A Study Of Tai Ping Guang Ji

ABSTRACT: Tai Ping Guang Ji is one of four major collections in Song Dynasty, is also one of important novel collection in ancient China which collects a great deal of classic Chinese novels before Song Dynasty. The novels compiled in Tai Ping Guang Ji mostly relate strange stories which have religious content and are categorized by different religious content. At present, religious culture of Tai Ping Guang Ji is not studied completely, so this thesis makes a thorough and systematic study of it in term of the religious culture background of this book, the religious character of the compiling, Taoism culture, Buddhism culture, Chinese traditional religion and the religious culture signification of the book. So there are six chapters in the thesis.The first chapter studies the religious cultural background of compiling Tai Ping Guang Ji. There are three factors in the religious cultural background. The firs factor is the developing tendency of the religion of three-in-one which means the syncretism of three main Chinese traditions---Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. The second factor is the novels propagating religion and relating strange stories. The third factor is the examples of compiling collections of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.The second chapter studies the religious character of the omit compiling Tai Ping Guang Ji. Firstly, the items of Tai Ping Guang Ji which are the plate structure of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are researched. Secondly, the quoting books in Tai Ping Guang Ji are analyzed by statistical routines in religious character. Lastly, take the religious texts for example to study the compiling texts of Tai Ping Guang Ji.The third chapter, the fourth chapter and the fifth chapter respectively study the Taoism stories, Buddhism stories and Chinese traditional religion stories of Tai Ping Guang Ji, researching Taoism culture, Buddhism culture, and Chinese traditional religion culture of the book. The third chapter mainly studies fairy stories in order to analyze the space-time distribution and type character of the fairies, and the topic type of the fairy stories; then studies fairy representative imago---white crane and green bamboo and their religious culture meaning and culture resource; finally analyze the imago"stone"and the number"seven"of the fairy stories. The fourth chapter studies the stories of weird monk, sutra adoration and comeuppance in Tai Ping Guang Ji. To distinctive monk stories the study puts emphasis on analyzing the relationship between monk theurgy and Buddhism religion, disobeying commandment and becoming Buddha. To the sutra adoration stories the study puts emphasis on reviewing the distribution and religious function of Diamond Sutra, Fahua Sutra and Kwan-yin Sutra. To the comeuppance stories the study puts emphasis on the relationship between Buddhism comeuppance and caring for this life and ethic morality of Confucianism. The fifth chapter parses the destiny symptom conception in which destiny is mastered by Heaven, the divinity conception which are sacrificed by the mankind, the ghost conception in which the pneuma returns after man's death, the monster conception in which the matters become monster when they are very old; trying to research social ideology and conception which were embodied in these stories.The sixth chapter analyzes the religious cultural significance of compiling Tai Ping Guang Ji. The signification reflects two sides. First, it reflects the dynast integrated religious culture with compiling collections; second, it is important to impulse the development of the following religious novels.The middle four chapters in the thesis are the main content, which state the religious culture of Tai Ping Guang Ji adequately. The thesis emphasizes the bond of texts analyzing and item compiling, and that of texts meaning and recompiling significance, using statistical routines adequately, so that it is convictive intensively.