Xunzi (Xun Kuang, Xun Qing, Hsun-tzu)
(310-220 b.c.e.) rationalist philosopher in ancient China
The Confucian philosopher Xunzi, or "Master Xun," is the first Chinese thinker to use extended arguments. Xunzi was connected to the school of legalism (fajia) and two of his disciples went on to become great legalist thinkers. Yet he himself remained a strict Confucian. He served as a regional administrator for many years, and his managerial experience shaped his work, which tends to be orderly, analytic, and practical. The book the Xunzi was in the main written by him (as opposed to his followers) and, unlike the Analects or the Book of Mencius, consists of philosophical discourses and arguments of the kind usually found in Western philosophical texts. Xunzi’s style is generally no-nonsense and highly persuasive. His work remained very influential among Confucians until the Song dynasty (960-1279), when the more Mencian perspective came into favor.
Xunzi is particularly famous for his views of human nature (xing) and the role of ritual (li). For Xunzi, human nature is "evil." By this he means that it is slothful, animalistic, and greedy. It must be curbed and reshaped by culture. This view diametrically opposes that of Mencius, who holds that human nature is originally "good." Xunzi’s view, however, is not pessimistic. For him, culture is what makes us into good, refined human beings. However, culture is not natural but must be instilled through education; we become civilized and moral by learning. According to Xunzi, civilized education is a process of "conscious activity" (intellect, thinking) that the sage-kings of old used to establish civilized ways. in that sense we become full human beings only through the process of education. Moreover, we all can do this. We all can learn to be good; we all can become sages.
The key to such education, in Xunzi’s eyes, are the li (rites, rituals). The li form a comprehensive blueprint for conduct as a human being in both public and private. The li establish the field upon which we can live. They set basic parameters, purify and refine our emotions, and direct us in interacting with others. Becoming fully schooled in li makes us gentlemen and gentlewomen.
Xunzi is a supreme rationalist. our ability to think, to sort things out, and to classify them, makes us human and enables us to participate in society. Education in li, observance of the rites, reinforces this ability. To submit to such norms is eminently reasonable, for such submission allows us to live well and become who we can be. A life guided by li is not dry or harsh, even if learning them is difficult. Education in the li allows us to appreciate beauty, music, and art. But Xunzi stresses that this is all a human-centered project. Our concern is with the human world; heaven (tian) has little to do with this. Most certainly heaven is not moral; nor are natural events indications of "supernatural" forces. All can be explained in an obvious, natural fashion. There is, therefore, no need to look for omens or seek out the works of gods or spirits. Such rationalism, it must be said, never really caught on in China.
Xunzi is a great debater, and he argues at length against not only Mencius but other schools of thought in pre-Han China. He understands the "mind" (xin) as being based on the power to organize and classify things accurately, that is, in conformity to objective reality. He is especially concerned with the "rectification of names," ensuring names and words are used properly. in Xunzi’s perspective, language is integral to culture. Names and terms are essential human inventions for society to function harmoniously but they are based purely on convention and social agreement.
Xunzi is far more "philosophical" in the Western sense than any other early Chinese thinker. He has a sober view of human nature that bears some resemblance to the views of Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and John Calvin (1509-64).
Yama (Chinese, Yanluo; Japanese, Emma)
Yama is the Buddhist lord of the underworld. Yama was originally mentioned in the Indian Rg Veda as one of two twin brothers, Yama and Yami. The myth of Yama and Yami was of Indo-Iranian origin and corresponded to the story of Yima and Yimeh. According to the Rg Veda account Yama and Yami were the first humans. When Yama eventually died, he lived in a heavenly paradise, called yamarajya. it was the goal of all rishis, or holy people of merit in the period of the Rg Veda, to pass into Yama’s paradise, a place without decay where all desires were met.
Over time Yama’s heavenly paradise was shifted to the underworld and he became the overlord of hell. However, he is not without compassion. He acts as one of the 10 wardens in hell and as a judge. unlike his other bureaucratically minded wardens, Yama is able to use compassion as a criterion in judging people’s fates. in addition although Yama is depicted as having a fierce face, it is meant to scare people away from the practices that will lead them to hell, a compassionate act.
