The Influence Of Zen On The Formation Of Linguistic Awareness In Poetical Talks In Song Dynasty

Song (1960-1279AD) is one of the most prosperous periods of the poetry criticism in the history of ancient literary criticism. As an important vehicle for poetry criticism, poetical talks has been the focus of many studies. Zen Buddhism, as it became adapted to Chinese culture, also well developed in Song Dynasty, dividing into many schools, being so popular in literati and officialdom that talking about Zen became a common practice for them. In this way, the Zen thoughts were reflected in the poems created in Song Dynasty. In Song Dynasty, Zen Buddhism developed some new thoughts based on the Zen's style. Those were the thoughts of each Zen schools, and most of which were about language and words. In the same period, the critics showed their concern on the language of poetry and the composing rules in their poetic talks. Actually the mutual influence between Zen Buddhism's new thoughts about language and words and the focus on the language of poetry and the composing rules leaded to the development for both of them, however, this paper will be mainly on the Zen Buddhism's new thoughts about language and words influence to formation of language awareness in poetic talks in Song Dynasty. After sorting out the Zen thoughts of each school and analyzing some terms which are reflecting those thoughts, the comparison between the thoughts of each school and those Zen-related terms in poetic talks will be carried out by using the theories of literary, linguistics and religion to analyze the Zen's influence on the formation of language awareness in poetic talks in Song Dynasty.The paper is divided into three parts, including the introduction, the text, and the conclusion. The first part mainly introduces the development of Zen Buddhism in Song Dynasty as well as the prosperousness of poetic talks. The text, as the second part, is divided into three chapters. Chapterâ… proves that analyzing poetics metaphorically with Zen in the poetic talks shows the focus on the language of poetry and the consciously adoption of Zen thought by introducing the arising of Yunmen school in Song Dynasty and analyzing the terms in poetic talks such as three sentences in Yunmen school, flexible means and vividness and quickness. Chapterâ…¡expounds the Wenzi-Zen in Song Dynasty as well as analyzes the terms in poetic talks like the core of a sentence, touching an iron and turning it into gold, and seizing the embryo and Zenging the bone to prove that the Zen thoughts especially the wenziZen has an effect on the tendency of carrying out syntactic analysis on poetry in Song Dynasty. Chapterâ…¢analyzes Mozhao-Zen, Kanhua-Zen in Zen thoughts and the quietness and silence, free from the syntax to prove that the poet in that period had already been aware of the difference between the language of poetry and the language commonly used in daily life and the technique used in the language of poetry. That awareness was also under the indirect influence of Zen thoughts.The third part is the conclusion of the text.