Research On Buddhist Religion And Ghostdom Stories In The Sui,tang And The Five Dynasties

Buddhism was introduced to China from the Han Dynasty,and reached its peak during the Sui,Tang,and Five Dynasties.Its karma and the concept of reincarnation and the concept of the inferiority of the Middle Ages collided and merged into a unique system of belief in the Middle-earth and the underworld.Through the collection of the materials of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties,such as literary and historical works,Buddhist classics,Dunhuang literature,inscriptions and murals,a comprehensive analysis of these historical literatures and the underworld activities in the historical period was carried out.Based on these,the case analysis is carried out to discuss the Buddhist factors in the story of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties,in order to clarify the aspects of the livelihood,life and belief of the Sui,Tang and Five Dynasties under the influence of the Buddhist faith.Based on fully understanding and mastering the researches in the academic fields,the following research works about the underworld stories along the main time axis of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties are carried out with the proposed research ideas and the corresponding methods:Firstly,it traces and examines the derivative mechanism and development process about the underworld stories after Buddhism's introduction into the ancient China and summarizes in detail about the viewpoints of life and death of the witchcraft and the pre-Qin scholars,the viewpoints under the coupling influence of Confucianism and Taoism and the viewpoints after the introduction of Buddhism.The social culture and historical background derived from the underworld stories of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties are understood.Subsequently,the system structure of the underworld beliefs in this historical period is analyzed.Then the understanding of the underworld beliefs of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties is formed macroscopically.Secondly,based on the collection and summarization of the narrative works of the literati in the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties,Buddhist classics and the underworld stories in the Dunhuang tales,the subject source of the underworld stories is studyed,the classification of these stories is assigned,and the narrative model of these stories are summarized.From the perspective of philology,the underworld stories of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties are summarized for the foundation of the comprehensive study of these stories.Furthermore,by observing the writings of the judgement in the underworld stories of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties,the trial objects,the judge officers,the trial process and the results of the underworld judge are analyzed individually.The process and system of the underworld judge under the influence of Buddhism are researched.The similarities and differences between the trials of the current and the ancient official governments are discovered.Then the positive roles of the stories of the underworld judge on promoting Buddhist theory,maintaining the status of the ruling class,guiding the regulation of social atmosphere and educating the people in thinking are explored.Finally,a household story named of “Mulian saving his mother from underworld” is selected as a case to investigate its resource.The relevant literatures are selected to find that the similar stories in the Dunhuang literatures of the Sui,Tang and the Five Dynasties are the most detailed.Therefore,S.2614 “Mah?maudgaly?yana Rescuing His Mother from the Underworld,one scroll,with preface” is selected for case analysis,while the character setting,the tragic appearance of the hell,and the appearance of Buddhist thought about retribution and reincarnation of the Mah?maudgaly?yana story,to alert the world and persuade people to be good to achieve the function of educating the people and promoting Buddhist thought.