects of meditation — represents one of Chan's most distinctive and philosophically significant contributions. A gong'an is not a riddle to be solved through logical reasoning but a device for producing a crisis in the student's ordinary way of thinking — a crisis that, when pushed to its extreme, results in a breakthrough beyond conceptual thought to direct realization. Classic gong'an such as "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" (Hakuin), "Does a dog have Buddha-nature?" (Zhaozhou's wu), and "What was your original face before your parents were born?" function by presenting the mind with a problem that cannot be resolved within the framework of ordinary dualistic thinking, forcing the practitioner to find a response that comes from a deeper level of awareness.

4. Pure Land Buddhism and the Philosophy of Devotion

While Chan Buddhism developed a path of meditation and direct realization that appealed primarily to monastic practitioners and educated laypeople, Pure Land Buddhism (净土宗, Jingtu Zong) offered a path of devotional practice — recitation of the name of Amitabha Buddha (阿弥陀佛, Amituofo) — that was accessible to all, regardless of intellectual ability, moral attainment, or social status. Pure Land Buddhism became, during the Tang dynasty and thereafter, the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in China, and its philosophical implications — though often overlooked by scholars attracted to the more intellectually dazzling traditions of Chan and Huayan — are substantial and significant.

The philosophical foundations of Pure Land Buddhism rest on the concept of "Other-power" (他力, tali) — the idea that liberation from suffering is achieved not primarily through one's own efforts (self-power, 自力, zili) but through the compassionate vow-power of Amitabha Buddha, who has vowed to bring all sentient beings who call upon his name to rebirth in the Pure Land (净土, Jingtu), a transcendent realm where the conditions for achieving final enlightenment are perfect. This concept represents a radical departure from the dominant Buddhist emphasis on self-cultivation and personal effort, and it raises profound philosophical questions about the nature of grace, faith, and the relationship between human agency and transcendent power.

The great systematizers of Chinese Pure Land thought were Tanluan (昙鸾, 476–542), Daochuo (道绰, 562–645), and Shandao (善导, 613–681). Tanluan, drawing on the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna's distinction between the "easy path" (reliance on the Buddha's vow-power) and the "difficult path" (reliance on one's own efforts), argued that in the age of the "decline of the dharma" (末法, mofa) — a period when human capacities have degenerated and the conditions for genuine practice have deteriorated — the "easy path" of reliance on Amitabha's compassionate power is not merely an alternative but the only realistic path to liberation. Shandao further developed this argument, insisting that the practice of nianfo (念佛, "mindfulness of the Buddha," typically understood as the vocal recitation of Amitabha's name) is sufficient in itself for rebirth in the Pure Land, and that this practice is available to all beings, including the most sinful and morally depraved.

The philosophical significance of Pure Land Buddhism lies in its challenge to the aristocratic and meritocratic assumptions of much of Chinese Buddhist thought. If liberation depends on one's own efforts — on the cultivation of wisdom, meditation, and moral virtue — then it is, in practice, available only to those with the leisure, education, and natural ability to undertake such cultivation. Pure Land Buddhism democratized the path to liberation by making it dependent not on personal achievement but on the universal compassion of the Buddha and the simple practice of invoking his name — a practice that requires no special training, no philosophical understanding, and no moral perfection. This democratization of the spiritual path had profound social implications and resonated with the egalitarian strands in Chinese thought that can be traced back to Mozi and, in a different form, to Mencius's teaching that all human beings possess the innate capacity for moral goodness.

5. The Tang Synthesis of Three Teachings

The Tang dynasty was characterized by a remarkable degree of intellectual openness and cosmopolitan tolerance that allowed the "Three Teachings" (三教, sanjiao) of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism to coexist, compete, and interact in ways that were philosophically creative and socially productive. The Tang policy of religious and intellectual pluralism — while not without its exceptions, most notably the great Buddhist persecution of 845 — created an environment in which thinkers could draw freely on multiple traditions and in which the boundaries between traditions were often fluid and permeable.

