Entertainment Ghost Singing - Hungry Ghost Festival In The Tang And Song Literature

The festival customs as essential existence in human society have been concerned in recent years. The study object of this thesis is for the Ghost Festival in literature of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. Hungry Ghost Festival was a prosperous festival in Chinese antiquity . Previous research on the Ghost Festival focused on the origins and introduction about customs. This thesis studies change and development of the Festival from Tang Dynasty to Song Dynasty by use of poetry, essay, notes, fiction and so on through the comparison method.Hungry Ghost Festival that absorbed the factors of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism developed and became a genuine folk festival in the Song Dynasty. The customs of many future generations can be traced back to that period. Hungry Ghost Festival reflects the development and changes of social systems, cultural values and so on. The Buddhist o-bon is quite popular in July 15 of Tang Dynasty. ZhongYuan Taoist Lent would have advantage of the Buddhist o-bon in the name of the festival and ZhongYuan Festival became the prevailing name of the festival. In the Song dynasty, Buddhism and Taoism were the two worship services on the folk activities of ancestor worship. The Festival was truly secular. This is also in line with the development trend of "three-one teaching", "the convergence of three religions". Custom content included the full moon, boatings, hanging lanterns, drifting lights in the river, opera concert besides holding a memorial ceremony for the dead.