Song Bin

Yang Shi’s Confucian Quiet-Sitting Meditation: A Distinction from Cheng Yi and Huayan Buddhism

Religions December 16, 2024 Song Bin

Yang Shi pioneered a Neo-Confucian method of self-cultivation centered on quiet-sitting, which involves techniques like breathing and calming the mind to return to a state of centrality. This state, once achieved, is preserved and expanded in everyday life. The practice is grounded in a moral psychology and metaphysics where Tianli, the comprehensive pattern-principle of the universe, becomes fully manifest in the human heartmind. Yang's approach inherits key features from Cheng Hao's philosophy while diverging from Cheng Yi's. Despite his metaphysical views aligning more closely with Huayan Buddhism's idea of perfect fusion between pattern-principle and things, Yang insisted that his quiet-sitting philosophy remained distinctively Confucian.