Three Arguments On Buddhist Influence On The Tales Of The Supernatural During Wei, Jin And Six Dynasties

This article mainly does research into the Buddhist important influence on the tales of the supernatural during the Wei,Jin and Six Dynasties,which includes three parts.Part One,Buddhist philosophical and methodological influence on the tales of the supernatural during the Wei,Jin and Six Dynasties.In the preface to The Check and Annotation on the Chapter of Gold Lion in the Grandeur and Solemnity Sutra,Fang Litian says,"Buddhism have produced widespread and profound impact on our society since it spred into China in the Han Dynasty,our religion,philosophy and world outlook in ancient China were influenced deeply by the Buddhist scriptures".Just as it,Buddhism exerted a great influence on the tales of the supernatural during the Wei,Jin and Six Dynasties both philosophically and from the world outlook.It's the same as the latter part of"the tales of the supernatural and spiritual beings during the Six Dynasties"in A Brief History of Chinese Fiction,in which, Lu Xun says,"In Liu Dynasty, there is a book named The Records and Publicity on the Omens Coming True by Song Yiqing…which in general records the omens in Sutra coming true,publicizes the advocated results presented or felt,in order to shock and shake the common custom,further to make them pious and faithful…"Propogating the Samsara (transmigration) among the Six Circuits,the Karma (retribution) and reincarnation,the idealism of the immortality of the soul,had a prevailing influence in the society of that time.In The Records About the Later Han Dynasty by Yuan Yanbo,it is said that,on hearing and understanding the Buddhism principle of Karma,none of the princes,dukes and ministers didn't"feel fear of their own faults".The Buddhist theories of Panna (wisdom),knowing and doing,pure land,and the theism, all of them influenced the tales of the supernatural during the Six Dynasties greatly.This part mainly deals with the problems mentioned above.Part Two,Buddhist influence on the tales of supernatural from its ethics and conduct.One of the reasons why the people embrace and support the Buddhism,is that Buddhism stands for eliminating corruption and getting rid of evils,helps purify the public morals.Emperor Wen Di of Song Liu Yinong once said without scruple ,"Learning that the Buddha has a long arm,especially both of its name and the truth sound reanonable,can broaden the people's mind and encourage the people's will,then my throne will be as firm as a rock.What else will I worry about?"To the grass-roots,Buddhism is beneficial too,because it can keep the folkways simple and honest,make them live in harmony.Just because of this, it's sure that the Buddhist ethics impose rather great influence on the tales of supernatural.This part expounds the influence concerned from the Buddhist principles of"the oneness of Heaven and man","human nature is good in origin", the outlook on life of"the unity of duty and right",the Buddhist magic,the idea of"equality between castes",and so on….Part Three,the influence of the style pattern of the combination of verse and prose in the Buddhist scriptures on the tales of supernatural.As for the influence of the style of the combination of verse and prose on Chinese literature,some scholars have pointed it out in the early days,for example, in The Postscript to the Truth of the Sect of Manjusri Bodhisattva Visiting the Patient in Vimaiakirti Sutra in Dunhuang Version,Chen Yinke writes like this,"the style pattern of Buddhist scriptures alternates the long lines with the song of Gatha,people often follow it accordingly when acting and telling the texts of the scriptures(here refers to the popular literature in the Tang and Song Dynasties)…so it develops into the nowadays type of novel with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its content…".However,Mr Chen's ideas aren't in accordance with the historical facts completely.This style pattern of the Buddhist scriptures stuck out in the tales of supernatural earlier,which was usually neglected before and will be expounded now,which will play rather an important role not to be ignored in the study of the problems correlated.