On Huihong, A Famous Buddhist Monk Of Song Dynasty

Huihong, a famous Buddhist monk in the Northern Song Period, is very learned and gifted, having a good command of Buddhist scriptures and other canons. A productive writer rarely to be found having achievements in various aspects, he contributed on such fields as Buddhist theory, annotation of Buddhist scriptures, Buddhist history, literary criticism, and poetry writing. An important figure in both Buddhist history and literature, he is nevertheless controversial in the academic circle because he was outspoken in judgment of both past and contemporary events. On the other hand, he was not very careful in textual criticism in his writing. In addition, he was on good terms with a number of government officials, spending an unrestrained life with wine and whore. As a cultural phenomenon, Huihong is of particular significant in both Buddhist and literary studies. And a study of Huihong as an individual case will shed light on the understanding of the Chan Sect of Buddhism in Northern Song Period.Chen Yan is the among the first in the study of Huihong, and ever since some achievements have been made by a few scholars on Huihong's life, his Buddhist theory and history writing, and the arts of his poetry, thus paving way for further studies. The studies are, however, far from balancing the importance of the famous Buddhist monk for his versatile achievements in Buddhist studies and in literature: clearance is needed for some facts in his life, and some incorrect interpretation has been made about his theory of Buddhism, moreover, such fields as the study of his essays has not yet been attempted. Particularly, there is urgent need of a comprehensive study. This dissertation is an attempt, based on the achievements of other scholars, to make a comprehensive study on his life, his education and social association, his Buddhist theory, poetic idea, as well as his poetry writing.The dissertation is divided into three major parts: introduction, main body andconclusion.The introduction is a briefing on Huihong's life, achievements, and the studies already made in the subject. There is also, in this part, an explanation of the importance of such a study, how the study is conducted and what aim is to be achieved.The main body is further divided into two parts.There are three chapters in the first part.The first chapter is a thorough study of Huihong's life experience. In the first section of the chapter, I testify Huihong's secular name, his Buddhist name, and his style. The second section is devoted to the study of his life in four separate stages: his upbringing-his childhood and the environments, his becoming a Buddhist monk as a child, his experience as a young Buddhist monk; his middle age and four times of imprisonment; the vagrancy in his old life as well as his devotion to writing, thus formulating a complete life picture of the monk.The second chapter is a selective study of Huihong's education background and his social associations. The first section attributes to his education background, in particular, the academic influence to him from Buddhist Monk Kewen and Shanzhao of Fenyang. The second section is a study of Huihong's social associations with VIP, especially with Zhang Shangying, Chen Guan, and Zeng Xiaoxu. The third section is about his associations with the Buddhist society at the time, especially with Qingyuan of Qian'an, Weiqing of Foshou, Xizu Chaoran and Zongnie of Dahui, Huiying, and Zijue, etc, focusing on his associations and interaction with those of his previous generation, those of his own generation and the following generation. The fourth section refers to his associations with such Jiangxi School Poets as Huang Tingjian, Han Ju, Xie Yi and Li Pang. The study shows that the associations with those poets contribute greatly to his poetry writing.The third chapter is a comprehensive study of Huihong's writing. The first section deals with the motives for him to keep permanent interest and enthusiasm in writing. It is demonstrated that he regarded writing as a means to defen...