Download pdf
A Preliminary Exploration of Buddhist Culture in Tang Legends
- 1 Shaoxing University
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The chuanqi (legendary stories) of Tang Dynasty are widely recognized as a milestone that marks a new stage in the history of Chinese fiction. During this period, the Tang Dynasty adopted a religious policy that allowed Buddhism and Daoism to coexist, leading both religions to reach their historical peaks of prosperity. In the texts of Tang chuanqi, Buddhist thought is also endowed with profound meaning. This paper aims to conduct a detailed analysis of the stylistic features, literary themes, and character outcomes in five classic Tang Legends from the Anthology of Tang and Song Tales, including The World Inside a Pillow, The Governor of Nanke (or An Account of the Governor of the Southern Branch), An Account of Xie Xiao’e, The Tale of Li Zhangwu, and The Tale of Miss Liu. Through this analysis, the study preliminarily explores the Buddhist cultural connotations contained within these works. The significance of this research lies in revealing the profound influence of Buddhist culture in Tang Dynasty literature, promoting a deeper understanding of the stylistic features, literary motifs, and character outcomes of Tang chuanqi, providing valuable insights for contemporary literary creation.
Keywords
Tang Legends, Buddhist thoughts, literary techniques, motif, ultimate fate.
[1]. Zhang Y. The influence of Tang Dynasty Buddhist thought on ancient literary creation [J]. Literary Education (Part 1), 2023, (07): 117-119. DOI: 10.16692/j.cnki.wxjys.2023.07.050.
[2]. Xu Z. The secular evolution of the story of the dragon girl repaying her gratitude in the Song Dynasty and its significance in the history of novels [J]. National Art, 2007, (04): 75-80. DOI: 10.16564/j.cnki.1003-2568.2007.04.003.
[3]. Liu Y. Explanation of the literary therapeutic effect of Tang legends - Taking "The Pillow Book" and "The Story of Nan Ke Taishou" as examples [J]. Anhui Literature (Second Half Month), 2016, (07): 26-27.
[4]. Zhao Y. "Tang Dynasty Bianwen: A Study on the Contribution of Buddhism to the Production of Chinese Vernacular Novels and Operas" [J]. Folk Culture Forum, 2018, (03): 2. DOI: 10.16814/j.cnki.1008-7214.2018.03.001.
[5]. Gui Y. The Morphological Structure of the "Dragon Girl's Repaying Gratitude" Story Type Text [J]. Root Search, 2020, (02): 22-27.
[6]. Liu X., Wang Y. On the Buddhist Theme of "The Story of Nan Ke Taishou" [J]. Journal of Changchun Normal University, 2015, 34 (03): 99-102.
Cite this article
Wu,J. (2024). A Preliminary Exploration of Buddhist Culture in Tang Legends. Communications in Humanities Research,47,30-35.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).