The Differences and Reasons of Religious Influences on Chinese and Western Dramas

The origin of both Chinese and western drama has close relationship with religions. At the beginning of middle ages, however, the Buddhism and Christianity affected the development of Chinese and western drama in China and western countries respectively. This paper analyzes the great influences of Buddhism and Christianity on the process and themes of Chinese and western drama from middle ages, and discusses the reasons of different development process and themes caused by Buddhism and Christianity through the analysis of two different doctrines and the penetrating styles in civil. There are many differences between the Chinese and western dramas, one of which is the description of ghost. In Chinese drama, the ghosts would be involved in the events of the real world, and the in the western drama, one rarely finds the ghost returns to the real world under the influence of the Christianity. The belief in the Buddhism in China is often utilitarian, so the drama under the influence of the Buddhism seldom has the consciousness of transcendence, which is contrary to the western drama.