The Theme Of Dunhuang Bianwen And Its Cultural Context

Mulian Bianwen is the important part of Dunhuang documents, it has irreplaceable value and meaning on both researching history and literature. The story of Mulian spread to China by Buddhism, and it transmitted to Chinese culture. Dunhuang Bianwen provides the great possibility to study the story of Mulian in China because these documents revealed us how the Mulian story was narrated on its forms and contexts during medieval times. This dissertation would like to study the theme of Dunhuang Mulian Bianwen and its cultural context.The story of Mulian originated form the Buddhist text of Ullambana-sutra ("Sutra of the Buddha said Bon"). During Sui and Tang dynasties, Ullambana-sutra was so popular in Dunhuang so that the story was developed into different versions. Among the findings of thirteen format of Dunhuang Mulian Bianwen, the three of them are remarkable,"Mu Lian Yuan Qi" is the earliest one, the "Mu Lian Bian Wen" is the second coming out, and the "Da Mu Lian Qian Lian Ming Jian Jiu Mu Bian Wen Bing Tu Juan Bian Xu" is the latest version in DunhuangThe changes of Dunhuang Mulian Bianwen had been effected by the temple’s activities in Sui and Tang dynasties, such as Buddhist lectures, assemblies and etc. The development of custom of Bon Festival (Yu Lan Pen Jie) was also one of the important reasons to disseminate the story of Mulian and made it colorful and variable. The plots of the story in Dunhuang were or added, or deleted compared to the original creation. These differences were not only caused by Chinese traditional culture, but also by local culture.Although the differences among many editions of the Mulian story exist in Dunhuang, in all, they were followed a basic rule,"rescue" and "redeem", and focused on showing Mulian’s anxiety to rescue his mother and Mulian’s mother Qingti’s confession in the hell. This story was well catered the filial piety of Confucianism as a son should follow and the Buddhist karma people deserved.The documents about Mulian in Dunhuang are important and significant. Mulian’s story in Dunhuang contains multiple-cultural elements, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and folk culture. Mulian’s story in Dunhuang on the embodiment of plot, the arrangement of scene, description of portrait had been tracked by the other art, the novels and operas during Song and Yuan dynasties were the good examples.