Chapter 114 Seven, Xiong Shili

When he was young, Xiong Shili uttered "crazy words" and said: "Look out of the sky, there is no one like me." This surprised his father and brother. Xiong Shili's original name is Xiong Jizhi. Shili is a Buddhist term, referring specifically to the ten kinds of intelligence of the Tathagata Buddha. Xiong Shili signed his book "Huanggang Xiong Shili Made", which caused some discussion, because in India only people who are revered as Bodhisattvas can use this statement. It is said that he once called himself "Xiong Shili Bodhisattva". Xiong Shili once said: "In today's world, only I, Xiong, can talk about the masters of the late Zhou Dynasty, and the rest are just bullshit."

In 1911, after the Wuchang Uprising, Xiong Shili served as the staff officer of the Hubei Governor's Mansion.In December of that year, Xiong Shili, Wu Kun, Liu Zitong, and Li Siguang gathered at the Xiongchu Building in Wuchang to celebrate the restoration, and they were known as the "Four Heroes of Huanggang" in history.During the gathering, Li Siguang once wrote "Majestic Vision of the Three Chus", and Xiong Shili wrote: "In the sky and on the earth, I am the only one." Xiong Shili was arrogant. Yin Haiguang visited him and talked about Feng Youlan, Hu Shi and Jin Yuelin. Xiong Shili ignored the three of them. He said that Hu Shi's scientific knowledge was not as good as "the old man", Feng Youlan was illiterate, and what Jin Yuelin said was joke theory.After hearing this, even Yin Haiguang, who had heard of Xiong Shili's aggressiveness, was deeply surprised.

In 1932, Xiong Shili's "New Consciousness-Only Theory" was published, which marked the birth of the famous "New Consciousness-only Theory" philosophical system at home and abroad.But as soon as this book was published, it was immediately attacked by people in the Buddhist circle, especially the teachers and friends of Nanjing Inner College where Xiong Shili once studied.Xiong's teacher, Ouyang, said bitterly after reading it: "Destroy and abandon the sacred words, only the son is the real one", and then ordered his disciple Liu Hengru to write "Breaking the New Consciousness-Only Theory" to systematically denounce Xiong's book, accusing him of "Yu Wei". He has almost no knowledge of knowledge", and denounced his book as "mixing the meanings of Confucianism and Taoism in China and soil, and borrowing from Indian outsiders, suspending Buddhism, and making assumptions."

After Xiong Shili saw this, he was unwilling to remain silent and immediately challenged him.He said to Peking University: "I want to write a book, not give lectures!" So he resigned, and quickly wrote the book "Breaking the New Consciousness-Only Theory", which cracked Liu's reprimands one by one.At this time, it was only 5 months since the publication of "New Consciousness-Only Theory".He defended himself by saying that "Xin" wrote "the righteousness is far away from consciousness-only, and its purpose is also in line with Prajna", and he believed that he was not deviant, but instead maintained and developed Buddhism.Ouyang Jingwu was Xiong Shili's teacher, but Xiong insisted: "I love my teacher, especially the truth!"Contrary to Ouyang and others, Cai Yuanpei, Ma Yifu and others highly praised this book and spoke highly of it.

Once Xu Fuguan was chatting with Mr. Xiong Shili. Mr. Xiong said that Zhang Taiyan had no knowledge except good writing and a little knowledge of elementary school.Xu Fuguan also heard that Mr. Xiong saw Zhang's article on Buddhism when he was in Hangzhou, and wrote the four characters "You fart". Xiong Shili once had dinner at a friend's house. The friend's child wanted to eat a piece of meat on the table, but Xiong Shili immediately put it in his bowl and said, "I have the responsibility of preaching, so I have to eat it. What's the use of it?" So he ate it calmly.

Someone showed Xiong Shili his article, and he said, "Why are you showing me the book?"You should read my books, even if you don’t read mine, you should also read the books of sages. What kind of work is your shit? Xiong Shili and Zhang Nanxian have a very close personal relationship.When Zhang was the director of the Hubei Department of Finance, many people came to beg Xiong, hoping to get an official position through Xiong.Xiong was so annoyed that he published an announcement in the newspaper one day to avoid the hope of entrusting others.The content is: "boring friends, friends with servants and difficulties first, complaining and introducing, in fact, how to aspire to study when seeking an official at all costs; you should know that when you are not an official, those who insist on selling vegetables for a living are more happy than doing it. There are many officials. Servants are scattered people, and I don’t want to communicate with the head of the department. What is the head of the department? From the rest of the world, it’s just half a hair on the hatching of a dog’s egg.”

After 1949, Xiong Shili's temperament remained the same, insisting on refusing to reform himself.After liberation, when Xiong Shili arrived in Beijing, Mao Zedong met him and gave him several books.Xiong Shili stated that he supports the Communist Party and loves the new China, but he has studied idealism all his life and cannot change his philosophical views.Since then, he has written to Mao Zedong several times, requesting the establishment of a philosophy institute and allowing the dissemination of old learning. The Chinese Philosophical Association asked him to be a member, and he put forward two conditions: no meetings and no ideological reform.He said to his students: "I can't go to meetings, I can't be reformed, and I won't be me after reform." He also said: "Ma Yifu wrote to me, saying that he himself is 'truly inextricable'! I wrote back and said that I was also 'really unstoppable'! He thought that I would 'abandon what I had learned' when I went to Beijing!"

In 1956, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held a meeting on intellectuals. Mr. Xiong Shili was not invited. Xiong's student Yang Yuqing said in a group discussion: "In the past, some people said: 'Unfortunately, the only people who can be called sergeants today are Ma Yifu, Liang Shuming and Xiong Shili are just two or three people.'Mr. Liang is here today, and Mr. Ma has also come to Beijing from Hangzhou. Only Mr. Xiong is still in Shanghai." The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference immediately contacted Shanghai and invited Mr. Xiong as a special representative.Chen Yi sent someone to inform Mr. Xiong's house. Xiong was taking a bath at this time. He said, "I can't fly." So he took the train that day.

At this CPPCC meeting, Xiong Shili was co-elected as a member of the second CPPCC, and was elected as a member of the third and fourth CPPCC consecutively.But he is only a member of the "three arrivals" of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: opening, closing, and taking pictures.For the rest of the time, I didn't go to the meeting, but stayed in the hotel to meet with friends.One time, a big man came suddenly, and the audience stood up to greet him, but Xiong Shili stood alone. Xiong Shili was afraid of flying, saying that he was afraid of ruining the plane, but he couldn't stand the heating in the compartments when he took the train, so every time he went north to hold a meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, he would open the windows and let the wind blow in. The average person can't bear it.The waiter reported to Chen Yi that Xiong Shili was a strange old man who was not easy to serve.Chen Haha laughed and said, "How many Xiong Shili are there in our country? Isn't it just one? Find a way to take care of it! Let him live in a box by himself, okay?"