Study On The Literariness Of Platform Sutra

As the only one that is designated as"sutra"of Buddhist works in China,the value of Platform Sutra has long been recognized by Chinese and foreign experts who study Buddhist. The study on Platform Sutra attracts a wide arrange of attentions from different fields, and great progresses have been made. However, most scholars focused on the philosophy thoughts, version and the author of Platform Sutra, few studied it from a literary view. Therefore, the article tries to study Platform Sutra from a literary perspective. Based on the previous literary research ideas on Buddhism, the thesis will analyze Platform Sutra’s literariness detailedly from three aspects:stylistic characteristics, rhetoric and character image. Besides, through the comparison to different versions of Platform Sutra, the paper expounds the important role that literature played in Zen spreading process and clarifies its literary value and meaning.