Buddhist Practice Concepts in Religious Novels of the Ming Dynasty

Author: Song Kejun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: This book examines the influence of the Buddhist concept of "practice" on the creation of fiction, conducting a comprehensive, systematic, and in-depth study of the ideological connotations, character types, and plot structure models of nearly twenty religious novels from the Ming Dynasty. The book not only dynamically examines the literary evolution of the Buddhist concept of "practice" but also meticulously analyzes the Buddhist elements in Ming Dynasty religious novels, aiming to reveal the original connection between religious novels and "preaching." The book also presents its own perspectives and arguments on the views and discussions of scholars from modern and contemporary China and abroad. The book is divided into four chapters, with the basic content and key points as follows:
As a core element of Buddhist thought, the Buddhist concept of "practice," which primarily involves "cutting off all afflictions and achieving enlightenment," has a literary expression in Buddhist scriptures. This is the original prototype of the "practice" model in religious novels—the life stories of the Buddha. These stories, written in "divine and magnificent" or "grand and unorthodox" prose, describe the "eight phases of enlightenment" of Sakyamuni—his birth, ordination, ascetic practices, enlightenment, enlightening others, and parinirvana—thereby shaping an extraordinary image of the Buddha. This method of recording a person's practice through biographical style was adopted by Chinese monks, who used it to write numerous biographies of eminent monks and Zen Buddhist records.
Through the evolution of Dunhuang literature and the storytelling traditions of the Song and Yuan dynasties, which further secularized, urbanized, and literaryized the Buddhist concept of "practice," religious novels that depicted the concept gradually matured. In the Ming Dynasty, with the socialization of the Buddhist concept of "practice," and with the creation of Journey to the West and its widespread publication as a turning point, a flourishing period of religious novels emerged. The creation and dissemination of religious novels had a profound impact on traditional literary concepts and the writing of fiction.