During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, national unity, strong national strength and economic prosperity promoted the development of commerce and the rapid expansion of the ranks of citizens. Therefore, the demand for culture and entertainment has greatly increased, and rap literature and art with perfunctory stories as the main content has gradually become popular.
Rap literature is generally divided into two parts: speaking and singing. The part spoken is prose or four or six popular essays since the Six Dynasties, and the part sung is generally a narrative poem with five or seven words or miscellaneous words. This kind of rap art is very popular in both folk and temple Taoist temples.
Variations in the Tang Dynasty can be divided into two kinds: monk's lectures and vulgar lectures. Their difference mainly lies in the different audiences. Monks talk about monks in order to let monks have a deeper understanding of Buddhist teachings, but in popular terms, it is not just to publicize Buddhist teachings to the masses.
In addition to expanding the influence of Buddhism, it also collects property through singing. At that time, rap was very popular with people, sometimes even to the point where the audience was blocked and the building was empty.
I also heard that there were few fishing boats on the lake on the opening day. Listening to the poem of the monk in Yun Yun's lecture, he said, "Fast far and near, and the restaurant is empty. Listen attentively." At the beginning of the temple, it was said that "there were few fishing boats on the lake" and "the restaurant and fish market were empty." This shows how popular Bianwen was at that time.
Judging from the discovery of Dunhuang, Bianwen can be divided into two categories. One is perfunctory Buddhist scriptures or Buddhist stories, such as Vimalakīrti's essays, Amitabha's essays, hell's essays, the decline of the devil's essays, the resurrection of the village's rescued mother, and the origin of ugly women.