Buddhism is a religion based on faith, aiming at liberation, taking education as the center and taking culture as the link. The influence of China's autobiographical literature on China literature can be summarized as seven aspects: First, the influence of religious culture on China literati. The influence of Buddhism on China culture is first manifested in its influence on literati. Since Buddhism was introduced into China, scholars have forged an indissoluble bond with Buddhism. From the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties to the end of Qing Dynasty, there were no fewer than 40 great poets and writers who became attached to Buddhism, and they all had great influence on the history of China literature. They include Cao Zhi, Tao Yuanming, Wang Xizhi, Xie An, Xie Lingyun, Liu Xie, Liu Zongyuan, Li Bai, Du Fu, Meng Haoran, Jia Dao, Wang Wei, Wu Daozi, Bai Juyi, Li Yu, Sima Guang, Wang Anshi, Su Dongpo, Huang Tingjian, Zhao Mengfu, Ma Zhiyuan, Tang Bohu, Wang Chuanshan, Song Lian and Li Yu. Among the modern writers listed in Religious and Cultural Complex of Modern Writers in China (written by Liu Yong), 134 people are attached to Buddhism. They include Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Lao She, Cao Yu, Bing Xin, Xu Dishan, Feng Zikai, Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, Mao Dun, Shen Congwen, Xu Zhimo, Dai Wangshu, Zhu Ziqing, Lin Yutang, Zhang Ailing, Xiao Gan, Zong Baihua, Xia Mianzun, Shi Zhecun, Jin Yong and Lin Qingxuan. It can be said that in the history of China literature, distinctive and influential writers have some connection with Buddhist culture. They dabbled in Buddhism (such as Wang Wei and Li Shutong) or made friends with famous monks (such as Wang Xizhi and Zhi Dun; Bai Juyi and the Bird's Nest; Su Shi and Fo Yin), these great poets and writers, because of their affinity with Buddhism, left many stories for the literary world in China. Second, the influence of Buddhist culture on China's literary language. The introduction of Buddhism added new words to China's literary language. With the introduction of Buddhism, the translation of Buddhist scriptures began, and many beautiful allusions and artistic neologisms in Buddhist classics were introduced into China. According to the book A Brief History of Chinese Novels, in the literary works of the Six Dynasties, especially after the Tang Dynasty, idioms originated from Buddhism accounted for almost 90% of foreign idioms in China history. With the introduction and translation of Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist terms have gradually become the daily language of Chinese department. For example, the world, reality, truth, relativity, phenomenon, consciousness, liberation, epiphany, sentient beings, six ways, sentient beings, ruthlessness, pure land, the other side, knowledge, idealism and comparison all come from Buddhist classics. They greatly enrich the treasure house of China's literary language and make the expressive force of China's language more flexible. According to Ding's Buddhist Dictionary, there are as many as 3,000 loanwords and special words from Buddhist scriptures, which shows the contribution of Buddhism to the language of China. There are also many idioms from Buddhism. According to the book Origin of Folklore, there are 326 idioms originated from Buddhism. Such as: six clean roots, dragging their feet, great compassion, birth and death, spirit, self-respect, incredible, cold self-knowledge, happy, bodhisattva's heart, the universe, Tianlong Babu, a thunderbolt, self-presentation, offering flowers to the Buddha, cursing the Buddha, nonsense, mud cows entering the sea, fishing for the moon in the well, and achieving a career. They not only facilitated people's exchange of ideas, but also greatly promoted China's literary creation. Third, the influence of Buddhist culture on literary genre. The introduction of Buddhism promoted the emergence and prosperity of China's tanci, Pinghua, opera and novels. Since the translation and dissemination of Buddhist scriptures in the Eastern Jin Dynasty in China, the content, form and concept of China literature have been deeply influenced. First of all, Buddhism has a great influence on China's poetry. With the introduction of Buddhism, the Indian narrative theory was introduced to China, which led to the invention of phonology and poetic meter in the Southern Dynasties, thus promoting the emergence of a new genre of metrical poetry since the Tang Dynasty. Secondly, it has a far-reaching influence on China's opera and rap art. In order to spread Buddhism, Buddhism began to promote the singing method and singing guidance of "Reading Classics" and "Bai Fan" from the Southern and Northern Dynasties. This combination of rap and singing created the atmosphere of Buddhist folk singing, which inspired, encouraged and promoted the emergence and prosperity of Tanci, Pinghua and opera in the Song and Ming Dynasties. Thirdly, it promoted the emergence and prosperity of China's novels. Many Buddhist classics, such as Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist scriptures and Puyao scriptures, are long stories of Buddhism, with rich contents, touching plots and meticulous characterization. The Vimalakīrti Sutra and the Four-One Brahma Sutra are semi-fiction and semi-drama works. Xu Laijing and others are novels, and these forms and genres were basically absent before the Tang Dynasty in China. Their introduction not only broadened the horizons and ideological realm of China writers, but also laid the foundation for the formation of vernacular novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties, which had an immeasurable impact on the creation of a series of novels later. Fourthly, Buddhist culture provides material for literary creation. There are many stories and legends in Buddhist classics. With the translation of Buddhist scriptures, it was introduced into China and spread to the people, which provided a lot of materials for the creation of China literature. For example, China's long narrative poem Peacock Flying Southeast and Mulan Ci comes from the story in Ode to Buddha. Strange stories in Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, such as searching for gods and bitter stories, are legendary stories born out of Buddhism. Some Buddhist stories have even been directly changed into China's novels, such as (Liang) Wu Jun's Continued Harmony. China's famous novels, such as Zhang Hui's novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties, A Dream of Red Mansions, The Scholars and Water Margin, are also directly or indirectly influenced by Buddhist stories. Wu Cheng'en's novel The Journey to the West is the result of the influence of Buddhist stories. Based on Tang Xuanzang's Indian folk stories. It can be said that Buddhist stories provide rich materials for China's literary creation.
