Нарративные аспекты прошлой жизни (전생) в буддийских историях республики Корея и Шри-Ланки

4.3 Functions of the 'past birth' motif in Buddhist stories

In the Samgukyusa, some stories mention a character's previous life. The past life inserted in a Korean Buddhist story is given as a token to solve the present trouble.

In the Sri Lankan Buddhist stories, 'past birth' motif is used in order to explain the manner in which the Buddhist doctrine operates. In the Saddharmaratnvaliya, the characters' present acts of merit or demerit are always caused by good or bad actions in their previous life. The past life in Sri Lankan Buddhist stories is the sign of the strong intervention by the narrator. This is related with the fact that the Buddhist stories in Sri Lanka have performed the function of the dissemination of Buddhist values and doctrine.