The Study Of The Mythology Of Buddha's Birth

"Buddha" is the appellation and identity of Sakyamuni the founder of Buddhism after becoming Buddha. The myths about the birth of Buddha include the pre-birth, birth and the after birth part. The research objects and materials of the myths about the birth of Buddha are text and images about Sakyamuni’s Stories. The text source is Sakyamuni’s Stories in Buddhist scriptures, and the images source come from the Buddhist murals and statues created upon texts.The texts of birth myths of Buddha includes the Chinese translation of Buddhist scriptures, other Buddha stories in other original documents, the Buddha biography compiled by Chinese and Buddhist stories written in classified Buddhist literatures. These texts reflects a certain stage characteristics and diversity.Judging from the origin of these texts, there exists no any birth myths of Buddha from the times of primitive Buddhism to the times of early Secterian Indian Buddhism, may have only the rudiment of it. Ⅱt is possible that the rudiment of the myths started to develop in the period of early and middle Secterian Indian Buddhism The birth myths of Buddha in the true sense was born in the times of late Secterian Indian Buddhism and the early period of Mahayana Buddhism.The flourishing stage of it is in the Age of Mahayana Buddhism.The images of the birth myths of Buddha consists of three parts:the image of Ancient India, Chinese Northern and Southern Dynasties,Sui and Tang Dynasties to Ming and Qing Dynasties of China. It emerged in ancient Gandhara of India and came to Chinatherefore bearing Chinese characteristics to some extent. These images shows astage characteristics in the longitudinal direction, and the characteristics becomes more obvious when being compared to the text.. Meanwhile, the similarities and differences between the various regional transversely Works are also striking.Text and images complement each other. Each of them are indispensable and constructs the main theme of the birth myths of Buddha. The text and images shows a certain stage characteristics of the evolution processwhich can be divided intotwo stages: namely, before and after period. The First stage, in Han, Wei, Jin, South and North Dynasties, Indian Buddhism transmitted into China; Mahayana Buddhism flourished during the second stage after the Sui and Tang dynasties. The works of first phase emphasis on the practice of the Buddha’slifetimes and "practicing" generation after generation to become a Buddha and therefore attached great importance to the Jataka stories and the selection to the birth issue. The myths about the birth of Buddha in this stage shows a solemn atmospherewhich is iconic. In the works of the second phase the story line and characters weakened, whereas exaggerating the karma stories about Buddha’s sermon,ambience and the spirit world rendered more features. Song Ming and Qing works also shows a characteristic of the intervention of Confucianism, Taoism and secular culture.The reason behind this feature is the difference between the Buddhist ideology before and after Sui and Tang Dynasty:On one hand, the sociality of Mahayana Buddhist ideology has continuously strengthened when developed to Sui and Tang with the Pure Land Buddhism and Zen thought in the country widespread-it began to flourish in Sui and Tang dynasty and " the confluence between the Pure Land Buddhism and Zen "in Song dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasties the Pure Land Buddhism was the dominant one. People more and more pursued the worldly karmaand desired to become Buddha quickly and expected to make wish to pass away in the Pure Land,the "practicing" of Zen also varied from a complex enduring process to a simple "become Buddha in mind". On the other hand, with the development of "polytheism of Buddism",Buddha as the object loses its uniqueness, the Sakyamuni Buddha became a member of the world of numerous Buddha and the Bodhisattva. After the birth of the concept of the "DharmasarTra Buddha", the Sakyamuni Buddha have been known as under him. Thus, the Buddha’s life course is no longer as spiritual role models and respected by his best,and the importance of the myths about the birth of Buddha has diminished.The mythical features of the myths anomalies about the birth of Buddha are hosted by the story plots which can be broadly divided into ten core parts, pre-birth part include "Nativity choice","Pregnancy Dreams", "Maya said Dream", "the Interpretation of Dreams by the wizard,",and the birth part include "Enjoy the flowers in the Garden","Birth under the tree",and the last part after birth include " Declaration with Walking Seven Steps ","the Bath for Buddha"," the Auspicious Omens "and "Reading Face of Buddha by the Fairy ".Discussion of The mythical features of the myths anomalies about the birth ofBuddha that is the characteristic of the combination of text and image analysis based on religious myths, through the birth of the Buddha on the relationship between the selection and generation after generation practice, the symbolic meaning of "as a white elephant dream Conception", the meaning and effect of the pregnancy dreams and the Interpretation of Dreams,the relationship between Lumbini and the "garden of Eden" Motif, the birth under the tree and the Tree God culture, in the "from the right flank out "plot, the meaning of the" right "and" flank ",the role of mother maya’s seven-day-final "and the fate of women in reproductive event," the " seven ,"step"and"lotus"　in the" seven Steps Declaration ", the meaning of "bath" the operator of bath in the landmark event " the Bath for Buddha ", until the last " the Auspicious Omens "and "Reading Face of Buddha by the Fairy "which confirmed the divine identity of Buddha. In summary, the main conclusions are as follows:First, the integration and mutual proof of the Buddha image and Buddhist teachings is the core value of the birth myths of Buddha; Second, the pluralistic cultural roots behind the birth myths of Buddha promotes the evolution; Third, from the connotation to the extension, proposed comparative study between the value of the Buddha and other mythical figure mythology.