Fifth, the influence of Buddhist culture on China's literary thought. Buddhist culture enriched the imagination of China literati, promoted the diversification of China's literary view and enriched China's literary thought. Before Buddhism was introduced into China, China's traditional thought only included this life, with no past life and no afterlife. Even Confucius said, "If you don't know life, how can you know death!" After Buddhism was introduced, it brought China the thoughts of three realms (past life, present life and afterlife), five paths (heaven, man, beast, hungry ghost and hell) and three realms (lust, lust and colorless). These thoughts suddenly opened the imaginary world of China literati. As a result, in China's ideological circle, there appeared the theory of mind and nature and the concepts of realm, form and spirit, emptiness and impermanence, image and super-image, which greatly enriched China's literary thoughts. A Dream of Red Mansions, which is listed as one of China's four fantastic books, is a masterpiece deeply influenced by Buddhist thought. Through the rise and fall of the family, it shows that life is like a dream and things are impermanent. Between the lines, Buddhist thought is fully revealed. Without the richness and influence of Buddhist culture on China's literary thought, such great works would not have appeared.
Sixth, the influence of Buddhist culture on literary creation techniques. Before Buddhism was introduced, the genre of China literature was very simple. Poetry is poetry, words are words, prose is prose, verse is verse, ambition is ambition, biography is biography. Contemporary Indian literature is not. Basically, they are all literary works with mixed rhymes, rap and colorful techniques. With the introduction of Buddhism, this style and creative technique were brought to China, and a new style of prose and rap was produced in China. For example, the storytelling and commentary of later generations are the result of this creative technique. Before Buddhism was introduced, China's novels about ghosts and gods were generally short, and each story was based on a story, which was laid out bluntly from beginning to end. Indian stories in Buddhist classics are not. Generally speaking, a main story is the main line, and many short stories are interspersed in the narrative process. For example, Mahabharata belongs to this type. This narrative style had a great influence on China's novel creation, especially promoted the creation of Tang legends at that time. Hu Shi once said: "Indian literature often pays attention to layout and structure in form. Pu Yao Jing, Ode to Buddhist Scriptures and Buddhist Scriptures are all great long stories with bizarre twists and turns and grand structures, and the stories are full of stories. This kind of gossip narrative technique was not available in ancient China. Their input had a direct or indirect impact on later novels and drama creation. "
Seven, the influence of Buddhist culture on China's literary criticism. Buddhism not only had a great influence on China's literary creation, but also directly promoted the formation and development of China's literary theory criticism. Intuition and speculation advocated by Buddhism have many tacit understandings with the theory of literary creation; Buddhism attaches great importance to detachment from the objective environment and pursues a pure spiritual realm, which is similar to the aesthetic value and understanding of literary works. Therefore, Buddhist theory profoundly influenced China's literary theory criticism. The famous literary criticism classic "Wen Xin Diao Long" and Zhong Rong's poems are also called China's literary criticism classic Shuang Bao. Both books use Buddhist ideas to interpret their own literary criticism theories. Another theoretical work of poetry criticism, Shi Pin, puts forward "the image outside the image, the scenery outside the scene", "the purport outside the rhyme" and "the purport outside the rhyme", that is, the meaning of the work. It is precisely because of Buddhist thought that charm and implication are the primary artistic features of poetry. Yan Yu, a literary critic in the Southern Song Dynasty, wrote canglang poems, applying the epiphany theory of Buddhism, and put forward that "Zen is only in wonderful enlightenment, and poetry is also in wonderful enlightenment". His pursuit is implicit understanding, emphasizing image thinking and aesthetic judgment, which has made great contributions to literary theory. Zen thought has a great influence on literary criticism theory. In the Song Dynasty, "Zen as a metaphor for poetry" became a trend, and "Poetry and Zen as a metaphor" almost became a popular mantra. Today, there are still many literary critics who discuss the creation, appreciation and criticism of poetry with the theory of Zen.
In a word, Buddhism has exerted great influence on China culture, brought new artistic conception to China literature, and brought a lot of brilliance to China culture. In addition, Buddhism has left a glorious page for the history of China in sculpture, painting, music and architecture, which in turn promoted the prosperity of China literature.