The Pure-land sect and Zen sect, popular during the Tang Dynasty, are the most successful of all to be sinicized and secularized. The distinctions are its use of colloquial and vernacular language, and also the application of ballads familiar to the general public. The Tun-huang Manuscripts that carries records of Buddhism art and literature, such as 五更轉、the Twelve Hours 十二時、Homecoming 歸去來、Rugged Journey 行路難 etc., displays clearly the agile application of the Pure-land and the Zen sect of secular folklores to incarnate the mental state of philosophical realizations, and its being a convenient method to preach and propagate Buddhism teachings, and also the characteristics of an earthly Buddhism. This essay tends to expound panoramically the system, origin, frame and the celebrations of the Zen sect of the Tang Dynasty of the ballad 行路難, and also its applications and influences.
