Abstract:
During the Ming and the Qing Dynasty, the Buddhist doctrine was gradually popularized and became the public norm of society. Under the influence of this social trend, the image of Baogong both in fiction and in plays was obviously trimmed by Buddhism. The earliest attempt of this practice was to re-portray Baogong into the King of Hell, a most popular Buddhist image. Then under the influence of the Buddhist ethic of “law of cause and effect”, stories of Baogong involved large quantities of “retributive” narration usually with attempt of moral “admonishment”. Again, influenced by Buddhist salvaging stories, a travel to the hell was added to Baogong's stories. Baogong's witness of various terrifying retributions and the King of Hell's trial of cases was intended to imply the manifestation of “heavenly law”. However, it expressed the superempirical essence of justice more convincingly for the trial in the hell was associated with Buddhist view of practice and Confucianist view of destiny.
