On the Trend of Going into the Society and Returning into Confucianism in Qi Song's Buddhism and Its Influence on Scholars in Song Dynasty

From the middle of Tang Dynasty to early Northern Song Dynasty,Buddhism gradually exhibited its defects due to the severe criticism of scholars.In order to strive for more development space for Buddhism,Qi Song,the noted Buddhist monk in Northern Song Dynasty,made unremitting efforts in intergating Buddhism with Confucianism.With as the breakthrough point,he offered completely new explanation of filialness in Buddhism and explored the conjunction of Buddhism and Confucianism.In his efforts in integrating Buddism and Confucianism,Qi showed his contribution to the secularization and popularization of Buddhism as well as his inclination of going into the society and returning to Confucianism,which produced critical effects in the scholar circles in Song Dynasty.