The Sub- Forums of the 2020 Symposium on “Science of Shaolin” Held Orderly

On Oct. 17, 2020, at 2 pm, the three sub-forums of the 2020 symposium on science of Shaolin were held simultaneously. Thereinto, the two forums on study on inscriptions of Shaolin Temple before Song Dynasty, and Buddhism and Chinese Traditional Ecological Thought were held in the Chan Wu Hotel; the forum on documents and big datea of Shaolin culture was held in Dihao Hotel. More than one hundred experts and scholars made their active speech from angles of their own research field on each sub-forum, actively making suggestions about significant development of Shaolin culture, and contributing their wisdom and strength.

On sub-forum of study on inscriptions of Shaolin Temple before Song Dynasty, Gong Songtao, titled “protection and research summary on Songshan Mountain inscriptions in Tang Dynasty”, mentioned achievements that the study on protection and documents of Songshan Mountain Inscriptions in Tang Dynasty has obtained, and noted that follow-up study should focus on richness, systematicness and innovation; in his paper titled “study on the preface to inscriptions of Songyang Temple”, Huang Xianian mentioned that inscriptions of Songyang Temple represents styles of typical inscriptions in North Wei Dynasty, the calligraphy value is prominent and therefore they are preserved while the inscription of Songyang Temple is the first Buddhist inscription in areas of Songshan Mountain, having an important significance in the Buddhist history of Songshan Mountain; Zhang Jianwei, titled “reading and research of the praise and preface to Zhong Yue Songtai Temple”, noted this inscription in one of the only remaining inscriptions in Tang Dynasty whose literature value is precious. He interpreted, analyzed and researched it in vernacular, discussing years of vicissitudes and honorable old days of Yongtai Temple from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the glorious age of Tang Dynasty...

On the sub-forum of Buddhism and traditional Chinese ecological ideas, Han Huanzhong, titled “ an exploration that Ma Yifu’s protecting beings means mind protecting”, discussed the ideas could help people build responsibility and a sense of mission, having stronger realistic intervention, while its thoughts blended Confucianism with Taoism, which could help Buddhist believers get rid of purposely seeking of free life patterns then; Zhao Wen, titled “ecological ideas of monastic rules and elder Chan masters’ life”,  leaded to important enlightenment that we advocate healthy and ecological lifestyle today, from ecological ideas that elder Chan masters live in their daily life, for example compassionness for beings, reverence for life, gratitude, restraining from desire, sticking to a vegetarian diet and so on; in his paper titled “a discussion on the construction of Buddhist ecological ethics knowledge system”, Pan Zhongyu noted that the core content of Buddhist ecological ethics knowledge system consists of Buddhist ecological ethics’ philosophical foundation, ecological ethic principles, standards of ecological moral as well as monastic rules of ecological moral, which has various values including value of holism, truth, theory, practice and so on.

On the sub-forum of “documents and big data of Shaolin culture”, Hao Weibin, titled the “feature and value of Shaolin Temple’s document resources”, mentioned that Shaolin Temple is the inheritor of Buddhist culture and Chan culture, and is also the witness of the development of traditional Chinese culture, which is has been embodied and proved all through precious documents resources of Shaolin Temple, therefore showing research and development of Shaolin Temple’s documents resources are a general trend; Bu Jianmin, titled “making records contribution of the world heritage city”, mentioned that Shaolin Temple should pay more attention to exert its power of documentary heritage when protecting and using traditional cultural heritage and intangible cultural heritage through discussing Suzhou’s archive work in advantage and practice of making the world heritage city...

All dharma masters, experts and scholars expressed their views freely and brainstormed, interpreting supreme charm and profound internal connotation from various angles and obtaining phased achievements on the three sub-forums that afternoon. (Edited by Ma Ang and photographed by Wang Haitao and Gong Wuwei)