| Tang Xianzu, the writer of Ming Dynasty, was devoted to “passion” all his life. His literary theory about “ the Most Genuine Passion” and his literary works about his unique passion is the treasure of Chinese literature. Tang Xianzu is the well-known Buddhist in late Ming Dynasty. He is the practitioner of Wild Zen, and he has close relationship with Buddhism. Based on the unity of Buddhism, the flourish of Lay Buddhism, Wang Yangming’s Psychology and the spread of the tide of Wild Zen, under the influence of the fashion of feelings, the paper aims at discussing the relationship between Buddhism in late Ming Dynasty and Tang Xianzu’s Unique Passion literary creation. Through the literature materials, the paper is trying to verify the profound causes of Buddhism in late Ming Dynasty and the Psychology of Mind to his “most Genuine Passion” view. The paper also interprets the Buddhist feelings and meaning in his Buddhist poetry, and studies the route of “passion of love”-“genuine passion”-“loss of passion”-“end of passion”and the final refuge of Buddhism for ending passion.Nowadays the study on Tang Xianzu’s letters and textual poetry is very limited. The research on the Buddhist influence on his Genuine Passion view and his Buddhism poetry is few. The paper attepmts to study the influence of Buddhism on his Genuine Passion literary creation by reading his letters, writings, poetry, drama, etc.The introduction states why the topic is chosen and proves the feasibility and value of this topic by the collection of the comprehensive research on Tang Xianzu,and Buddhism and literature in Late Ming Dynasty. At the same time, this part also states the study method and the outline of the paper.In Chapter one, the new tendency of Buddhism and the development of the literature in Late Ming Dynasty is introduced. Since Buddhism came into China, it has been devoted to its own development: in Han Dynasty, Buddhism used Taoism to explain itself. From Wei Dynasty, Jin Dynasty to Southern and Northern Dynasty, Metaphysics was combined with Buddhism. To Sui and Tang Dynasty, the Sinicized Buddhism---Zen was born. Different groups were established, Buddhism flourished. From Song Dynasty, three religions were combined and became mature and finally declined. In late Ming Dynasty, Buddhism revived awhile, Buddhism became comprehensive. Almost all scholars were talking about Zen. Zen also liked to contact with scholars, the lay Buddhism developed to its climax. Wang Yangming’s psychology of mind was the prominent subject in Ming Dynasty. Its observation of the mind was actually temperament ontology of Zen, thus it was called Yangming Zen. The left-wing psychology of mind and Zen further combined and developed to crazy Zen trend characterized by acting according to feeling and temper. The trend spread over the circle of thoughts in late Ming Dynasty. Therefore the Temperament literature which was characterized by seeking for sincerity, fitness, emotion and fleshliness occurred.In Chapter Two, the paper analyzes Tang Xianzu’s the Most Genuine Passion thought in his letters and books, discusses the inner connection between his passion thought and Buddhism. Through his letters and works, his pursuit of Buddhism and pure enlightenment, his tough life between his worldly life and Buddhist life were talked about. Tai Zhou School is one of the branches of Yangming psychology of mind, and it is also the main scene of the crazy Zen. Tang Xianzu, as the disciple of Luo Rufang, his thought was also deeply influenced by the key figure---Li Zhi, therefore Tang Xianzu was the decedent of Tai Zhou School, he was regarded as the member of the crazy Zen. The crazy Zen was greatly concerned with mind and life. Tang Xianzu used his sincerity to practice life and exert perfect politics, finally formed his literary theory of the Most Genuine Passion. The passion advocated by Tang Xianzu is the natural emotion, using which to write works, so as to achieve the interest and moral. Tang Xianzu further discussed that sense can create world. His passion theory has been out of the perceptual emotion, and became the eternal ontology of Buddhism.In Chapter Three, Tang Xianzu’s Buddhist poetry is discussed. He advocated the idea that emotion can create poetry. His Buddhist poetry contains his mercy toward the ordinary people, his friendship with monks and Zenists, his love toward children in his dreams etc. He wrote a large number of Buddhist poetry, which recorded the process of how he met with Buddhism, study it, observe the world and clarify his conscience. His scenic poems revealed his experiences of spending good days and no worries. In artistic techniques, these poem were flexible and interesting, its writing is smooth and symbolic. The poems had got the essence of Zen.Chapter Four has discussed the dream, consciousness, sense and Buddhism. In Buddhism the dream was usually used to compare to the worldly reality and the worldly rules and the dreams were used to predict the effective dreams. There were four dreams in Tang Xianzu’s life. In Legends of Purple Hairpin, the dreams were only a hint. In The Peony Pavillion, the dreams occupied a little, but they could determine the plot development. In The Southern Tributary State and The Handan Dream, the plot was full of dreams. When woke up, everything had become empty. During the four dreams, Xiaoyu’s unreasoning passion caused her to die; Liniang’s unique passion made her both live and die. When Chuyu and Lusheng’s passion ended, they have difficulty in breaking up, with the aid of wiser, they finally got rid of the trap of love and turned to Zen.In the conclusion part, the paper summarizes the influence and function of Buddhism and psychology of mind and the crazy Zen on the literature and Tang Xianzu’s thought. It generally explodes the association between his Most Genuine Passion theory and Buddhism and the feelings in his Buddhist poetry. It clearly states the love patter in his drama and its final direction. In short, this part reveals the influence of Buddhism toward Tang Xianzu’s literary creation. |
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