The educational significance of Neo-confucian criticisms on Buddhism

ABSTRACT

The one way we can envisage the ideas of Neo-Confucianism is through criticizing Buddhism. It means the educational significance of Neo- Confucianism can be in duced from Anti- Buddhism.Most of the Neo-Confucians understood Buddhism in terms of the principles like nothingness(虛無), annihilation (寂滅), and phantom(幻影). So, they criticized Buddhism allow s people t o t ake an immoral attitude by lacking the absolute principle li(理) of mind(心). As pointed out, through this kinds of criticisms, we can grasp the way of Neo-Confucian's understanding of Buddhism and that of Neo- Confucian paradigm.I tried to unify the educational significance of Neo-Confucianism on the viewpoint of the criticisms on Buddhism, after discussing the history on Anti-Buddhism by the method of the chronological enumeration in China and Korea. It consists of educational categories such as the objection in education and the method in education .