Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t6.18

v1.c7.s7.t6.18

metaphysics into the annotations and interpretations of the Buddhist sutras. “Sutras are cited and referred to while explaining the contents of other books”. For example, when Hui Yuan mentioned “real look”, he drew an analogy from Zhuang Zi theory. When Zhi Daolin discussed about existence and non-existence, he took Wang Bi and Guo Xiang’s thoughts as the clue. Metaphysics also profoundly influenced the Buddhist theory itself at that time. For example, when Dao An sought to explain the meaning of emptiness, we very often find the influence of Wang Bi’s “theory on sayings and connotations” in them. He also paid the equal attention to “removal of disorderly intention and appearance of the origin”. Influenced by Guo Xiang’s thoughts and methods, Zhi Daolin said: “Reason for material existence of things is not self-engendered. The so-called material existence is also empty”. And the relationship was similar to the relationship between existence and obscurity. However, with the development of Buddhism in the Six Dynasties, scholars gradually refrained from discussing about metaphysics.