Research Into The Attitude And Acceptance Model Towards Buddhism Of All Social Strata In Wei Jin Southern And Northern Dynasty

In the research field of culture history, it is an importantsubject on communication and syncretism of variant cultures. Since theresearch into "communication-syncretism" model of variant cultures is animportant part of culture history research, then, Buddhism, as the mostimportant carrier of "communication-syncretism" model developed in the twocivilizations of ancient China and India, should be paid more attentionto, in its progressing and syncretizing in China. In its way of easternadvancing of Buddhism from the West, Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynastyis an important period which inherited the past and opened up the future.During that period, there were many sects of Buddhism, temples were rowupon row and sutras were numerous. People's enthusiasm for Buddhisticactions was more marvelous. As it is, we can infer that it was the entirepeople's positive attitude of acceptance that leaded to the first climaxof Buddhism's being Chinese. Therefore this thesis concentrates oninterpreting people's acceptance model of Buddhism in Wei Jin Southern andNorthern Dynasty, trying to understand the reason why the western Buddhismcould be renascent in a different culture, and to reach some inspirationsof developing way of different cultures.This thesis consists of eight parts.In the preface, the author firstly sets forth the reason of choosingthis topic and its meaning and point out that the research into people'sattitude and acceptance model in Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasty isan important subject in the research of Buddhism's being Chinese. Then,the author describes the status quo of the research in Buddhist historyof that period.In Chapter One, the author discusses the Buddhism acceptance model ofthe governing class, especially the emperor. By discussing governors'attitude and acceptance of Buddhism, it describes the Buddhism's effortto being recognized officially and politically. There are three types of different acceptance models ofthe governors: elegant Buddhism enthusiast,common functionalist and people who carried out Buddhist tragedy.Chapter two is mainly about the intellectual's attitude and acceptancetowards Buddhism. It classifies Buddhism to six kinds by the intellectual'sdifferent attitudes and demonstrates by one or two representatives.Chapter Three is about the attitude and acceptance model of thedegenerate nobles and the middle and lower classes. It discloses the factthat these groups hope to seek social status and change living environmentso that they wish to rely on Buddhism in the chaos caused by war at thattime.Chapter Four discusses women's attitude and acceptance of Buddhism inthe perspective of women. Women's belief develops by Buddhist nuns and womenwho participate in Buddhist actions.Chapter Five sets the monks as an independent group. It also includessome individual cases about the governors, the intellectual, degeneratenobles and the middle and lower classes, which were discussed in abovechapters. It consists of three parts: absolutely sincere believer, traitorof belief and those who are indifferent but long for the world.The above five chapters put emphasis on seeking materials andexplaining, and pay more attention to the arrangement of historicalevidences. Based on the above descriptions, Chapter Six tries to innovateand lead the thesis to deep thinking of culture history.In Chapter Seven, the author comes to a conclusion that if a foreignculture wants to obtain a new lease of life in a new environment, it cannotjust stay at the stage of building theory, but it should create thefeasibility of unscrambling new culture according to new culturalbackground based on the existing cultural background. Thereby, aiming tothe pessimism of "historical crisis" burgeoned in the academia in the pasttwo decades, the author brings forward that the Buddhism in Wei Jin Southernand Northern Dynasty has already offered history a ready-made developmentexample: to be recognized by all classes in the society and to meet infinitedemands of all classes in the society by its own infinite.