The concept of the "unity of the Three Teachings" (三教合一, sanjiao heyi) had deep roots in Chinese thought, going back at least to the sixth century. The idea that Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, despite their apparent differences, ultimately teach the same truth — that they are complementary approaches to a single reality rather than contradictory rivals — became a dominant intellectual motif in the Tang period. This synthesis found expression at multiple levels: in imperial patronage that supported all three traditions; in the lives of individual scholars and officials who studied and practiced elements of all three; and in philosophical writings that sought to articulate the common ground between the traditions.

The Tang poet-official Wang Wei (王维, 699–759) exemplified this synthesis in his person and his art. A devoted Chan practitioner, a Confucian official, and a painter and poet of transcendent genius, Wang Wei embodied the Tang ideal of the cultivated person who draws on all three traditions without being confined by any of them. His landscape poetry — which uses the natural world to express states of spiritual awareness — represents a seamless integration of Confucian moral sensibility, Daoist naturalism, and Chan insight into the nature of mind.

At the institutional level, the Tang court organized formal debates between representatives of the Three Teachings — the "Three Teachings Debates" (三教论衡, sanjiao lunheng) — which served both as intellectual exercises and as instruments of imperial cultural policy. These debates, while often competitive and even polemical, also fostered a climate of mutual engagement and cross-fertilization that enriched all three traditions. The famous Huayan master Zongmi (宗密, 780–841), for example, developed a systematic classification of Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist teachings in which each tradition was assigned a place in a comprehensive hierarchy of understanding — with Buddhism, naturally, at the apex — that nevertheless acknowledged the partial truth and practical value of the other two traditions. Zongmi's system was not merely a Buddhist apologetic but a genuine attempt to comprehend the intellectual landscape of his time within a single, integrated philosophical framework.

6. Han Yu's Attack on Buddhism and Defense of the Confucian Way

The cosmopolitan tolerance of the Tang dynasty was not without its critics. The most important — and philosophically the most consequential — was Han Yu (韩愈, 768–824), a literary genius, government official, and polemicist whose fierce attack on Buddhism and passionate defense of the Confucian Way (道, Dao) initiated the intellectual movement that would eventually culminate in the Neo-Confucian revolution of the Song dynasty. Han Yu is thus a pivotal figure in the history of Chinese philosophy — the thinker who first articulated, with rhetorical power and philosophical conviction, the case for a Confucian renaissance that would reclaim the intellectual leadership of Chinese civilization from Buddhism.

Han Yu's most famous anti-Buddhist text is his "Memorial on the Buddha's Bone" (论佛骨表, Lun Fogu Biao), written in 819 to protest the Emperor Xianzong's plan to bring a relic of the Buddha — allegedly a finger bone — to the imperial palace for veneration. The memorial is a masterpiece of polemic prose. Han Yu argues that Buddhism is a foreign teaching unsuited to Chinese civilization; that the Buddha was a "barbarian" (夷, yi) who "did not speak Chinese and wore clothes of a different fashion"; that Buddhist monasticism, with its requirements of celibacy, head-shaving, and withdrawal from social life, violates the fundamental Confucian values of filial piety, family loyalty, and social responsibility; and that the devotion of imperial resources to Buddhist institutions drains the state of wealth and manpower while producing no tangible benefit for society.

But Han Yu's significance for the history of philosophy lies not in his polemics against Buddhism but in his constructive effort to articulate a Confucian "Way" (道, Dao) that could serve as an alternative to the Buddhist dharma. In his essay "On the Origin of the Way" (原道, Yuan Dao), Han Yu argues that there exists a continuous tradition of the "Way of the Sages" — a tradition of moral, political, and cosmic wisdom that was transmitted from the ancient sage-kings Yao and Shun through the Duke of Zhou and Confucius to Mencius, after which it was lost. This concept of the daotong (道统, "transmission of the Way") — the idea that there exists a definite lineage of sages through whom the authentic Confucian Way has been transmitted — was directly modeled on the Chan Buddhist concept of the dharma-transmission lineage, and it would become one of the most important concepts in Neo-Confucian philosophy.