Yan Hui (Yan Yuan)
(c. late sixth century-early fifth century b.c.e.) ideal Confucian role model
As far as we know, Yan Hui wrote nothing, had no disciples, and never served in any official position. Nevertheless, he exemplifies the spiritual dimensions of Confucian tradition and is regarded as a supreme model by later followers of Confucianism (rujia). He has become a symbol of the ideal Confucian person: eager to learn, insightful, morally scrupulous, and deeply respectful of his teacher and the traditions being imparted.
According to the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian, compiled c. 100 b.c.e.), Confucius had some 3,000 pupils. Several of these are mentioned by name in the Analects, but Yan Hui’s name stands out from the rest. indeed, there are more than a dozen passages in the Analects in which Yan Hui appears in some form. We know little about him, but from what we are able to glean, he was a remarkable man in terms of his intelligence, moral integrity, and loyalty. Clearly he was Confucius’s favorite, and some passages (e.g., Analects 7.11) indicate that the master regarded him as an equal.
Unwavering in his integrity no matter his circumstances (cf. Analects 7.11), Yan Hui seems to display an almost mystical reconciliation with Tian Dao (The Way of Heaven). Confucius said of him that he never vented his anger on an innocent person nor made the same mistake twice (Analects 6.3). Yan, always modest, merely said that his goal was never to boast of his own virtue or impose burdens upon others (Analects 5.26). From the perspective of the rujia, Yan was the very embodiment of cheng ("sincerity," "authenticity"), the key virtue expounded upon in the Zhongyong ("Doctrine of the Mean"). His example, thus, serves as an important corrective to stereotypes of Confucianism as a primarily secular "philosophy" rather than a "religion." Interestingly, later Daoist and Buddhist thinkers also take Yan Hui as a model.
Yantra
A yantra is a geometric design, used as a meditation diagram, whose various elements carry meanings that can be multiplied by juxtaposition. The yantra is said to be helpful to the individual’s meditation practice. A yantra may be identified with a specific deity and serve as a contact point with the powers of that deity. Yantras are drawn and may then be memorized so that they can be recalled at any time. They first developed as tools used by Shaktaite Hindus (those who follow Tantric teachings), who passed the practice to adherents of Vajrayana Buddhism (primarily in Tibet).
Every yantra has a border that separates the design from the environment and functions much as a magical circle, to contain and focus cosmic energies. Each yantra is composed of combinations of geometric elements, each of which adds meaning to the design. Most often, in the center there is a dot (bindu) that serves as the center of concentration. The dot is often identified with the deity Shiva.
Triangles symbolize Shakti, the female deity, and her energy. The triangle (trikona) may point downward as a symbol of the female sexual organ (yoni) and hence of the source of creation. It may point upward as the symbol of the energy seen in the flame. Two triangles, one pointed upward and one downward, may be imposed on each other, thus forming a symbol (shatkona) very like what is known in the West as David’s Star (Judaism) or Solomon’s Seal (Western esotericism). In yantric theory this pattern represents the union of Shakta and Shiva in the act of creation, with obvious sexual connotations.
Circles (chakras), symbols of air, resemble the whirling energy of the chakras, the points of concentration of the subtle energy body that Tantric Hindus and Vajrayana Buddhists believe mirror the physical body. The square (bhapura) is a symbol of earth. The square most often appears as the border of the yantra. More complex yantras may also include a lotus (padma), a symbol of purity.
The most famous yantra is the Sri Yantra. It consists of nine intersecting triangles, six concentric circles, and several lotus petals, all within a complex border pattern that represents four doors to the outside world. It is seen as a model of the cosmos with a bindu on the center representing the absolute. The Sri Yantra is one connection between the yantra and the more complicated mandalas, which often use yantras as design elements.
Believers use yantras as part of their development of higher states of consciousness as well as objects of worship (since they often symbolized and carry the power of a deity). Yantras can be found decorating the temples of Hindus and Buddhists in the Tantric Vajrayana tradition.
Yasodara the Buddha’s wife
Yasodara was married to the young prince Sakyamuni. She bore him one son, Rahula. She later became a follower of the Buddha herself. She stands in many Buddhist stories as a symbol of wifely devotion and love. Despite her love for him, the future Buddha chose to leave home, a key symbolic act of renunciation. in fact, in explaining the Buddha’s decision to leave on that fateful night—on the very day his son was born—it is Yasodara’s love and the impending duties of fatherhood that were seen by the young prince as the greatest obstacles to his leading a life of renunciation. Yasodara is thus a symbol of the enticements of human life, the realm of samsara, as well as a paragon of devotion.
