A Study Of Daizi Mantra And Tang And Song Novels

Great Compassion Mantra was known as Thousand-Handed and Thousand-EyedAvalokitesvara Bodhisattvas Vast, Perfect, Unimpeded, Great-Compassionate HeartDharani Sutra(Qian Shou Qian Yan Guan Shi Yin Pu Sa Guang Da Yuan Man Wu Ai DaBei Xin Tuo Luo Ni Jing), which was translated by Shramana Bhagavat-dharma, inYonghui and Xianqing years during Tang Dynasty. The Great Compassionate DharaniSutran, including how Great Compassion Mantra was named, how to recite themerits, how to start mantra, Sanskrit Mantra, and related Buddhist maxims, wastreated as the operation instruction of Great Compassion Mantra as well. In addition,because it’s the vogue time of translating the Buddhist Scriptures in Tang Dynastywhen Great Compassionate Dharani Sutran was introduced in, there were manytranslations of it. Just the translations published by famous monks such as Vajrabodhi,Amoghavajra and Bodhiruci were as many as decade. At present, the research onGreat Compassion Mantra mainly focus on the fields like paraphrase and tone,phonology, musicology, Tantra ritual and belief in Avalokitesvara. The research onliterature is too piecemeal to constitute a system, which fades the topic in therelation between Great Compassion Mantra and novels of tang and song dynasty.This paper consists of three chapters.Chapter one, starting from the status of Great Compassion Mantra inBuddhism, discusses the basic condition of Great Compassion Mantra. It aims tocomb the formation and spread condition of Great Compassion Mantra, which firstlyexploring the origin relation between Great Compassion Mantra and Tantra andbelief in Avalokitesvara, then summarizes the differences and similarities of decadesof classical versions of Great Compassion Mantra, and seeks for the reason why GreatCompassion Mantra became popular in high speed in Tang Dynasty.Chapter two researches on the novels writing from Great CompassionMantra, whose objects of study are the stories during Tang and Song Dynasty relatingwith Great Compassion Mantra. This part starts from character and plots of novel tosort out the literature style and characteristic of the stories relating to Great Compassion Mantra in this period. At the same time, it analyzes the uniquehumanistic amorous feelings during Tang Dynasty reflected in these stories. And onthis basis, this chapter explores the relation between Great Compassion Mantra andnovel writing during Tang and Song Dynasty. At last, it summarizes the Buddhismthought contained in these stories.Chapter three makes a literary interpretation of the novels relating toGreat Compassion Mantra with a view to exploring how Great Compassion Mantrainfluences on folk custom during Tang and Song Dynasty. Firstly, it discusses theinfluence on Buddhism custom such as Obon festival, prayer meeting and Christmasmeeting starting from the plot of novel. Secondly, the writer finds out the fact thatthere exists important relation between the traditional five-color lines custom inDragon Boat Festival and five-color line, which is an important instrument of GreatCompassion Mantra, according to investigation of five-color line. On one hand, GreatCompassion Mantra introduced the five-color line into the social life at that time fastusing Chinese traditional culture for reference. On the other hand, the merits offive-color line was enchanted by Great Compassion Mantra. As a result, it extendedthe season limit of five-color line custom significantly, and promoted thedevelopment of five-color line custom. This opinion can’t be found in previous partsin this paper, which is presented as the innovation. In the end, this paper does astudy on People sacrifice custom, which appeared in the novels relating to GreatCompassion Mantra, to explore the importance of mantra to it.