Han Yu's daotong narrative served multiple purposes. It provided Confucianism with a lineage of transmission that could rival the Buddhist patriarchal lineage. It identified the "Way" not with any particular doctrine or text but with a living tradition of moral insight and political wisdom that needed to be recovered and continued. And it located the decisive break in this tradition after Mencius — implying that the subsequent development of Chinese thought, including the rise of Daoism and Buddhism, represented a deviation from the authentic Way that needed to be corrected. In this way, Han Yu established the intellectual framework for the Neo-Confucian project: the recovery, reinterpretation, and creative extension of the Confucian tradition as a comprehensive worldview capable of addressing the philosophical questions that Buddhism had so powerfully raised.

7. Li Ao and the Beginnings of Confucian Renewal

Han Yu's disciple and intellectual heir, Li Ao (李翱, ca. 772–841), took the crucial next step in the Confucian response to Buddhism. While Han Yu had attacked Buddhism from outside and had called for a return to the Confucian Way, Li Ao engaged with Buddhist philosophy at a deeper level — absorbing its insights about the nature of mind and consciousness while reinterpreting them within a Confucian framework. In doing so, Li Ao anticipated many of the central themes of Song-dynasty Neo-Confucianism and established the basic strategy that Neo-Confucian thinkers would employ: not simply rejecting Buddhism but appropriating its philosophical insights and integrating them into a revitalized Confucian system.

Li Ao's most important philosophical work is "On Returning to One's Nature" (复性书, Fuxing Shu), a three-part essay that addresses the fundamental question of human nature — the question that had been at the center of Confucian philosophy since Mencius and Xunzi. Li Ao argues that human nature (性, xing) is originally good — a position that aligns him with Mencius — but that this original goodness has been obscured by the emotions (情, qing), which cloud the mind and prevent us from realizing our true nature. The task of moral cultivation is therefore to return to one's original nature by "stilling" (静, jing) the emotions and recovering the clarity and tranquility of the original mind.

The Buddhist — and specifically Chan — influence on Li Ao's thought is unmistakable. His concept of an originally pure nature that has been obscured by adventitious defilements closely parallels the Buddhist doctrine of Buddha-nature; his emphasis on the "stilling" of emotional disturbance as the path to realization echoes Chan meditation practice; and his insistence that the original nature is not something to be acquired from outside but something to be uncovered within oneself reflects the Chan teaching that enlightenment is not gained but revealed. Yet Li Ao frames these insights entirely in Confucian terms, drawing on the Doctrine of the Mean (中庸, Zhongyong) and the Yijing (易经), and arguing that the recovery of one's original nature leads not to monastic withdrawal but to active engagement in the moral and political life of society — the quintessentially Confucian goal of "inner sageliness and outer kingliness" (内圣外王, neisheng waiwang).

Li Ao's significance lies in his demonstration that Confucianism could address the questions of human psychology, moral cultivation, and the nature of mind that Buddhism had made central to Chinese intellectual life — and that it could do so on its own terms, drawing on its own canonical texts and its own tradition of moral philosophy. This demonstration opened the way for the Song Neo-Confucians, who would develop Li Ao's insights into a comprehensive philosophical system.

8. Daoist Religion and Philosophy in the Tang

The Tang dynasty was a golden age not only for Buddhism but also for Daoism, which enjoyed unprecedented imperial patronage. The Tang imperial family, the Li (李) clan, claimed descent from Laozi (whose legendary surname was also Li), and this genealogical claim — whether sincere or politically expedient — gave Daoism a special status at the Tang court. The Daodejing was made a required text for the civil service examinations, Daoist temples were established throughout the empire, and Daoist priests and scholars were granted honors and privileges.

This imperial patronage stimulated a remarkable flowering of Daoist thought that encompassed both philosophical speculation and religious practice. The most important Tang Daoist thinker was Cheng Xuanying (成玄英, fl. 630–660), whose commentary on the Zhuangzi developed a sophisticated interpretation of Daoist philosophy that drew on Buddhist — particularly Madhyamaka — dialectical methods. Cheng Xuanying argued for a "twofold mystery" (重玄, chongxuan) approach: one must negate not only the world of appearances but also the negation itself — transcending both being and non-being, both affirmation and denial, to arrive at a reality that is beyond all conceptual categories. This "twofold mystery" method is strikingly similar to the Madhyamaka technique of negating all positions, including the position of negation, and it demonstrates the degree to which Buddhist philosophical methods had been absorbed into the Daoist intellectual tradition.

