Confucian etiquette, such as the Book of Rites and The Book of Rites, clearly stipulates that when you honor your parents, you will not drink or eat meat for three years. Because mourning for vegetarianism is closely related to filial piety, anyone who violates it will be charged with "great unfilial". In the middle ages, filial piety was paid special attention to, and various filial sons emerged one after another. Many of them went beyond the provisions of etiquette when mourning their parents, and continued to prolong their vegetarian time, from three years to more than ten years, to decades, and even many of them were vegetarian for life. People seem to think that the duration of vegetarianism is directly proportional to filial piety, and the longer the time, the more filial piety. If a lifelong vegetarian diet is of course the highest point of filial piety, it must be an out-and-out dutiful son.
The closest thing between Confucianism and Buddhism is the concept of "benevolence", which appeared in the pre-Qin Confucian classics. It is mentioned in the Book of Rites that cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs and other animals should not be slaughtered casually except for sacrifice. Mencius also said: "Seeing his life, I can't bear to see his death; I can't bear to eat its meat when I hear its voice. These all belong to the category of benevolence, which is the so-called "unbearable heart" and "compassion". Although Confucianism had this concept a long time ago, it has not been emphasized very much. It was not until the Buddhist concept of vegetarian food without killing became popular that Confucianism began to emphasize that it also had the concept of "benevolence", which was similar to the "compassion" of Buddhism. However, Confucianism does not advocate completely abstaining from killing vegetarians like Buddhism, but only requires that killing animals at ordinary times is regarded as "benevolence". If necessary, it is necessary to kill things. After all, blood sacrifice is more important.
Although Confucianism emphasized the importance of using blood in sacrificial ceremonies, in fact, in the Middle Ages, due to the influence of Buddhist vegetarian concept, sacrificial rites changed, resulting in the phenomenon of "vegetarian" sacrifice. In order not to violate the Buddhist commandment of killing, many emperors or literati who believed in Buddhism began to change the tradition of sacrifice since ancient times and changed blood food to vegetarian food. One of the most famous is that Liang Wudi changed the blood sacrifice in the ancestral temple to fruits and vegetables instead of the prison for sacrifice because of his belief in Buddhism. Besides Wu Liang, Gao Yang of the Northern Qi Dynasty did the same thing because he believed in Buddhism. Although it seems that no emperor dared to change the blood food sacrifice in the ancestral temple since then, vegetarian sacrifice was extremely popular in the Middle Ages. The last words of many emperors and scholars require that children and grandchildren should not eat blood when offering sacrifices, but must use vegetarian food. Vegetarian sacrifices became more popular in the Tang Dynasty, and many people turned to vegetarian sacrifices to their relatives and friends, not all because they believed in Buddhism, which showed that vegetarian sacrifices were common at that time.
Another occasion where Confucianism needs vegetarian food is fasting. Fasting is related to sacrifice. In order to show one's piety, one must fast and bathe and "change food" before the sacrifice, that is, change the diet on weekdays. However, there is no clear record on how to "change food". At most, the "no meat" mentioned in "Zhuangzi" is taken as the rule of "changing food" during fasting. However, there have been different interpretations and opinions on the meaning of "meat" without "meat". Most of the "meat" after the Song Dynasty refers to meat, but before the Middle Ages, "meat" was probably just a genus of spicy and smelly dishes such as "five spices", not meat. Probably after the Middle Ages, the idea of not eating meat as a vegetarian diet appeared, which should also be influenced by Buddhism. At the latest in the Tang dynasty, people who sacrifice and fast must completely abstain from meat and vegetarian food, and no longer just fast "spicy".
It is the Buddhist concept of vegetarianism that has had a great influence on the popularity of vegetarianism in the Middle Ages. Primitive Buddhism in India does not require monks to be vegetarian. Sakyamuni allows monks to eat three kinds of clean meat, as long as they can eat meat that is "unseen, unheard of and beyond doubt". Therefore, the Buddhist precepts do not require monks to be completely vegetarian. This situation was the same at the beginning of the introduction of Buddhism into China, and we can see the monks eating meat from many records. When the Nirvana Sutra was translated, it was explicitly mentioned not to eat meat. At that time, the Shurangama Sutra and Brahma Sutra also mentioned not eating meat. In Liang Wudi, according to the teachings of Nirvana Sutra and Shurangama Sutra that meat is forbidden, the emperor held a dharma meeting on his own, and even wrote the famous "Duanjiurou Wen", asking monks to completely ban meat, and no longer allowed to eat Sanjin meat. Since then, Buddhist monks in China must abide by the vegetarian diet.
