Influence Of The Secularization Of Buddhism On The Images Of Monks And Nuns In The Novels Of Late Ming Dynasty

Buddhism was introduced into China in the Han Dynasty. It has gradually become one of the main religions in China owing to the great efforts made by its believers and followers. During the course of its dissemination, Buddhism was being localized and secularized; and in the Ming Dynasty it reached a high level of secularization. The secularization of Buddhism had a great influence on the characterization of the Buddhist monks and nuns in the secular novels of the Ming Dynasty, especially the late Ming Dynasty. The influences are analyzed and elaborated on in this thesis from the perspective of comparative literature. The author hopes that the readers will be able to have a comprehensive understanding of the topic after reading the thesis.This thesis is composed of four chapters besides an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter One focuses on the secularization of Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty, analyzing its causes and manifestations from the perspective of the changes of the stereotyped Buddhist activities, the vanishment of the Buddhist sacredness and the chaos of the Buddhist world. Because of the Ming government’s purposes of controlling and utilizing Buddhism, the religious policies made by the government had strong utilitarian undertones. These religious policies classified Buddhist monks and nuns according to their roles, resulting in the appearance of monks and nuns as a profession. Buddhist monks and nuns were involved in secular lives; and their conventional activities changed from having nothing to do with the secular world to becoming connected with the secular lives. Therefore, Buddhist religious services became part of the secular life and with it the holiness and mystique of Buddhism died away. In the late Ming Dynasty, the government’s corruption brought about the laxation of religious policies; and many people became Buddhist monks and nuns with non-religious purposes in mind. All this destroyed the purity of Buddhism and furthered the secularization of Buddhism.Chapter Two analyzes the influences of the secularization of Buddhism on the characterization of the Buddhist monks and nuns in the secular novels of the late Ming Dynasty from the perspective of good monastic images. This chapter divides good monastic images into eminent monastic images and ordinary monastic images, and gives them respective analysis. Influenced by the secularization of Buddhism, almost all the eminent monks in the secular novels of the late Ming Dynasty involved themselves in secular lives and there are quite a few stories describing eminent monks breaking the Buddhist precepts. Ordinary or secular Buddhist monks and nuns were results of their professionalism. Buddhism became the source of their maintenance of livelihood and even that of their efforts to build up family fortunes; but the Buddhist teachings were deconstructed almost completely in the process. Besides the above analyses, this chapter also explores the reasons for the absence of the images of eminent nuns in the secular novels of the late Ming Dynasty, analyzing the roles of the secularization of Buddhism in this cultural phenomenon.Chapter Three analyzes the influences of the secularization of Buddhism on the characterization of bad Buddhist monks and nuns in the secular novels of the late Ming Dynasty. With the changes of stereotyped Buddhist activities the gap between monks’lives and secular people’s lives was narrowed down, and the holiness and mystique of Buddhism were broken. The chaotic phenomenon of the Buddhist world caused by the secularization of Buddhism in the late Ming Dynasty produced prototypes of bad Buddhist monks and nuns and a large number of greedy and lecherous monastic images were created in secular novels. They ignored religious discipline and laws, and even became murderers out of their pursuit for money and lust, revealing their evil side of overwhelming greed and desire. The laxation and loss of social morality in the late Ming Dynasty also facilitated the appearance of bad monastic images.Chapter Four analyzes the influences of secularization of Buddhism on aesthetic and moral functions of the monastic images in secular novels of the late Ming Dynasty. Influenced by secularization of Buddhism, the monastic images displayed an obvious tendency towards ugliness. This tendency also catered to aesthetic tastes of the readers at that time. The "ugly-oriented" monastic images, in some degree, played a part in the corruption of social morality. On the other hand, the Buddhist teachings carried by the images of Buddhist monks and nuns in the secular novels played some roles in social moralization. Through the studies on the monastic images in secular novels of the late Ming Dynasty, we can know about the influences of the secularization of Buddhism on the secular novels in the late Ming Dynasty; and based on this, we will be able to make a comprehensive study of the social culture of that Dynasty.