The Religious Archetype In Xu Dishan’s Works

Xu Dishan, who should not be ignored but just a few degrees neglected in Chinese modern literature, had been under controversy since the novel "The Siamesed Birds" published in 1921, because of the creation of the exotic and religious feelings in his works. Xu had grown up in hardship, edified by the thick Buddhist atmosphere in his family and the thousands kinds of folk beliefs in Fujian province and Guangdong province, added his own experience of religion research for years, all these factors nurtured Xu Dishan’s sensibility of suffering and made his understanding of life is different from most of the intellectuals then and naturally presented in his literary creations. Faced the poverty and in modern China, most of the intellectuals at that time had dedicated themselves to ‘the National Salvation Movement’ and ‘the enlightenment campaign’, Xu Dishan is no exception. But just as his works, his therapy for ou country is also unique. At a time when most people consistently attributed all bitter conditions to the difficult times, however, Xu Dishan, whose opinions seemed quite unacceptable, always believed that certainly, the tough times was one of the sources of people’s sufferings, what we ignored was that times could be changed by people, while the impermanence in our life was permanent, so the impermanent was the real cause of suffering. Therefore, instead of worrying about one specific thing or one specific times, Xu Dishan’s ‘caring for life’ focused on the permanence, melted the profoundness of religion and the reality of life, and savored of the ultimate care naturally. Regrettably, as the theme of saving our nation always came first in modern China, the profoundness of religion in Xu Dishan’s works had easily been mistaken for the evasion of the real life, this is why Xu had once been reproached inappropriately. ‘Xu dishan is not a professional writer’(Mr. Chen Pingyuan said), his first identity should be a researcher of religion. And his Religious Writings almost involved all kinds of religion in the world. The destination of Xu Dishan’s religion research has always been to ‘seek the communication of different kinds of religions’ and to serve the reality, accordingly, it has been consistent in his literary works. His works can always send out infinite mystery by limited visible characters, albeit not abundant. Today, there are still many mysteries in Xu Dishan’s literature world, and to really enter it is not easy. I myself have been moved by Xu Dishan’s endeavor to ‘seek the communication of different kinds of religions’ now and then. But what are the items of the philosophy that Xu Dishan wanted to construct with the help of this communication, and how did it be expressed in his works? For these two problems, Xu Dishan himself as well as the existing research results have a certain degree of explanation but no complete answers. On the basis of previous research, in order to answer the questions mentioned above much more better, from the perspective of mythology, resorting to the theory of archetypal criticism, and regarding the archetypal analysis of the narration,the characters and the images in his works as the breakthrough point, this thesis attempts to sought out the fruits of life came out of religious flowers in Xu Dishan’s works through this series of carefully constructed archetypal replacements.Based on the above research purpose, this thesis is divided into three chapters.Combining xu dishan’s life and his writings,the first chapter revealedhisclose relationship with religion.The second chapter enters to Xu Dishan’s literary world formally, from three aspects of plot, character and image, we decoded the religious archetype of in the author’s writings.Suitable for everyone all times led when it will have to express, and by a sincere desire. In this paper, the third chapter elaborated the items of the religion Xu Dishan aimed to construct through a variety of archetypal replacement in detail, the main tenets of it including ‘life is not happy’, ‘just beg sustaining cultivation’, and ‘the affectionateness subsequently breed absolute sincerity ’.Among these three, ’Life is not happy’ is the elementary proposition of the philosophy of Xu, all other beliefs are derived from it.