在中古文献中，蛇、虎被认为是自然界两种最为主要的危险物种，分别居于沼泽和山林。随着人类活动的扩展，人与动物之间的冲突不断加剧。中古中国的僧人发展出新的教义、策略、仪式和叙事以处理给寺院和当地社区带来危险的蛇。这些新的教义、策略、仪式和叙事受到四种因素的影响和塑造，即人与动物之间的冲突、戒律规定与现实处理之间的冲突、男性僧侣与女性化的毒蛇之间的冲突、有组织的宗教与地方信仰之间的冲突。尽管早期佛教教义和戒律禁止佛教徒杀蛇，中古中国佛教徒发展出叙事和仪式以应对来自毒蛇的挑战，蛇被阴性化和妖魔化，这也由来自道教的刺激。佛道都将蛇视为武器，以保护寺产，免于外界侵扰。对这些因素的研究可以加深了解中古时期中国佛教对蛇的态度及其处理之变迁及其体现的宗教、社会历史现实。
In the medieval Chinese context，snakes and tigers were viewed as two dominant threatening animals in swamps and mountains. The animal-human confrontation increased with the expansion of human communities to the wilderness. Medieval Chinese Buddhists developed new discourses，strategies，rituals，and narratives for handling the snake issue that threatened both Buddhist and local communities. These new discourses，strategies，rituals，and narratives were shaped by four conflicts between humans and animals，between canonical rules and local justifications，between male monks and feminized snakes，and between organized religions and local cultic practice. Although early Buddhist monastic doctrines and disciplines prevented Buddhists from killing snakes，medieval Chinese Buddhists developed narratives and rituals for killing snakes for responding to the challenges from the discourses of feminizing and demonizing snakes as well as the competition from Daoism. In medieval China，both Buddhism and Daoism mobilized snakes as their weapons to protect their monastic property against the invasion from each other. This study aims to shed new light on the religious and socio-cultural implications of the evolving attitudes toward snakes and the methods of handling snakes in medieval Chinese Buddhism.
