東晉南朝的《小品》般若信仰——以《世說新語》與《冥祥記》為中心= Faith in The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines During Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties: An Analysis Centering on A New Account of the Tales of the World and Legend of Buddhist Efficacy
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines enjoyed great popularity and attention in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. It had been translated into different versions and had great impacts upon the society. In A New Account of the Tales of the World, we see that The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines was regarded as a great classic of buddhist tenets, respected by people then because of its exegesis of buddhist teachings. It was spread through monks and scholars’ discussions of buddhist teachings on various conferences. On the other hand, Legend of Buddhist Efficacy, a book to teach and assist the spread of buddhist tenets, records The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines’s exaltation and spread of various worldly virtues through the telling of stories that occur in ordinary people’s everyday life. The different ways for The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines to spread buddhist teachings among social elites and common people manifest the different strategies adopted by buddhist culture to popularize its teachings among different groups of people.