Fan Yan opposes superstition

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Buddhism gradually became popular. In the court of Southern Qi, Buddhism was advocated by everyone from the emperor to the ministers. Xiao Ziliang, the chancellor of Southern Qi, was a strong believer in Buddhism.

Xiao Ziliang had a villa at Jigong Mountain outside Jiankang, where he often entertained famous scholars and literati, drinking and talking. Sometimes, he also invited some monks to come to his place to explain the truth of Buddhism. Xiao Ziliang also personally prepared meals and poured tea for the monks. People thought that he was out of order as a prime minister, but he did not care.

With the prime minister's advocacy, the power of Buddhism naturally increased. These monks propagated that the soul of a person does not die after death. They also said that a person's wealth or poverty was the result of karma in a previous life and that the poor suffered and suffered because they were destined to do so and could not resist.

At that time, a bold scholar named Fan Jian (sound zhěn) rose to expose this statement as a superstition and told everyone not to believe in that.

Fan Chen's cousin Fan Yun was often in Xiao Ziliang's house. Xiao Ziliang heard Fan Chen dare to sing against him, against Buddhism, and very annoyed, asked Fan Yun to find Fan Chen at his home.

Xiao Ziliang asked Fan Chen said: "You do not believe in karma, then, you say, why some people are born rich, some are born poor?"

Fan Jian said unhurriedly, "There is nothing strange about it. To use an analogy, life is like the petals on a tree. Flowers by the wind, the petals fall with the wind. Some swept through the curtains and fell on the top of the seat; some blew outside the fence and fell in the thatch."

Xiao Ziliang stared at the eyes, for a moment did not understand what Fan Jian said. Fan Jian continued, "On the seat like you; in the pit, like me. Rich and poor, that's what it is, where there is no karma?"

Fan Shen came back from Xiao Ziliang and felt that although he had refuted Xiao Ziliang, he had not yet made his case against superstition thoroughly, so he wrote a special article called "The Theory of God's Destruction". In the article it says.

"The form is the essence of the spirit, and the spirit is only the function of the form. The relationship between spirit and form is like the role of a knife and sharpness. Without a knife, there can be no sharpness. Without form, where is the spirit?"

Fan Jian in that article, also concluded that the soul does not exist after death, what karma, are the words of deception.

When this article came out, the court was in an uproar. Some of Xiao Ziliang's cronies and friends, all think that Fan Shen must be severely rectified. Xiao Ziliang found a group of high monks to debate with Fan Chen, but Fan Chen spoke the truth, those high monks still can not argue with Fan Chen.

A Buddhist follower Wang Yan sarcastically said: "Alas, Mr. Fan! If you don't believe in the gods, then you don't even know where the gods of your ancestors are."

Fan Zhen mocked Wang Yan in a tit-for-tat way, saying, "Unfortunately, Mr. Wang. If you know where your ancestral spirits are, why didn't you go to them earlier."

Xiao Ziliang was afraid that Fan Yan's influence would be too great and would shake everyone's faith in Buddhism. After a few days, he sent one of his cronies, Wang Rong, to persuade Fan Jian, saying, "The chancellor is very appreciative of talented people. It's not easy for a talented person like you to be a Chinese scholar! Why do you have to go such contrary to the trend of argument? I feel sorry for you. I think you'd better take back that article in time."

Fan Jian heard, tilted his head and laughed, said: "I Fan Jian if I give up their views to seek official, then it is not difficult to be a bigger official, why care about what you say in the book Lang."

Xiao Ziliang takes Fan Chen no way, also have to let him go.

Southern Qi dynasty only experienced two generations of Qi Gaudi and Qi Wu Di, then there was civil unrest. Xiao Yan, the assassin of Yongzhou, rose to attack Jiankang, in 502 AD, Xiao Yan destroyed the Southern Qi and established the Liang Dynasty, which is the Liang Wu Di.