Zen Buddhism And Wang Anshi Poetry Study

The thesis, The Research of Zen Buddhism and Wang Anshi's Poems is thewriter's exploration to look into Wang Anshi's poems. I aim to analysis therelationship between Zen Buddhism and Wang Anshi's poems systematically, usingWang Anshi's life experience as clues, according to the unconsciously influence ofthe completely mature Zen Buddhism in Song Dynasty on the poems and the ZenBuddhism's vitality which is expressed in the poems. I pay attention not only theliterature itself but also the inspiration and influence of Zen Buddhism on WangAnshi's poems creation. From this, I can promote a typical sample for the deepresearch of the relation between Zen Buddhism and Song Poetry.Wang Anshi kept the indissoluble bond with Zen Buddhism all his life, and wecan know this from many aspects. He was born in an era where the Buddhist was insecularization, and his hometown was in heavy Buddhist atmosphere. Besides, he wasschooled by Buddhist from a kid to an adult. He read extensively and most materialswere related to Buddhist. After entering politics, he was more willing to close toBuddhist. He must visit temples and make friends with eminent monks. During theprocess in which he profited the people and the society, he would rather merge ZenBuddhism with Confucianism. When he was old, he sequestered himself to the ZhongMountain, accompanied with monks, set his home in the temple, to put himself intothe research of Zen Buddhism, to wander in the mountain and forest, to realize ZenBuddhism deeply and he called himself as"Banshan Taoist". His gnosis to theuniverse and the life could go with"Really Realm"in Confucianism shoulder byshoulder.Wang Anshi was influence deeply by Zen Buddhism from his works point ofview. The poems related to Zen Buddhism had a high proportion in his 1.700 poemswhich is still existed now. We can feel his broad and profound Zen Buddhism and hisability to make poems and Zen Buddhism be in mutual interaction. From this, we canknow his talent in creating poems, also because of this, there were so much specialcharm in his poems and the style of his poems leaded the trend of Song Poems. So itis necessary to research his poems from Zen Buddhism point of view. The article canbe divided into six parts as following: In the Introduction, on one hand, the writer explained the reason why he chosethis topic and the writing aim and significance. On the other hand, he illustrated theresearching general situation of Zen Buddhism and Song Poems. Furthermore, somerelated materials which are about the research of Zen Buddhism and Wang Anshi'spoems in different periods; the writing methods and the contents are appearedtogether in this part.Chapter one: Zen Buddhism Practice and connections with monks. The writerillustrates Wang Anshi's process of practicing Zen Buddhism systematically andshows his early contacts with Zen Buddhism according to the connections with monksand his travel among temples.Chapter Two: The Zen Buddhism revealed in Wang Anshi's poems. WangAnshi's Zen Buddhist practice had great influence on his inner world. He couldabsorb though essence from Zen Buddhism to use for his life practice and his ownspirit world. The spiritual noumenon of Zen Buddhism"Nothing is eternal, life is likea dream, actual self is Buddhism, selfless is Taoist, nature is clean and everything is insituation"also was showed in the poems.Chapter three: Wang Anshi's poem meditation and the idea of Zen Buddhism.Wang Anshi's poem meditation profited from the idea of Zen Buddhism and hadrather close relation with his research for attempts and the association with lots. Hewas skilled in mastering Rinzai's and Zen cloud gate's teaching method ,and hegrasped the practices method of"being pop without abstractions; seeing truth withmatter itself; getting principle by toughing the same thins deeply; understood thethinking modes such as"thought in silence; intuition enlightenment and theinterdependency of two opposites"Contemplation meditation enrich the ontology ofhis poems'meditation and made the natural scenery poems which were created fromthe idea"the conception should be full of endless new elements just like the bamboo"have the characteristics of having Buddhist thoughts although without Chan Yu andhaving the dulden, ertragend with being rich in Zen Buddhism and being understoodbut not being described. Intuition enlightenment made him"throw the net aftercatching fish, and give up the raft after landing the shore", and dissolve the conflictsof"Perceptual and rational, Moments and eternal, Individual and the whole"in hispoems creating. The thinking model of"the interdependency of two opposites"hadmore deeply implied meaning than other language forms in his poems.Chapter four: Wang Anshi's poems'techniques and Zen Buddhism's inspiration.There was unique style for Wang Anshi's poems creation form and techniques. Theestablishment of his poems'form and techniques connected with his splendid experience, tough will, rich emotion and the exquisite master for Zen Buddhism. Thekind method in Zen Buddhism inspirited his kind poems creation directly. Whateverhistorical records or innovation, Wang Anshi could make the ugly beautiful, eventhough the method argumentation was used in the poem, you also could feel the poeticstyle。Zen Song Gu affected his poems'creation directly; he changed"talking Zenindirectly into talking poems indirectly. According to the use of amount lingo, hispoems became more implicative, fine and rich in connotation. Zen Gatha affected hispoems'creating techniques so that the techniques in his old age were plain, vivid, andfree and easy. He could make himself absorbed in Buddhist activity. He had theability to make the profound expressions be natural exquisition and richness. And hisinterpretation to the Buddhist flexible, for example , he could not only reveal theadvanced Buddhism in narration but also contain Buddhism in describing scene,furthermore, paraphrase Buddhism in argumentation. It is obvious that in WangAnshi's poems, we can feel Buddhism, especially the unity of Zen and poems.Chapter Five: Wang Anshi's poetic style and the spread and change of Zen. Thechanging of Buddhism in Song Dynasty should have close connection with the specialpolitical and cultural background of Son Dynasty. Buddhism developed so much withthe support of the King and the company of literati. Among these, it gave thefavorable social conditions to Buddhism improvement that the literati choseBuddhism, monks mastered Confucianism and principles went with Buddhismtogether, so Buddhism found its own disadvantage and got the method to improveitself to change meanwhile to adjust Chinese traditional culture. Addition, theprosperity of characters was a landmark for Buddhism's development and madeBuddhism out of embarrassment to use characteristics widely. Monks enrichedBuddhism with poems, and literati illustrated poems with the help of Buddhism. Thechange of Buddhism had effective influence of Wang Anshi's poetic style. In theearly age, the style was"vigorous and dejected"; in the middle age, it was"majesticand natural"because he put himself into Buddhism; in the old age, it was"exquisiteand clear"due to his combination with Buddhism.In a word, the development of Buddhism and poems profited from the localizedinheritance to Buddhism. Poems and Buddhism influenced each other. Poem is theappreciation of ideal while Buddhism inspirited in wonderful Richard. Theintersection of poem and Buddhism is to seek for the wonderful state in which peoplecan be over secular trouble. So these two antirational cultures have so much commonwith each other in solving human's spirit problems. Buddhism can spread widely withthe carrier--- poem, and at the same time, influenced by Buddhism, poem appears unique style. From this point of view, Wang Anshi's achievement was hard to beat.So, the writer hopes to research Buddhism influence on Wang Anshi's poems in depthaccording to the background of the fusion between Confucianism and Buddhism inSong Dynasty and make the relationships between them clear and it must haveimportant significance and reference to the research for Buddhism and Wang Anshi'spoems in modern society.