汪曾祺高二時為了躲避日軍侵略，隨家人到鄉下小廟住了半年，〈廟與僧〉及〈受戒〉的創作素材即源自這段特殊的生活經驗。1946年寫成的〈廟與僧〉，對這些吃肉、打牌，甚至娶妻生子的和尚並沒有太多肯定。1980 年創作的〈受戒〉則細說家鄉出和尚的風俗，強化這些和尚的「職業」屬性，汪曾祺從世俗社會的角度，描寫「吃菩薩飯」的「職業」和尚，他們具有人性而缺少佛性，其實並不算壞人，且由小和尚明海和小英子的戀愛，展現人性美好的一面。文革甫結束，猶是乍暖還寒的時節，汪曾祺的〈受戒〉卻以舊社會為背景，寫小和尚與村姑的戀愛，迥異於當時盛行的傷痕文學。汪曾祺曾表示：「〈受戒〉主要想說明人是不能受壓抑的，反而應當發掘人身上美的，詩意的東西，肯定人的價值，我寫人性的解放。」以舊時代的故事迂迴的表達對新時代的看法，或許是在政治上飽受波折的汪曾祺抒發心靈傷痕的方式。阿城認為〈受戒〉是「中國大陸八○年代開始有世俗之眼的作品」，沒有工農兵氣，是個「怪物」。在強調反映重大主題，揭露社會弊端的文壇，〈受戒〉有如一股清風，輕輕吹過習於政治戒律的文壇，其信馬由韁的筆法，令許多人訝異小說也可以這樣寫。〈受戒〉得到了溫暖的回應，讓汪曾祺找到重登文壇的道路，也鼓舞了後來者多元嘗試的信心。

In the second year of high school, Wang Zeng-Qi went with his family to live in a small temple in a rural area to avoid the Japanese military invasion."Temple and Monk" and "Initiation into Monkhood" both originated from this unique experience."Temple and Monk", completed in 1946, does not have much approval for monks who ate meat, played cards, or even married and had children."Initiation into Monkhood", written in 1980, is a detailed account of monks who left their homes, and emphasized the professional character of these monks. Wang Zeng-Qi used a worldly perspective to describe the professional monks who were fed by Bodhisattvas. They had humanity, but not the Buddha character; yet, they were not really bad people, either. The love between young monk Minghai and Xiao Yingzi also presented a beautiful aspect of humanity.A while after the Cultural Revolution's end, just as things were beginning to return to life, Wang Zeng-Qi's "Initiation into Monkhood" used the old society as a backdrop for depicting the love between a young monk and a village girl, which was very different from the scar literature of the time. Wang Zeng-Qi once stated: "Initiation into Monkhood primarily seeks to explain that people cannot be repressed. So we should try to discover the beautiful and poetic things from people, and to affirm the value of people. I write about the liberation of humanity". To use the subtle stories of an older time to express opinions on the new times was perhaps one way for the politically-weathered Wang Zeng-Qi to cope with his spiritual scars.A Cheng believed that "Initiation into Monkhood" is a work that "begins to have eyes for the common world in the 80s in China". It did not have the air of workers, farmers, or soldiers, and was a strange creature. In the literary world that emphasized the reflection of significant themes and disclosing problems of society, "Initiation into Monkhood" was like a breeze that blew lightly over a literary world that was accustomed to political restraint. His liberal writing surprised many people on how novels could be written. "Initiation into Monkhood" found a warm audience, and allowed Wang Zeng-Qi to find a path to back to the literary world, and encouraged later writers in an attempt for diversity.