Clerics › Religious Figure
Mou Rong
Late Eastern Han scholar of Cangwu, traditional author of Mouzi's Disposing of Error, an early defence of Buddhism.
In a temple courtyard at dusk, a great bronze bell hangs at the right and incense smoke rises from a bronze urn; monks in orange robes and plainly dressed visitors walk toward a lamplit hall, lotus flowers bloom in a stone basin, and a gold prayer wheel stands at the left.
Also known as Mouzi · Mou Zibo
Mou Rong, better known as Mouzi, was a native of Cangwu who took refuge in Jiaozhi during the turmoil at the end of the Eastern Han; versed in Confucian and Daoist learning, he later embraced Buddhism. His Lihuo Lun ('Disposing of Error'), 37 dialogues defending Buddhism by appeal to Chinese classics, is among the earliest Chinese Buddhist treatises. The idioms 'playing the lute to an ox' and 'the less one has seen, the more one marvels' come from it; the traditional attribution to 'Mou Rong of Han' should not be confused with the Grand Commandant Mou Rong of Emperor Zhang's reign.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; lived at the end of the Eastern Han (late 2nd century CE)