It started from Wei and Jin Dynasties and went through the Southern and Northern Dynasties, including the early Tang Dynasty, which was the first paragraph of China literature in the Middle Ages. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, great changes have taken place in literature. The consciousness of literature and the individualization of literary creation are the most significant changes, which triggered a series of other changes and developments. Buddhism was introduced to China during the Yongping period in the Eastern Han Dynasty. After a long period of development, Buddhism gradually juxtaposed with Confucianism and Taoism and became the three major sects in ancient China. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the integration of the three religions was formed. This is enough to show that the introduction of Buddhism not only had a great impact on China's ancient politics, but also affected China's ancient literary world. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, great changes took place in literature, and the consciousness of literature and the individualization of literary creation gradually appeared. "Literary consciousness" means that literature and its creative subjects are aware of the independence and value of literature, and consciously explore and understand the nature and development law of literature, so as to promote the development of literature according to its own laws. In fact, as early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, literary consciousness had begun to appear. One of the signs of this change is Zhang Heng's "Gui Tian Fu". Although there is no distinct personality in the Fu, it is clear that there is a lyric hero, self-awareness has been strengthened and personal value has been paid attention to. The second sign of literary conscious change is the prevalence of metaphysical poetry in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, a new outlook on the world and life was formed, and its theoretical form was metaphysics. This is a speculative philosophy, which makes philosophical thinking on the universe, life and human thinking. Metaphysics is not only a reflection of Taoism, but also contains many Buddhist elements. Buddhism was first attached to Huang Lao's family after it was introduced into the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it was attached to metaphysics in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, so metaphysical poetry was also greatly influenced by Buddhist thought.
Poetry schools in the Eastern Jin Dynasty started at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty and prevailed in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Representative writers include Sun Chuo, Xu Xun, Geng Liang, Huan Wen, etc., whose characteristic is that Hyunri entered poetry. Metaphysical poetry has changed the life pursuit, life habits and values of scholar-officials from the new social trend of thought. Confucian moral dogma and etiquette norms have lost their original binding force, and a life that conforms to human nature and returns to nature has become a new goal. This is the appearance of the "mysterious" spiritual world, and it is also the reflection of the scholar-bureaucrat's painful heart under the troubled times. Sensitive writers felt the shortness of life, the fragility of life, the hardship of fate and personal powerlessness, which prompted the literati in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to focus on life and death poems and seclusion poems. "What is the way to die?" "Where there is life, there must be death, and sooner or later it will be fatal." (Tao Yuanming's Elegy) These poems show the idea of life and death of Tao Yuanming, the greatest poet in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties at that time. In fact, this was also influenced by metaphysics at that time, which included Buddhist thought, that is, the theory of life and death.
Buddhist thought innovated the literary form of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Qi, Liang and Chen Dynasties are the period of the formation and development of new style poetry. The so-called new-style poetry, as opposed to ancient-style poetry, is characterized by its emphasis on temperament and duality. Because this new style poem was originally formed in the Qi Yong period of the Southern Dynasty, it is also called "Yongming Style". The Biography of Lu Jue in the Southern Qi Dynasty: at the end of the Ming Dynasty, it became an article. Xing Wu Shen Yue, Chen Jun Xie Tiao, and Langxie Wang Rong pushed the hub with gas. Zhou Qing in Ru 'nan is good at understanding phonology. All the essays such as the Covenant are written by palace merchants, and the four tones are flat, up and down, so as to make rhyme, which cannot be increased or decreased, and the world is called "Yongming Style". Shen Yue, a great master of poetry at that time, put forward the theory of "four tones and eight diseases" in Answering Lu Jue Shu and Answering Zhen Gong Lun, that is, eight taboos of poetic rhythm: flat head, tail ending, bee waist, crane knee, big rhyme, small rhyme, side button and right button. The theory of "four tones and eight diseases" is related to the conversion of Buddhist Sanskrit singing. "Yongming's newly changed body, with four tones entering the rhyme, is inspired by Siddhartha, and the method of anti-sound and rhyme is borrowed from Tongyun. This Sanskrit sound is helpful to the poets. The principle of sound and literature, music and poetry are closely related and inseparable. " It can be seen here that Buddhism and Buddhist scriptures had a certain indirect influence on the literature at that time.
Buddhism is a foreign culture, but its combination with China culture, especially with China literature, is impeccable. This is not a coincidence, but a necessity. If Confucian culture is the whole of China traditional culture, then Buddhist culture is the heart of China culture. Especially in literature. The culture in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was really in a period of literary consciousness and literary development. At this time, Buddhism injected a new impetus into the literary consciousness of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and at the same time, Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism were integrated, which had a due influence on the literature of later dynasties.