Yasukuni Jinja
This controversial Shinto shrine in Tokyo has become a symbol of Japan’s nationalist past. Yasu-kuni Jinja was built in 1869, at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912). The immediate reason for its establishment was to commemorate those who died in the Boshin civil war (1867-68), which preceded the Meiji. The emperor Meiji issued his proclamation in June 1869 to establish the shrine. Yasu means "peaceful," while kuni refers to "place" or "country." The name reflects the desire that the departed souls housed at Yasu-kuni will find peace. There were originally 3,500 souls, or kami, worshipped at Yasukuni. There are now, officially, 2,466,532 kami "enshrined" there and listed on the "Book of Souls." The annual spring festival held at Yasukuni commemorates the mitama, or souls of those kami.
For several reasons, the Yasukuni shrine is today a hot point in relations between Japan and its neighbors. First, the nearly 2.5 million souls enshrined at Yasukuni include many of Japan’s military and government leaders from the Second World War, including 14 Class A war criminals. These 14 were not originally included in the shrine and were not added until 1978. They include Hideki Tojo, Japan’s wartime prime minister. This act of including these figures in the shrine was controversial and fans the flames of anger in many other countries. The shrine’s own Web site gives expression to strong feelings that those found guilty at the war tribunal, some 1,068 people, were unfairly branded as criminals and deserve to be honored at Yasukuni. it is just this point of view that angers many Chinese and Koreans. They see Yasukuni as a symbol of Japan’s past aggression and a reminder of the potential for further right-wing adventurism.
The second immediate cause of controversy concerning Yasukuni is the former prime minister’s practice of visiting the site to pay respects to the dead. While the emperor himself ceased such visits in 1979, when the 14 criminals were installed there, three separate prime ministers have visited since 1979. Junichiro Koizumi, who became prime minister in 2001, visited yearly after taking office. This action ensured that Yasu-kuni was never out of the news for long.
In fact Yasukuni has been at the center of debates over State Shinto ever since the end of World War II. Sentiment against Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution grew in the 1950s. Leaders of the Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto Shrines, wanted a revival of State Shinto. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party began to introduce a bill every year, the Yasukuni Shrine Bill, which was never able to pass. This bill would treat the Yasukuni Shrine as a nonreligious institution and allow tax support for it. The government later created a watered-down measure, the Memorial Respect Proposal, in order to allow state support for the Yasukuni Shrine.
The problem is the shrine’s murky status as a religious institution. Yasukuni’s political and religious roles are mixed. unlike in most countries, there is no other civil memorial to those fallen in Japan’s past wars. Most politicians insist that the dead should be commemorated at Yasukuni,which is legally speaking a self-funding religious shrine, not a state-supported site. Thus the controversy concerns a political act by politicians in a religious site. Politicians act in their personal capacity and are in a way protected ostensibly from saying their acts reflect government policy. Few observers accept this explanation, however.
Yasutani Hakuun Roshi
(1885-1973) independent Japanese Zen teacher
The Japanese Zen Master Yasutani Hakuun Roshi, an important figure in the development of a Japanese Zen Buddhism organization, Sanbo Kyodan, became one of the most famous figures in the transmission of Zen to the West. His influence rivaled that of Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki. His students founded two independent international associations of Zen centers, the Diamond Sangha (Aitken) and the Zen Center of Rochester (Kap-leau), and others now form Sanbo Kyodan’s own international association. Though the Sanbo Kyo-dan has a relatively marginal role in the Japanese Zen community, its students form the largest segment of the Western Zen community.
Yasutani was born into a poor family, a fact that led first to his adoption into another family and then his entrance into a Rinzai Zen temple as a "monk" at the age of five. From the original temple he moved to several others during his early years. While at Teishin-ji, a Soto Zen temple, he studied with Yasutani Ryogi, from whom he took his religious name.
The years of his early adulthood were characterized by his movement among several temples and his encounters with a variety of Zen masters. Then at the age of 30, he left the rather confined world in which he had lived and became a school teacher. He married and fathered five children. He also pursued a quest to find one he could accept as a true master. He found that master in 1925 in the person of Harada Daiun Sogaku Roshi (1871-1961). Yasutani quit his teaching job and became a full-time Soto Zen priest at Hosshin-ji temple. In 1943 he received the seal of transmission from Harada Roshi. In 1954, he left the Soto Zen organization and founded the independent Sanbo Kyodan (Three Treasures Association) as a small independent Zen group. Yasutani maintained Harada’s emphasis on synthesizing Soto and Rinzai Zen into a new teaching lineage.
