Research On Official Buddhist Rain-preying Rituals And Ritual Texts Of The Song Dynasty

In the Song Dynasty,due to the central government’s support for Buddhism,Buddhism experienced a rapid development of sutra translation,monk’s population and temple economy.Buddhist rituals also became enriched and formalized,involving every aspect of life.Rain-praying rituals were one type of these Buddhist rituals.This dissertation focuses on official Buddhist rain-praying ceremony held by Song government,and explores classics and methods used in ceremony,as well as host places and ritual text such as Zhai text,Shu text,Bang text,Die text,Ji text and Zhu text.This thesis mainly involves the following three parts:1.The first part centers on the Buddhist rain-praying ceremony inside the palace recorded in Cantiantai-wutaishanji in the third year of Xining(A.D.1073),and analyzes the Buddhist scriptures,mantras and methods used by prayers in the rain ceremony.Besides,this part also explores the main host places for Inside-palace Buddhist rain-praying ceremony in the Song dynasty.2.Basing on ritual text of official Buddhist rain-praying ceremonies,this part makes research about the content,structure,the process of composition and the application of Buddhist rain-praying Zhai text and Shu text.3.The third part explores the other four types of Buddhist rain-praying rituals text beside Zhai text and Shu text,respectively,Bang text,Die text,Ji text and Zhu text.