The Study Of Women Zen-Buddhist Writings During Late Ming And Early Qing Dynasties

Female writing had been flourished during late Ming and early Qing dynasties.At the same period,Zen Buddhism became increasingly popular,which even extended its influence into inner-quarters.Besides,worshiping Buddha has been some sort of traditional preference for women from ancient times.Therefore,it is natural for women writers to depict behaviors and thoughts concerning Buddhism in their works.The extension of room for practicing Buddhism,the rise of women’s status and the prosperous publishment of women’s works help constituting such writing trends.Anthology compilation,writing contents and social identity of writers serve as three different perspectives for us to explore Zen-Buddhist writings of women in late Ming and early Qing dynasties.To start with,from the perspective of compiling women anthologies,we can find that several compilers in late Ming and early Qing dynasties paid attention to women’s Zen-Buddhist writings,besides,some titles of women’s individual anthologies during this period contained Buddhist elements.The case of Wang Duanshu deserves further explorations.Both as compiler and women writer,when compiling Ming Yuan Shi Wei(《名媛诗纬》),she kept a watch eye on Zen-Buddhist writings as well as their writers,furthermore,she made a groundbreaking effort in setting category of nun’s works(缁集)in the anthology.Such perspective provides a glimpse of the overall features of women Zen-Buddhist writings during late Ming and early Qing dynasties.Besides,from the perspective of contents of women’s Zen-Buddhist writings,we can acquire new achievements.Firstly,women would like to depict their Zen life in related writings.Based on their activity space,these works can be divided into three kinds,one concerning inner-quarters,one referring to temples in outer space,one showing correspondence between ladies and nuns.Secondly,some Buddhist writings of women in late Ming and early Qing dynasties also present writers’ Zen meditation when they faced life and death.In these works,words like "affection","sorrow","dream" and "Zen" emerged repeatedly,creating an atmosphere with deep affection and sentiment.Such atmosphere derives from the common image of "ill-fated talented women" since late Ming dynasty and the popular thought of laying emphasis on affection and Zen Buddhism.The works of women in Ye family in Wujiang are typical for us to read.Last but not least,from the perspective of different writers,we can further shed light on the Zen-Buddhist writing of women during late Ming and early Qing dynasty.For instance,at this period,female Chan masters left us number of works,seven of which had their anas(语录)in Jiaxing Tripitaka.The Zen-Buddhist poems in their anas constitute an significant part in women writing in this period.These Zen-Buddhist poems can be divided into three main kind,namely,exchanged poems,scenery poems and enlightened poems.To sum up,this article takes writers with different social identities into consideration,and then reads Buddhist works writing by women in late Ming and early Qing dynasties from shallow to deep.While studying typical writers and their works,it also cares about less popular ones with a few works handed down.By means of the above perspectives and methods,this article devotes itself to presenting the overall features of women Zen-Buddhist writings during late Ming and early Qing dynasties.