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Literary Portrayals Of Religious Awakening Through Suffering And Loss - Buddhist, Daoist, And Christian Perspectives, Robert Canning

Masters Theses

The focus of this study is on portrayals of religious awakening in four short works of literature: a Chinese play, two Chinese short stories, and an American short story. In all of these works, the protagonists attain religious awakening, but only do so because they experience suffering and loss.

The experience of suffering and loss in these works helps to bring about the protagonists’ willingness to leave the worldly life. This is because the experience of suffering and loss clears the minds of the protagonists and helps them to realize the bitter nature of worldly existence.

In addition, these works …

Buddhist Depiction Of Life In The Verse Of The Tang Dynasty Poet Han Shan, Sijia Niu

Masters Theses

The present works of reading Chinese poetry offers a biographic reading method, but it cannot fit for reading Han Shan’s poetry, as he had unclear recording in history. Focused on exploring the persona and religion in Han Shan’s poetry world, I examine reading Han Shan’s poems in Buddhist way. Chapter 1 provides the biography of Han Shan, and presents his vernacular expression as different from other poets in history. Chapter 2 introduces some new methods on reading poetry brought up by some literature critics. Chapter 3 presents the Buddhist reading method that I have adopted to read and understand Han …