Liang Wudi constructed a complete set of vegetarian exposition with the concept of Buddhism, which became the main exposition of Buddhist vegetarian view. Why not eat meat? There are three reasons: first, eating meat is equivalent to killing. Even if he doesn't commit suicide, it's hard for a meat eater to get rid of the suspicion of murder. Therefore, "equal to" has committed the great crime of murder, and will suffer all kinds of bad news before death, and will go to hell to suffer endless torture after death. Second, compassion is the foundation of Buddhism. True compassion is not only for human beings, but also for all sentient beings. All living things are as afraid of death as human beings, and people eat other animals to satisfy their appetite, which makes these animals miserable, just like killing, which seriously violates the compassion of Buddhism. Third, because Buddhism believes in the six divisions in the wheel of karma, it is possible to give meat to its relatives and friends, and as a result, the original close relatives have become bitter. In order to avoid this situation, of course, we should be vegetarian. Although Buddhist monks should abide by vegetarian regulations in theory, there are actually many "fair-weather monks". These fair-weather monks can be divided into two types. One is that they regard becoming a monk as a profession and have no real desire to seek Buddhism, so they often don't follow the vegetarian precepts of Buddhism. The other is a monk with super powers. This kind of monk is especially common in medieval records. They eat meat just to show that they are different. They don't hesitate to drink and eat meat in violation of the precepts, which is just a means to prevent ordinary people from drinking and eating meat. According to Buddhism, these monks are only exceptions, and they are by no means what ordinary monks should follow.
When it comes to vegetarianism, it is easy to ignore the influence of Taoism. In fact, Taoism has also played a great role in the popularity of vegetarianism, especially in the pursuit of health preservation and health. As early as the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, the immortal alchemist suggested that if you want to live forever or become immortal, you must "eat whole grains" in your diet, that is, you can't eat whole grains. This method was later absorbed by immortal Taoism. The reason why Taoism wants to "break the valley" is that whole grains are harmful to human body. Since even grains are harmful, what's more, wine, meat, meat and spicy things need to be fasted according to Taoist theory, whether you want to become immortal or live forever. This concept has also influenced the concept of diet in the theory of health preservation. China's health preserving theory is deeply influenced by Taoism, Taoism and traditional Chinese medicine, paying special attention to the utility and taboo of diet, and emphasizing the "light" and "light" principles of diet. Vegetarianism conforms to this principle. Although eating meat is not completely prohibited, it is desirable for medical staff to eat less for longevity.
In addition, there is also a prohibition of meat in the precepts of Taoism itself, which may be partly influenced by Buddhist precepts and has its own origin. Before the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Taoism did not seem to have strict rules on breaking meat, or there were such rules, but ordinary Taoist priests did not abide by them, so many Taoist priests took the lead in drinking and eating meat. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when Lu Hekou began to rectify Taoism, he particularly emphasized that Taoist priests must abide by the precepts of not eating meat. After the Tang Dynasty, the Taoist vegetarian diet became a basic commandment, which should not be violated. Even in the national laws of the Tang Dynasty, it was stipulated that Taoist priests and monks were not allowed to eat meat, and violators would be punished.
Since the Middle Ages, vegetarianism is no longer just a simple eating behavior, but also has many symbolic meanings, almost all of which are positive. With the emergence of the positive symbolic meaning of vegetarianism, meat is becoming more and more unpalatable, and the negative symbolic meaning is constantly strengthened, resulting in the "original sin" that meat eaters can't get rid of. Comparing meat with vegetarian food, we will find that the symbolic meaning between them is just the opposite: meat eaters are vulgar and greedy, while vegetarians are lofty and upright; Carnivores are suspected of being unkind, while vegetarians are synonymous with kindness; Meat is unclean, while vegetarian food is clean; Carnivores are equal to fierce beasts, while vegetarians are gentle and obedient people. This contrast can be said to be deeply rooted in people's hearts, resulting in people's stereotypes about vegetarians and meat eaters. With more and more sacred aura of vegetarians, all good things return to face, while meat eaters are increasingly demonized, and all evil things return to face.
The symbolism represented by vegetarianism is most obvious in history books or biographies. In the biographies of history books, vegetarianism is often mentioned in particular, and its symbolic significance adds luster to the inheritors. Therefore, the vegetarian diet in the biography of the dutiful son represents filial piety and filial piety; The vegetarian diet in the biography of an upright official represents honesty and frugality; Vegetarianism in reclusive biographies symbolizes noble birth, while vegetarianism in female biographies symbolizes chastity and frugality; The vegetarian diet advocated by eminent monks is a unique symbol of high morality and high behavior. Interestingly, vegetarianism not only adds symbolic significance to the inheritors of these biographies, but also adds such symbolic significance to vegetarianism because some qualities of these inheritors, such as filial piety, honesty, lofty, chastity and high morality, interact with each other.