The Tang also saw the development of Daoist "inner alchemy" (内丹, neidan) — a philosophical and practical tradition that reinterpreted the earlier alchemical quest for the "elixir of immortality" as an internal, meditative process of spiritual transformation. The inner alchemical tradition drew on Daoist cosmology (particularly the theory of yin-yang and the five phases), Buddhist meditation techniques, and Confucian moral psychology to develop a sophisticated practice of self-cultivation aimed at the harmonization of body, mind, and spirit. The philosophical framework of inner alchemy — with its concepts of jing (精, "essence"), qi (气, "vital energy"), and shen (神, "spirit"), and its account of the progressive refinement and unification of these three substances — would become one of the most important and enduring contributions of Tang Daoism to Chinese thought.

The Daoist philosopher Sima Chengzhen (司马承祯, 647–735), the most influential Daoist master of the early Tang, developed a systematic theory of spiritual cultivation in his "Discourse on Sitting in Forgetfulness" (坐忘论, Zuowang Lun) that synthesized Daoist, Buddhist, and Confucian elements. Sima described a sevenfold path of progressive spiritual development — from the initial stage of "respect and faith" (敬信, jingxin) through stages of calming the mind, stabilizing the spirit, and simplifying activities, to the culminating stage of "attaining the Way" (得道, dedao) — that integrated Daoist naturalism, Buddhist meditation techniques, and Confucian moral cultivation into a unified practice. His work exemplifies the creative synthesis of the Three Teachings that was characteristic of Tang intellectual culture.

9. The Buddhist Persecution of 845 and Its Philosophical Aftermath

The Huichang Suppression (会昌灭佛, Huichang miefo) of 845, carried out under Emperor Wuzong (武宗, r. 840–846), was the most devastating blow to institutional Buddhism in Chinese history. Over 4,600 major monasteries and 40,000 smaller temples were destroyed; approximately 260,000 monks and nuns were forcibly returned to lay life; vast quantities of Buddhist scriptures, images, and artworks were confiscated or destroyed; and the extensive landholdings of the Buddhist establishment were seized by the state. While the persecution was motivated primarily by economic and political considerations — the desire to reclaim the wealth and manpower that had been absorbed by the Buddhist monastic establishment — it was legitimized by anti-Buddhist arguments drawn from Han Yu's polemic tradition and from Daoist rivalries.

The philosophical consequences of the Huichang Suppression were profound and lasting. The most intellectually sophisticated schools of Chinese Buddhism — Huayan, Tiantai, and the scholastic traditions based on detailed study of complex philosophical texts — were hit hardest, because they depended on large monastic libraries, extensive scriptural collections, and well-funded institutions of learning. Chan Buddhism survived the persecution relatively well, precisely because its emphasis on direct, personal transmission from master to student and its relative indifference to textual scholarship made it less dependent on institutional infrastructure. Pure Land Buddhism also survived, because its central practice — the recitation of the name of Amitabha — required no books, no temples, and no clerical hierarchy.

The long-term result was a simplification and reorientation of Chinese Buddhism. The post-persecution Buddhist landscape was dominated by Chan and Pure Land — often fused into a single practice in which Chan meditation and Pure Land recitation were understood as complementary approaches — while the more philosophically elaborate traditions declined. This shift had significant implications for Chinese intellectual history: it meant that the Buddhist philosophy available to the Song Neo-Confucians was predominantly Chan-inflected, emphasizing the nature of mind, direct realization, and the inherent perfection of one's original nature — themes that would profoundly shape the Neo-Confucian project.

The Tang dynasty thus bequeathed to subsequent Chinese intellectual history a complex and contradictory legacy. It had brought Buddhist philosophy to its highest level of creative achievement in China. It had begun the Confucian counter-movement that would eventually reshape the intellectual landscape. It had fostered a synthesis of the Three Teachings that would remain an enduring feature of Chinese civilization. And it had, through the trauma of the Huichang persecution and its aftermath, set the stage for the Neo-Confucian revolution that would define the next millennium of Chinese thought.