The Writing Of The Monk Named Bao Zhi In Mid-Ancient Times And The Identity Formation Of Magical Monk In His Next Life

Bao Zhi is a famous monk in history. His surname is Zhu, born in 418 and died in 514. The question of Where is his hometown has two answers, one is from nowhere or the other is from Jincheng. In the Southern Dynasties, he was put in prison because of puzzling by Qi Wudi, but was out of jail by himself afterwards. From then on, he appeared many magical activities, win the worship of the persons in the capital and enjoyed the respect of Liang Wudi in Liang Dynasty. In the rest, he liked to discuss Buddha dharma with Liang Wudi and Fa Yu. The number of his believer rose in the increasing number.After his die, Liang Wudi was very sad and held a grand funeral for him. Next year the Temple named Kai Shan was built in the name of Bao Zhi. Wang Yun was ordered to write the tablet inscription of the temple, and Lu Chui was responsible for the inscription on the gravestone. In the later, the top was accustomed to give high value to Bao Zhi, and the sound of praise lasted. Under the propagation, his life stories were put an emphasis on by scholars in successive dynasties, and his legends number was on the rise.In the primary writings, Bao Zhi showed the appearance of Eminent Monk, but from the mid 7th century, he was defined as Magical Monk, not only was written some poems but also showed many appearances, such as the eleven-faces Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. As to Bao Zhi, what is his initial look, and how does he transform to a magical monk, that is the question the article wants to talk about.Bao Zhi is eminent from the Southern Dynasties on. The existing documents on that time are not so many. In general, there have two significant ones, The Inscription of Master Zhi on the Gravestone written by Lu Chui and The Eminent Monks by Hui Jiao. The rest ones such as The Jiang Mi Biography in the Book of Nan Qi Dynasty and The Preface of Maha Prajna by Xiao Zixian, The Poetic Essay Named Jing Ye by Xiao Yan also have the content of Bao Zhi. The chapter one contains the analysis of these documents and emphasizes the two parts of the Buddhism capability and the magical life stories in Bao Zhi.In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the stories of Bao Zhi appear in a lot of history books written in biographical style. The chapter two of the article discusses these contents, selects the other stories in Buddhist writings and Literary Sketches produced in this time, and shows the whole appearance of the monk. Contracting with the documents in Southern Dynasties, Bao Zhi starts to be a magical monk. After the building of Tang Dynasty, the top think highly of Bao Zhi’s prophecy, and sometimes create some new ones. In this situation, Bao Zhi is changed to an outstanding political observer.On the basis of the above two parts, the chapter three tells the process of transformation in two society parts of political praise and historical writing. By the analysis of Wei Bin, the document-dissemination of magical stories usually presents the two trends. Non-magical stories often in the preface of the Buddhist Scriptures tell the birth and life, but many magical stories communicate as the form of Buddhist parts and bring several editions after the creation. This situation is also fit for Bao Zhi. To describe the new appearance of Magical Monk, the later documents like to carry on two literature-processing jobs:the one is re-creating one magical story by changing the plot of time, actors, or process and so on; the other is creating a new one based on one legend or thing. This chapter selects two legends named Kuai Canyu and tame tigers and leopards in Tianmu Moutains to tell and in the process the identity formation of Magical Monk is produced gradually.In these different historical writings, Bao Zhi, who was recognized as an "eminent monk" at early stage, became an "magical monk" at last. His profound Buddhism disappeared in the focus of the common people. Factually, the legends about Bao Zhi are unlimited, and there exist other documents. As an organic part of the traditional literature, dealing with the transformation of the writings well could provides a distinct impression on the Bao Zhi’s image and adds more color to the folk custom of Nanjing City.Moreover, the writer still gathers the documents of Kuai Canyu as an appendix, which is convenient for the contrast of the text, to reduce the time of researching the contents in historical writings.