英文摘要 |
Frequently associated with “hun” (spiritual soul), “po” (bodily soul) are mostly used to refer to ghosts and thus overlooked by people. The Chinese character po was in fact derived from the moon phase, and the fact that this character refers to the shadowy part of the moon, laid the foundation for later development of the “hun-po concept.” The Han Dynasty instilled ethical and moral meanings in “po” to constitute a collective subconsciousness in the wait for the Buddhist reincarnation, which accelerated the incorporation of Buddhism into Chinese ideology. However, this transformation of meaning also gradually stripped away the primitive form–matter implication of “po.” The form– spirit dispute triggered by the introduction of Buddhism into China gradually led to the withdrawal of “po” from the form–spirit relationship discourse. Examining the evolution of primitive Chinese vocabularies comprising the character “po” assists researchers in determining the inner logic as to how Buddhism was introduced into China in such a short amount of time. |