Yasutani Roshi began to accept Americans and other Westerners as students, including Philip Kapleau and Robert Baker Aitken, both to have illustrious careers as founders of American Zen organizations. Then in 1962, the years after Harada’s death, Yasutani made annual trips to the United States. He made stops in Hawaii and on both coasts. Through the 1960s, the publicity given his tours and his acceptance of many Westerners made Yasutani one of the best-known Zen figures in the West. Yasutani passed his lineage to Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-95), the founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles.
Yeshe Tsogyal
(757-817) female Tibetan Buddhist teacher
Yeshe Tsogyal was one of the five prominent female students and consorts of Padmasambhava, who introduced Buddhism to Tibet. She was 16 when she met him in 772 and was initiated into esoteric Vajrayana Buddhism the next year. She worked with Padmasambhava to establish Buddhism in the face of the stronghold the indigenous Bon religion maintained on the Tibetan people of the eighth century. over the years, she not only assisted Padmasambhava but began to emerge as a independent teacher and visionary in her own right. As her star rose, people began to think of her as a dakini, or semidivine being. She was the author of two important books, the biography of her teacher and her own autobiography, both of which have been translated into English.
In later centuries, two other prominent female teachers have been acknowledged as reincarnations of Tsogyal: Nachig Lapdron (1055-1145) and Yomo Memo (1248-83).
Yi (rightness)
Yi is one of the most important yet inherently ambiguous concepts in Confucian tradition. The term is most often translated as "righteousness" or "propriety" but perhaps better rendered as "rightness," since an action can only be deemed "proper" or even "righteous" if, in fact, if it is "right," that is, suitable given the specific circumstances. As "rightness," yi has ethical, aesthetic, and intellectual connotations—very fitting considering how closely these concerns are intertwined in most of traditional Chinese thought. Various Chinese dictionaries relate yi to the term wo ("i," or more broadly, "personal self"), following the lead of the Han Confucian thinker Dong Zhongshu (195-105 b.c.e.), who speaks of yi as related to "rightness" concerning the "self" (wo). Recent scholars such as Hall and Ames have said that yi might better be understood as a key component of the process of becoming fully human, a junzi (superior person).
From what we can see in the Analects, yi was a crucial idea for Confucius. Yi seems to be the basic "rightness" marking the behavior of an ethical person in situations where there is no specifically recommended li, or "ritual action." As such, yi is intimately related to ren in its more generalized sense, implying a skilled and graceful understanding of what is required. Thus, for instance, Confucius says that the junzi is concerned with yi, whereas the "petty person" focuses on profit (4 16). Elsewhere Confucius states that the junzi considers yi to be paramount in acting (17 23). indeed, so basic is yi in ethical and spiritual cultivation that Confucius speaks of it as the "raw stuff" from which the junzi fashions his or her character (15 18).
Mencius, as is so often the case, expands upon and clarifies Confucius’s views. Not surprisingly, Mencius locates the origins of yi within our heavenly endowed, innately good nature. Mencius argues that yi is internal, not external; it is one of the "four buds" of virtue that composes our original mind-heart. Specifically, Mencius holds that yi originates in the innate feeling of "shame and disgrace" that we all possess (2A 6). For Mencius, this inherent sense of shame is part of our prereflective way of being, not something that is instilled from without (6A 6).
Of the early Confucian thinkers, however, it is Xunzi who has the most intriguing view of yi. In his more or less "rationalistic" fashion, Xunzi speaks of yi as not just rooted in our innate ethical-spiritual nature but as a definitive characteristic of a human being, a trait that sets us apart from the birds and the beasts. In terms of what Xunzi says, then, yi is not simply "righteousness." Rather, it is more like the ethical self-awareness by which we take action that is "right" in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. It is in this more nuanced sense, then, that we can understand why yi sometimes has the sense of "meaning" or "significance"—it is the ethical and spiritual meaning that human beings alone manifest in the world through deliberate, consciously chosen actions.
