Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2016

 

The New Spiritual Factors and Artistic Exploration of Chinese Buddhist Anti-Japanese War Literature

(Abstract)

 

Tan Guilin

 

The Buddhist anti-Japanese war literature in modern China was a phenomenon with special meanings in the history of literature occurring in a special time. Fostered by the spirit of resistance against Japanese aggression, this kind literature, through its inheritance and sublation of the tradition of Chinese Buddhist literature, brought on new ideological factors and a new developmental trend to Chinese Buddhist literature in modern times. Regarding the expression of themes, it combined the national consciousness of modern Buddhists with the ethos of Way of the Bodhisattva in traditional Buddhism; with respect to the life experience of individuals, it responded to times, creatively developing Buddhist conceptions and consciously infusing modernity into them; as for the identity of social roles, it took the form of art to consciously and voluntarily undertake the cultural strategy of the country in wartime; and in terms of the mode of artistic production, it had greatly increased the proportion of layman writers and the modernization of expression modes. These new factors and trends were not mature or perfect enough, but they provided an unnegligible angle for academia to completely and deeply understand and estimate the role and contributions of Chinese anti-Japanese war literature to the national war of resistance, and are profoundly inspiring to the revival and development of contemporary Chinese Buddhist literature.