从印度佛教传入中国看两种文化的冲突和融合

Inter-Cultural Conflict and Harmony Seen in Light of the Introduction of India's Buddhism into China

中国历史上有三次大规模的外来文化的传入:第一次是公元一世纪到九世纪印度佛教的传入,第二次是明中叶到清初西方自然科学的传入,第三次是鸦片战争以后西方文化的全面传播,特别是五四运动时期马克思主义的传入。外来文化的冲击必然引起,传统文化结构的震荡和改变,这两者之间有一个相互矛盾、冲突、融合、吸收的长期而复杂的过程。本文考察了印度佛教传入中国后“比附”、“冲突”、“融合”的三个阶段,探讨了中国文化开放型的特点。“前事不忘,后世之师”,从这一历史过程中我们也许能吸收一些对中国现代化进程有教益的东西。

The history of China has recorded three major foreign cultural inflows, among which the introduction of India's Buddhism into China (1—9 cent. A. D.)is the first. The second inflow is that of the Western natural sciences dating from mid-Ming Dynasty to early Qing Dynasty. And the latest one is the allround inflow of Western culture following the Opium War, culminating in the introduction of Marxism-Leninism into China during the May Fourth Move ment.The foreign culture pounded at China's traditional cultural structure and caused inevitable Shockwaves and changes. The two cultures have undergone a long and complicated process of mutually contradicting, conflicting, harmonizing, and inter-assimilation. This paper is an investigation into the three phases experienced by India's Buddhism in China, that is, 'imitating','conflicting', and 'harmonizing'. And in this light the paper expounds the 'open' nature of China's culture. Recalling the past can enlighten the future. The above-discussed history might render some enlightenment for China's on-going cause of modernization.