Abstract:
The separate establishment and mutual fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism was the primary pattern of development of Chinese philosophy and ideological culture since the Wei Kingdom and the Jing Dynasty. The syncretism of the three doctrines since the Tang and Song Dynasties resulted necessarily from repeated dispute and mutual fusion between the three doctrines since then. The so-called “syncretism” refers to mutual absorption, mutual fusion and rational return to the mind in spite of the separate establishment of the different doctrines. Neo-Confucianism, which rose in the Song and Ming Dynasties, marked a leading result of development of the syncretism of the three doctrines. So the syncretism was not only the significant reason for the formation and primary feature of Neo-Confucianism, which was characteristic of Confucianism-based ontology, theory of human nature and theory of self-cultivation and fusion of Buddhism and Taoism.
