A Study On Women's Buddhist Belief In The Northern Dynasty

With the recommendation of the rulers,Buddhism showed a flourishing trend and once became the common belief of all social strata in the Northern Dynasty.Because the feudal ethical outline often had less restriction on women and their social behavior was relatively free,women who liked Buddhism were increasing in the special historical environment of the Northern Dynasty.Since the 20 th century,a large number of female epitaphs have been unearthed in the Northern Dynasty.The related epitaphs have recorded the religious beliefs and social and cultural life of women in this period.The epitaphs have become the direct historical materials for the study of women's life at that time.According to the content of the epitaph,women with Buddhist beliefs in the Northern Dynasty can be roughly divided into three categories: First is the court members represented by the queen's concubines and female officials;Second is women from official families;Third is ordinary civilian women.Different social strata have different reasons for believing in Buddhism: The imperial concubines mainly catered to the preferences of the rulers.Later,Buddhism became the ideological end-result of the defeat of their political struggle;Official and noble women worship Buddha in order to get rid of their relatives' premature death,loneliness and widowhood,and pursue the chastity of life and higher ideological realm;Because of the loss of personal freedom,female maidservants represented by Kabuki were forced to have Buddhist beliefs while waiting for their masters to come down;The reason why civilian women worship Buddha is relatively simple,mainly because of the hardship of life,and driven by the real interests,they seek blessings from Buddhism.The female worshippers of the Northern Dynasty in the epitaph can be divided into two categories as a whole: ordinary believers and nuns.Ordinary believers are mainly upper-class women who are edified by family school or family education and have received cultural education.A few women without court also accept Buddhist thought because of the influence of court political environment.These women are simple Buddhist lovers,seeking spiritual comfort in complex social life.As a small group of women in the Northern Dynasty and a part of Buddhist monks,monk women are different from non-monk women in their belief life and their contribution and influence on Buddhist communication.Through the consideration of women's Buddhist worship in the Northern Dynasty,we can further explore the social status of women in the Northern Dynasty and the prosperity of Buddhism in the social development at that time.