Buddhist thought in Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s “Tozichun”

Ryunosuke Akutagawa is one of the representative writers of the “New Trend of Thought” in the Taisho literary circle. He shows humanity from multiple angles and aspects with a rational attitude, which makes the “New Trend of Thought” become one of the important literary schools and makes the Japanese literary circle full of vitality again. In addition, Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s works are deeply influenced by Buddhist thought. Most of his historical novels are based on Chinese and Japanese classical novels with rich Buddhist elements, which are reprocessed and re-created with originality, presenting a brand-new theme idea, reflecting the profound influence of Buddhist thought on the author’s writing style. By studying the Buddhist thoughts in Ryunosuke’s Du Zichun, this paper probes into the Buddhist thoughts embodied in his role shaping, story development and theme connotation. Through text analysis and literature reading, this paper discusses the Buddhist theory of “love false”, impermanence and karma. Through the analysis of the works, the author’s role shaping and writing style will be deepened. In addition, the cultural background of the Taisho period and the integration of eastern and Western thoughts and cultures will be discussed to deepen the understanding of Japanese literature and cultural changes during this period. At the same time, the application of Buddhist thoughts in literary works will provide a new perspective for the interdisciplinary study of literature and Buddhism.