The Influence of Buddhism on China Literature

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. The rich fables in Buddhist scriptures have opened the eyes of China scholars, but mainly the Buddhist thought, especially the Zen thought that appeared after the Tang Dynasty, has broadened the writer's vision and ideological realm. The Zen Quotations (the model of Zhu Cheng's Quotations in Song Dynasty) and the variation of Buddhist scriptures ("singing guide") combined with rap and poetry in Song Dynasty laid the foundation for the formation of vernacular novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In terms of poetry, first of all, influenced by Indian sayings, it led to the invention of China's Chinese four tones and the formulation of "eight diseases" in poetic meter. Nanqi & #183; Shen Yue's theory of "eight diseases" refers to eight taboos of poetic rhythm: flat head, tail, bee waist, crane knee, big rhyme, small rhyme, side button and right button. Poetry based on this theory is called "eternal poetry" or "new poetry". Due to the admiration of the royal family at that time, it became the mainstream of the literary world, so that Sui Chen inherited the rest of the styles and expressed them as parallel prose in the Tang Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty, Zen was prevalent. Influenced by Zen Buddhism, poets began to pursue lofty artistic conception and poetic style became popular. In the early Tang Dynasty, such as Wang Wei (70 1-76 1, with the word "Mo Mo") and Meng Haoran (689-740), in the middle Tang Dynasty, such as Bai Juyi (772-846, with the word "Lotte" and "Xiangshan Jushi"). In the Song Dynasty, the poetic style developed in harmony with the scenery, and the representative figures thought that Su Shi (1037-11,the word Zizhan, was named Dongpo layman), such as "Looking across the mountain side, the distance is different. I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain, but I was born in this mountain. Beautiful sentences have a high artistic conception and are memorable. On the other hand, Buddhist scriptures are either five-character or seven-character poems, or long sentences, in which there are stories, questions and answers, and even metaphors, which is different from the singleness of China's early literary works. Therefore, the diversification trend of China's literary works after the Tang Dynasty was actually inspired by Buddhist scriptures. More importantly, the thought of Buddhism's impermanence of suffering and emptiness and the cycle of cause and effect has run through poetry, drama and novels since the Song Dynasty. Su Shi's Niannujiao &; # 183; "Red Cliff Nostalgia" is the representative. The Romance of the West Chamber in the Yuan Dynasty ended in a dream, and the Peach Blossom Fan wrote the following words: "Suddenly look up, the tomb is heavy, the broken car is left behind, the thin horse lies in an empty trench, the village is depressed, and the city is facing dusk." The aftertaste is the concept of "impermanence". Needless to say, in Ming and Qing novels, The Journey to the West described the war between the heroes of the Three Kingdoms, and the opening inscription was "The Yangtze River rolled eastward, and the waves washed out all the heroes. Success or failure turns empty, Qingshan is still there, how many times will the sunset be red? White-haired people are fishing and collecting firewood by the river to watch the spring breeze. A pot of turbid wine is happy to meet, and there are many things in ancient and modern times. " Point out the meaning A Dream of Red Mansions describes the splendor, the affection of children and the grand view of the world. Finally, it ends with the death of a family and the defeat of a family, and also uses a big dream to compare life. Zhang Hui's other note novels, such as Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, The Scholars, Sanyan Erpai, etc., all focus on promoting the thought of karma. Due to the restriction of printing and people's educational level, the spread of Buddhism was initially limited to aristocratic society or a few intellectuals. In order to popularize Buddhism, a simple and lively way of teaching Buddhism-"singing guidance" came into being. Liang He #183; Hui Jue's Biography of the Eminent Monk says, "Those who sing and guide are covered with singing theories to enlighten all beings. In the past, when Buddhism first spread, it was always gathered at the right time to announce the Buddha's name and chant according to cultural and educational ceremonies. When you are exhausted in the middle of the night, you are enlightened. Don't ask Su De to be promoted and get rich, and don't confuse things, not to mention metaphors. Later, Hui Yuan of Lushan Mountain, Zhenhua and Cai Feng of Ye Tao all showed their hair. Every time they get together, they raise their seats, bow as a guide, explain the cause and effect of III, but argue together. Future generations must teach and become eternal. " As for the effect of singing and guiding, The Biography of the Eminent Monk said: "Talking about impermanence will make your heart tremble, talking about hell will make you cry, and collecting (showing) your past career is like watching your career, and covering the fruit will show your report ... So America will fall in love with you, go to court to mourn, throw herself at the ground, break a lamentation, and everyone will sing Buddha." Singing and guiding is a method of preaching, which integrates preaching and chanting. By the Tang Dynasty, this method had developed into a "proverb" (as opposed to the formal "monk's words"), and variation was the script of the proverb. It is called "bianwen" to express the changes of magical powers in Buddhist scriptures in popular words. The variation of parallel prose and prose has changed the simple and scattered literary genre in the past, and its contents mainly include Vimalakīrti's variation, metaphor's variation, eight phases' variation, Damu Gui Lian's salvation from the underworld, and devil's variation. Tell historical materials from the common customs. It can be seen that the original Bianwen was only used to publicize Buddhist teachings, and then there appeared the Bianwen of non-Buddhist historical events and folk stories (Wu Zixu, Wang Zhaojun and other stories), which occupied a dominant position. It can be seen from the scripts of Song people, drums, Zhu Gong tunes, tanci, operas and novels that Bianwen has a far-reaching influence in the history of China literature. In terms of literary theory, Buddhism has a far-reaching influence on literary criticism. Push its original work, Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long, which is its end. Liu Xie (about 465-532), a literary critic of the Southern Dynasties, was born in Shandong and lived in Jingkou (Zhenjiang, Jiangsu). In his early years, he lived alone, never married, moved to the residence of monk Shaman, and accumulated more than ten years to study Buddhism and extensively study classics. After becoming a monk, he became famous and wise. Wen Xin Diao Long, written at the end of Qi Dynasty, is a masterpiece of ancient literary theory. Later, such as Twenty-four Poems (advocating no words), Song &; # 183; Yan Yu's Pale Talk (poetry is sought after by witty remarks, such as an antelope hanging its horns without trace, straight into the ethereal) and Yuan Mei's "theory of spiritual nature" (saying that poetry should flow from its true nature, and it is better to be like a scholar if it is praised by others) are all influenced by Zen.