A Study Of Song Lian’s Buddhist Literature

Song Lian was not only the leader of literary circles and ministers in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty,but also a strong Buddhist practitioner.He created a large number of Buddhist-related articles with both literary and historical values.Through the study of Song Lian and his Buddhist works,we can further understand the blending of Confucianism and Buddhism at the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Yuan Dynasty,as well as the living conditions of monks in this situation.Taking Song Lian as a case,we will discuss the efforts and achievements made by Song Lian in the long course of the blending development of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism in Chinese culture.Based on more than 200 Buddhist essays written by Song Lian,this paper explores the ideological connotation of Song Lian’s Buddhist essays through the study of their chances and activities,and analyses the classification and artistic features of Song Lian’s Buddhist essays,so as to verify the value of Song Lian’s Buddhist essays.Among all Song Lian’s works,about one tenth of them are Buddhist,which is a considerable proportion in the creation of ancient Chinese literati.Song Lian’s Buddhist-related writings are closely related to Huang Jin’s,and influenced by Liu Guan,Wu Lai,Wei Su,Zhu Yuanzhang and others.His Buddhist-related writings are mostly about memorizing,praising,preface and inscriptions on pagodas.From this,we can explore the Buddhist thought of combining Confucianism with Buddhism and Buddhism.Song Lian’s Buddhist-related prose has further opened the boundary between the jungle and the literary world and widened the road between the jungle and the political world,and his writing attitude of credit-seeking documentary provided valuable historical materials for the compilation of the history of monks in Ming and Qing Dynasties.