The Research Of Su Shi’s Travel In Buddhist Temples And His Temple Poems

Su Shi is a combined litterateur in Chinese literature.He traveled around the country during his life,and everytime he arrived a new place,he must visit local famous mountains and temples.Su Shi has shown interest in Buddhism at a very young age,which made the foundation for the development and maturity of Buddhist meditation and affected his belief in life and literary creation.One of the expressions of Buddhism affection is his preference to temples.Taking the life circumstances as the vertical line and taking the temple space as the horizontal line,This thesis attempts to reconstruct the space-time situation of Su Shi’s works on the basis of poems written at temples.This will be helpful for us to discuss the development of Su Shi’s Buddhist thought,and be meaningful for the research of Su Shi.The research content of each chapter of this paper is summarized as follows.The introduction introduces the significance of this thesis and the related research review.Su Shi was fond of traveling,and his imprints on temples were various.The researchers’ study on the Northern Song Dynasty Buddhist temples and Su Shi were also showed a tendency of diversification.Presently,these researches can be divided three categories: study on Buddhist temples in the Northern Song Dynasty,study of Su Shi’s activities in temples,and the relationship between these activities and Su Shi’s poetry creation.Overall,the third aspect is relatively weak.So,this thesis determines research direction on the base of the research review above.Furthermore,in case of confusion,this paper gives a definition to temples,Buddhist temples,and poems about temples.The first chapter discusses the relationship between the temple culture and the literati in the Northern Song Dynasty.First,after summing up the development of Chinese Buddhist temples and the situation of places where Su Shi has visited,this thesis analyses the function of temples in the Northern Song Dynasty,such as festival activities,national Buddhist affairs,and citizen activities.From these activities,we can see the secularity of Buddhism has been constantly enhanced.Furthermore,men of letters in the Northern Song Dynasty are also interested in visiting the temples.Then,this paper illustrates the link of these temples and literati.They love the quiet and beautiful atmosphere in temples,admire the monks and take these visits as opportunities to pour out their hearts.The second chapter discusses Su Shi’s temple activities throughout his life.After selecting information like the Chronology of Su Shi,this chapter divides Su Shi’s temple experiences into five stages: pre-official career,official career in capital of the Northern Song Dynasty,official career in Hangzhou,banish from the court to Huangzhou and later official career.The evolution of Su Shi’s Buddhist thoughts reflected in these activities.Therefore,the third chapter sums up the four stages of the development of Su Shi’s Buddhist thought,and observes the development and changes of his thoughts.The forth chapter explores the various landscapes embodied in Su Shi’s temple poems.The reason of Su Shi’s temple activities,the mood when he arrived,and the views he saw in temples are various.However,the scenery involved in his temple poems can be divided into two categories: natural landscape and humanistic landscape.Through the appreciation and analysis of Su Shi’s temple poems,this paper introduces the natural landscapes such as peonies and bamboos,as well as the humanistic landscapes such as Buddhist pavilions and pagodas in his temple poems and explain the thoughts and feelings behind these landscapes.Meanwhile,this chapter also makes a brief analysis the wall-written poems with unique feature.In the conclusion part,the thesis makes a review of the research contents and clarifies the significance of the research,which are expected to provide valuable references for Su Shi’s research.