The sanctification of vegetarianism can also be directly observed from the changes of words. Four words with the same meaning: vegetable, vegetable, vegetarian and food, except vegetarian, are almost all words that have been used since before the pre-Qin period. However, in the early literature, most of the words "vegetable" and "vegetable" were used, and "vegetarian food" and "vegetarian food" probably became popular gradually after the Middle Ages. The main difference between the two groups is that the former is a neutral word, which has no moral judgment meaning and only refers to edible plant food. The latter is not, because the words "vegetarian" and "vegetarian" have many other meaning besides edible plants. Vegetarianism means "white", "colorless", "simple", "pure" and "reverence". "Fasting" has the meanings related to "fasting" such as "abstinence", "Zhuang Jing" and "sincerity". In other words, "vegetarian" and "vegetarian" are not only neutral words, but also have positive moral significance behind them, which increases the symbolic significance of vegetarianism. Perhaps this is the reason why the words "vegetarian" and "vegetarian" are more popular after the widespread popularity of vegetarian food.
The popularity of vegetarianism in the Middle Ages depended on the efforts of Buddhist monks to promote vegetarianism. These monks use meat as the equivalent of killing, and killing must be punished in hell to persuade people to stop eating meat and be vegetarian. Therefore, the establishment and popularization of the image of hell has become an important part of promoting vegetarianism. At that time, there were many so-called "Buddhist poems to persuade goodness", such as Wang Fanzhi's poems, which spread Buddhist ideas in simple and clear language, and many of them advocated vegetarianism. In addition, at that time, many monks pointed their finger at the gods of mountains and rivers, folk countries and even ethnic minorities, and persuaded the people to change blood food into vegetarian sacrifices in various ways. Through the efforts of these monks, the tradition of blood sacrifice has been changed to a certain extent, making many people adopt new and Buddhist vegetarian sacrifice methods.
Buddhist emperors actively promoted vegetarianism with the help of the king's Buddhism and political power, which also played a great role in the popularization of vegetarianism, the most important of which was the stipulation that the Tang Dynasty stopped slaughtering and fishing on March 10, 2008. Influenced by Buddhism, in order to avoid sin and seek happiness, the Tang Dynasty stipulated that fishing and hunting should not be slaughtered in Ramadan and October, and about one third of the year should not be slaughtered. The purpose may be to force people to be vegetarian or try to be vegetarian. Because of the difficulty in implementation, people are required to stop eating fish in disguise. In addition to March 10, 2008, Taoist "three-day", emperor's birthday, national mourning day and long drought for rain were added. As a result, there are more and more days to be vegetarian, so vegetarianism has gradually become a habitual eating habit.
There are also devout Buddhist intellectuals who combine Buddhist teachings with Confucianism and use Confucianism's benevolence and forgiveness to open the eyes of Buddhism's vegetarian view and wrap it in a layer of Confucianism. Not only that, these intellectuals also wrote many so-called "books of teacher-aided education" similar to the good books now, which were used to publicize Buddhist concepts such as karma and reincarnation of hell, and many of them were used to persuade people to abstain from vegetarianism. The main propaganda method is to use the vegetarian discourse of Buddhism, which is linked with karma, hell torture, the six divisions in the wheel of karma, Kidd Fu Bao, etc., and to convey the vegetarian view of Buddhism with one story after another, like personal experience or personal hearing, so that ordinary people can understand why they can't eat meat. Through the spread of these stories, the concept of vegetarianism is more deeply rooted in society and is familiar and accepted by people.
To sum up, China's vegetarian view formed in the Middle Ages is not only a simple Buddhist vegetarian view, but also a combination of Confucian and Taoist vegetarian views. In addition to these ideological origins of the three religions, in the process of spreading the concept of vegetarianism, since the Middle Ages, vegetarianism has been divorced from the simple eating behavior and gradually endowed with various symbolic meanings. Vegetarianism is not only a dietary behavior, but also has moral meaning. Sociologists believe that this is a "symbolic consumption" in diet. The so-called "symbol consumption" refers to the consumption of not only material things, but also the symbolic meaning of such things, that is, symbols play an important role in the consumption process. Take modern society as an example, people will shape what they want by consuming goods. These goods help to create and maintain their views, images and sense of identity. Everything from clothes and food to cars can be used. People's vegetarianism is not just eating a non-meat food, but eating symbolic meanings related to vegetarianism, such as filial piety, compassion, cleanliness, kindness, loftiness, honesty, chastity and so on. Of course, this does not mean that vegetarians are vegetarian to obtain these images, but that vegetarianism has some moral symbolic meanings besides diet itself.
Since the Middle Ages, besides being vegetarian because of certain religious beliefs such as Buddhism and Taoism, there are many other factors that must be vegetarian, such as mourning, sacrifice, fasting, health preservation, slaughter days and so on. In addition, the practice of praying for vegetarian behavior began in the Middle Ages. For example, the father of Zonggu in Liang Dynasty committed a crime, "I hope my father will release my sin and eat it for life." After his father was acquitted, "therefore, the village called it food." Pray and fulfill your wishes with vegetarian actions, and express your sincerity to heaven or Buddha and Bodhisattva. This practice became more common after the Song Dynasty. Even today, due to illness, disaster or various reasons, people still pray and realize their wishes through vegetarianism. In a word, vegetarianism not only has various symbolic meanings, but also has various purposes and functions. Therefore, vegetarianism is closely related to daily life and has become an indispensable part of people's daily diet.