ABSTRACT
The Confucian response to Taoism and Buddhism runs from the end of the Han dynasty to the end of the T'ang, roughly from the third century to the beginning of the tenth century. It brackets the history of Confucianism between two of the most famous and successful dynasties, the Han and the T'ang. Confucians accept the Confucian canon as it came to be formally constituted by the Han scholars. The fluidity of the patterns of Wei-Chin to T'ang thought are fascinating for the light they throw on what it means to be Confucian. Confucian scholars such as Han Yu, Li Ao and Liu Tsung-yuan began the serious Confucian rebuttal of Buddhist philosophy. In future centuries, China began to receive a flow of actual Buddhist monks from Central Asia and in later periods, many famous monk-travelers were sent to India itself in search of authentic texts and teachings.
