This statement did not come from Sun Yat-sen himself, but was relayed by monk Xu Yun when he was invited to Chongqing to set up a disaster relief law meeting in the 31st year of the Republic of China (1942). The original text is: "Dr. Sun Yat-sen tasted that Buddhism is the benevolence of saving the world and Buddhism is the mother of philosophy; Religion is the natural force to create and maintain the country; People can't live without religious thoughts. Learning Buddhism can make up for the bias of science. (Jing Hui, editor-in-chief, Complete Works of Monks in Virtual Cloud, Volume II, Hebei Zen Institute, 2008, p. 85). Later, Sun Yat-sen's granddaughter, Ms. Sun Suifang, also wrote in her book: "Grandfather once said: Buddhism is the benevolence of saving the world, Buddhism is the mother of philosophy, and people must have religious thoughts. Religion has the power to support politics, and politics has the power to protect education. Politics is in charge of the heart and complements each other. There is no contradiction. " (Sun Suifang's My Grandfather Sun Yat-sen, Volume II, Taipei Hippo Culture, 1995, p. 286) It is not recorded in the official Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen or The Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen. Of course, there are some descriptions of Buddhism in the Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen, such as: "In Buddhism, we say: put down the butcher's knife. If we want to become a Buddha, we must put down the butcher knife! (The Importance and Disposal of Dismantling Troops, 1923, March 12, Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen, Volume II, p. 575) Sun Yat-sen did have a certain understanding of Buddhism. Sun's American friend Lin Baike once said: "Sun Yat-sen respected Buddhism introduced from abroad, but deeply regretted his ignorance of Taoism. (paul ryan Bajie, Sun Yate and the Republic of China, 1925, p. 154). In addition, Sun Yat-sen also wrote inscriptions for the Buddhist community many times, such as Ming Chan, which was inscribed for Baiyun Temple in Hangzhou, and Infinite Buddha, which was inscribed for money. On the issue of religion, Sun Yat-sen did say: "Religion and politics are closely related. The progress of national politics depends on religion to make up for its moral deficiency. Brothers hope that the public can make up for the lack of politics with religious morality. " (Making up for Political Deficiency with Religious Morality,1965438+Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen, Volume III, page 75, September 5, 2002) and said: "Compared with religion and science, science is better." (National saving the country with personality,19231kloc-0/speech at the National YMCA Federation on October 20th, in which Sun also denied the Christian theory that God made man in six days. In short, the statement that "Buddhism is the benevolence of saving the world" is only an isolated case first relayed by a monk named Xu Yun. At present, there is no direct evidence to prove that the account was written by Sun Yat-sen. ..

The full text is quoted from chapter 15 of Christianity and China: History and Philosophy (City University of Hong Kong, 20 15) edited by Zhihhong Feng.

Edited on 20 16-07-24

Author: Uncle Wang

Link: /question/20592297/ answer/1 12835660.

Source: Zhihu.