Shcherbakov Y. Buddhist Motifs in Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) Drama.

This dissertation analyzes the main Chinese Buddhism motifs in Yuan era drama. The first chapter, "Buddhism influences in Yuan drama genesis and Yuan China ethno-cultural environment", is devoted to the theoretical questions of historical Buddhism influences to Yuan drama genesis. In the first section, "Buddhism doctrine core genesis", the main concepts of Buddhist philosophy (four noble truths, skandhas) are analyzed along with adaptations of Buddhist teaching in China (Han era Buddhist teaching, Chan and Pure land school influence, ancient Chinese and Buddhist culture mix as a result of Buddhist teachings' adaptation process). The second section, "Historiography of religious and Buddhist teachings' influences in Chinese and Western scholar research", reviews the works of Chinese (Wang Guowei, Zheng Zhendo, Beng Liao, Zhou Yude), European and American (Arlington. L. C., Brandon J. R., Buss K., Dolby W., Gottschall R., Johnson, D. R., Iakovleff A., Idem, l., West S. H, Kurlitz P.), and Russian (V. Sorokin, V. Maliavin, I.Gaida, S.Serova, V.Alekseev) scholars, through categorizing and systematizing the facts of Indian drama and Buddhist influences on zaju drama genesis process, which in Chinese literature studies is referred to as zhujushuo theory (the theory of Sanskrit influence to Chinese literature drama, first coined by Xu Dishan in 1925). According to zhujushuo, Yuan literature drama was developed under strong Buddhist and Indian drama influences.