The Research Of Qi Ji And His Buddha Zen Poetry

The study is about Qi Ji， a famous pome-monk in Tang Dynasty， and hisBuddha Zen poetry. The number of his works is at the top of the list compared with thepoetry creation of other poem-monks in the whole Tang Dynasty. As a monk， the poetQi Ji has formed his own style combined poem with Zen， which it reflects the beautyof artistic conception. Based on his creation， travel of biography and detailed proof，the study aims at Qi Ji’s life and his Buddha Zen poetry to find out a distinct clue.There are several parts of this essay.The first part is the textual research of Qi Ji’s life from three periods on theground of his works and relevant historical materials. There are disputes about Qi Ji’slife and birthplace. It is proved that Qi Ji was born in Yi Yang， Tan Zhou， i.e. thepresent Ning Xiang of Hunan Province， in fifth year of Xian Tong Age (about A. D.864).In Qi Ji’s textual research， his personal biography can be divided into threeperiods: the practice Buddhism as a monk，the travel for the Buddha，the delay in theJinzhou area. These three periods are involved in his travel， poem creation andthought. Qi Ji travelled Daolin Temple in Changsha， Donglin Temple in LushanMountain， Longxing Temple in Jinzhou， and Tongqing Temple in Weishan where hebecame a monk. Experiencing the warfare， Qi Ji was concerned the people’slivelihood; and what he saw and heard during the war and the change of his lifeenvironment both affected his thought. Qi Ji lived in the end of Tang Dynasty and theperiod of Five Dynasties when there were frequent wars and the people were plungedinto misery and suffering which these were reflected in Qi Ji’s poetry. The research ofQi Ji’s travel communication consists of the communication with other monks and thecommunication with scholars.The second part studies Qi Ji’s collected poetry Bai Lian Ji， which it is whollyanalyzed from several aspects， such as his thought， types of works and content. Thestudy of Qi Ji’s thought includes his Buddhism and combination of Confucianism，Buddhism and Taoism. The priority in his thought is the Buddhism for he is a monk.The study of Bai Lian Ji is analyzed from the image of white lotus and types of poetry.The existing poems of Qi Ji are814，in which the white lotus is mentioned13times.The white lotus symbols the special meaning in Buddhism. In Qi Ji’s poems，besides the symbol of Buddhism, it has special meaning of DongLin white lotus. Since Qi Jihad spent his practice Buddhism for eighteen years in Donglin Temple， he had a deepemotion for the white lotus of Donglin Temple. The types of his poetry include fourtypes: Landscape Poetry， Yongwu Poetry， Chronicle Poetry and ReciprocatingPoetry.The third part of the essay is about the artistic characteristics， influence andappraisal of Qi Ji’s Buddha Zen poetry. One of the characteristics is the quantity， andhis poetry is also characterized by the fresh and plain linguistic style and the beauty ofartistic conception combined poem with Zen， which all shows a kind of freshness andbitterness in his poems. The next section discusses the influence of Qi Ji on hiscontemporaries and later ages.Qi Ji， a monk and a poet， paid attention to the combination of poetry and Zenand writes poem in the perspective of Zen. As a great poet， Qi Ji created the poetrywhich spread popularly and reflected the social reality with a wide range of subjectswhen he was alive. He made a great contribution to the poetic theory and literarytheory.