The complex notion of yi reveals the distinctly humanistic, social, even existential, dimension of the Confucian tradition. The parallels on these points between Confucian tradition and the ethical and political philosophy of both Plato and Aristotle provide much food for thought. only human beings can exemplify yi, and doing so requires living within a larger human community. It is for these reasons that the late Tang Confucian Han Yu (768-824) rightly criticizes Laozi, the legendary author of the Daoist classic the Daodejing. By speaking of Dao as the Way of Nature over and above human civilization, Laozi would necessarily overlook the human world; he is unconcerned with a human-centered approach to life. Confucians, by contrast, seek Dao within society; the Confucian Dao is realized through ethical, intellectual, and spiritual striving as part of a larger human community. Of the 10,000 things, only humans have a sense of yi; thus it is only those schools of Chinese thought focused on humanity that take yi—and other human concerns—seriously.
Yi Jing (I-ching)
(635-713) Chinese traveler to India
Yi Jing was one of the handful of significant travelers to India from China who have left detailed, extremely useful records of their travels. His accounts of Buddhism in northern India are the last textual source before the Muslim invasions in the period 1000-1200. Yi Jing described his visits to key Buddhist sites such as Lumbini and Nara-nda, the center of Buddhist learning. Many of the temples he described were becoming deteriorated, the numbers of devotees and monks dwindling. Local communities seemed to prefer the panoply of Hindu deities to the Buddha, who at any rate was easily incorporated into the vast Hindu pantheon. Yi Jing’s account leads us to conclude that the decline of Buddhism in India was not solely caused by the Muslim incursions of the 13th century.
Yi Jing is also important for the records he left of the Srivijaya kingdom located in present-day Sumatra, Indonesia. He also carried 400 texts back to China from India and translated 60 sutras himself.
Yin Shun
(1906-2005) Taiwanese teacher of humanistic Buddhism
Yin Shun, one of the most prominent contemporary figures in Taiwanese Buddhism, committed his life to spreading the message of humanized Buddhism, which built on the belief in the ultimate enlightenment of all. Yin Shun was born in Haining, Zhejiang Province, China. His father encouraged him to study medicine, but his initial studies awakened a number of religious issues and led to a lengthy spiritual quest. He was led to Daoism, Confucianism, and Christianity, before stumbling upon Buddhism. The death of his mother (1928) and father (1929) occasioned a personal crisis and led him to become a monk. in 1930, he made his way to Fu Chun Monastery near Mt. PuTu (one of China’s sacred mountains).
As a monk, he began to observe the decline and decadence of Buddhism as it was being practiced in China. He was also sensitive to the critique of Buddhism being offered by many intellectuals. He found his answers in his study of the Agama Sutra, the earliest teachings of the Buddha. He found the purpose of Buddhism to be to end the suffering in the world, to assist the liberation of people, and to elevate human beings. He concluded that the Buddha had found enlightenment in the real human world. From this insight, he began to assemble the basic ideas of what would be called humanized Buddhism. individual Buddhists need to cultivate compassion by helping people become free of suffering and to expect no reward in return. These ideas were very close to those articulated several decades earlier by the eminent Chinese teacher T’ai Hsu (Tai Xu) (1890-1947).
The troubles through which China passed, World War ii and the Chinese revolution, led Yin Shun to relocate to Hong Kong in 1949 and then to Taiwan in 1952. In Taiwan, Yin Shun put his ideas into practice first by attacking the idea of women’s inferiority. He inspired the head of a Buddhist convent, Shuan Shen, to open the Hsin-chu Women’s Buddhist Institute. Yin Shun then established a lecture hall, the first on Taiwan, the Hui Jih Lecture Hall, as a primary center for the dissemination of his perspective.
In 1963, Cheng Yen, a woman who wanted to become a nun, visited his hall. She asked to become his student. From their relationship, in 1966 Cheng Yen would found the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association as an extension of humanized Buddhism. The work of Yin Shun and Cheng Yen ran parallel for a decade. Then in 1979, Yin Shun visited Hualien, where the Tzu Chi Association was headquartered and where Cheng Yen planned to build a hospital. He committed himself to the hospital and diverted the gift money he received to its construction.
Yin Shun authored several books through the years. one of these, The Zen History of China (1971), occasioned his receiving an honorary doctorate from Taisho University in Japan. He died in 2005. His ashes were placed at Fu Yan Monastery in Hsinchu, where he lived during most of his years in Taiwan.
