Research On Eulogy Of Portrait For The Patriarch Of Zen

Buddhism has great effect on the Chinese traditional literary forms after it was introduced to China; Eulogy of portrait is one of the results of the reaction between Buddhism and Chinese literature. For the eulogy of portrait has relations with Buddhist music, painting and architecture, it has multiple values of research for stylistics, art, sociology, etc. Eulogy of portrait belongs to eulogy of Buddhism, which is mostly used to eulogize the characters or stories in Buddhism, while the eulogy of portrait for the patriarch of Zen is mainly to eulogize the stories of his life or thoughts. The Bodhidharma shall be the center of this thesis, based on the whole exploration of the Dharma’s eulogy of portrait of patriarch, it tells patriarch’s image built by the eulogy of portrait for the patriarch of Zen, which is probed with three parts in this thesis:first, Buddhist factors of eulogy of portrait development, which is expressed with Gatha, Buddhist chants and paintings of Zen; second, it tells the family tradition of Zen and Zen master’s attitude to the eulogy of portrait, as well as effects on the features of Zen eulogy of portrait taken by the family tradition, furthermore, it expresses the use of eulogy of portrait in the Zen ceremonies; third, by comparing the development of patriarch’s image in portrait, historical biography and eulogy of portrait, it summaries the image-built of patriarch by the eulogy of portrait further.