Abstract: “Taking Confucianism to govern the country, and taking Buddhism to govern the heart”, this was some ancient Chinese intellectuals’ cultural selection, which had a profound influence on their mental structure. Confucianism was concerned with hierarchical orders of the secular world and their relations, while Buddhism focused on the individual life’s final resignation. Confucianist and Buddhist different dimensions and concerns found expression in a smart relation of both merge and struggle in ancient intellectuals’ mentality. Through a case analysis of the Song-dynasty Confucian Li Gou who had a complex of “anti-Buddhism” and “pro-Buddhism”, ancient Confucians’ cultural and psychological structures and their built-in conflicts may be displayed.

Key words: Li Gou , anti-Buddhism , pro-Buddhism , relation of Confucianism and Buddhism