The Comparative Research On Strange Tales From Liaozhai And Buddhist Scripture

As the most excellent tales of mystery and the supernatural Strange in classical Chinese there has been much research around Strange Tales from Liaozhai.It is believed that this collection of short stories is significantly influenced by Buddhist Scripture.Though there is much research on this topic,the comparative study based on the view of diseases is much more limited.Making the view of diseases the breakthrough,this study aims to find the new dimension of the relationship between Strange Tales from Liaozhai and Buddhist Scripture.Making the view of diseases the breakthrough of the comparative study provides the possibility of interdisciplinary research.The similarities and differences of disease views between the two texts reflect the homogeneity and heterogeneity of Chinese traditional culture and the ancient India cultural tradition.At the beginning of the study the disease writing in the Strange Tales from Liaozhai is overall arranged through the text collation of the whole book.By the selection of the Tripitaka,the representative Buddhist Scripture about the views of diseases are arranged.The comparison between the Strange Tales from Liaozhai and the Buddhist Scripture includes three elements.First the epistemology of diseases in the two systems is compared.Second the concepts of pathogeny are compared.Third the concepts of treatment are also compared.About the epistemology of disease,the Strange Tales from Liaozhai and Buddhist Scripture show the commonality and the otherness.On the one hand the two systems both consider the diseases as suffering in common and on the other hand they have different views about thinking diseases normality or abnormality.About the concepts of pathogeny,the Strange Tales from Liaozhai and Buddhist Scripture show the otherness based on commonality.The Strange Tales from Liaozhai and Buddhist Scripture show each concepts of pathogeny based on the Chinese traditional medical theory and the ancient Indian traditional medical theory.One is the disharmony of Yin Yang and five elements,and the other is the Four Major incoordination.There are also different views about witchcraft pathogeny and retribution pathogeny.About the views of retribution pathogeny differences based on two unique traditions included in Chinese and Indian are clearly showed.About the concepts of treatment it isalso showed that the otherness based on commonality.Against the very three idea of pathogeny,three concepts of treatment are showed in the two texts systems including medication magical healing and the promotion of ethics or wisdom.About the views of medication,the Strange Tales from Liaozhai and Buddhist Scripture show the different degree of recognition.The forms of magical healing are also different between the Strange Tales from Liaozhai and Buddhist Scripture.Especially about the views of treatment to retribution diseases the Strange Tales from Liaozhai provides the thinking of the promotion of ethics which is based on Chinese tradition but Buddhist Scripture terms to the promotion of wisdom which is based on Indian tradition.These two schemes indicate the differences between Chinese ethics tradition and Indian wisdom tradition.