中國明末的佛教界達到了極其活潑的時代。然而，這晚明的同時又出現了暴露、批評或揶揄僧侶惡行的大量所謂的「惡僧小說」。「惡僧」的「惡」，可以整理成兩大類。第一是如殺人、強姦、拐帶等等明明確確的犯罪。第二是違反僧侶世界內的法律的行為，也就是所謂的破戒。 關於真正的犯罪有幾種情況。僧侶個人的犯罪，如《龍圖公案》卷一〈阿彌陀佛講和〉， 一個叫街的和尚殺死女人；佛寺集團的犯罪，如馮夢龍《醒世恆言》卷二十一，寶華寺住持悟石知道借宿的考生們有錢，將他們一行四十人灌醉後殺死；或如《醒世恆言》巻三十九，圍繞求子的犯罪。此外，尼姑庵往往成為私會的場所，而尼姑中介男女約會，如《古今小說》卷四。 關於破戒，〈三言〉中的《古今小說》卷二十九、《古今小說》第三十卷等都是和尚破戒的故事。有些明代小說中，正面描述破戒僧的行為，如《水滸傳》裡的魯智深。從前殺人、喝酒、喫肉、大鬧的魯智深最後聽了浙江潮聲而大悟圓寂。作為一介和尚，魯智深可說是個真正成功者。 晚明出現大批「惡僧小說」的原因：就在白話小說剛剛成立，開始流行的時代的嘉靖年間，宮廷中有排佛的風氣（嘉靖帝崇祀道教）。可能這風氣影響到民間。

Abstract The Late Ming period saw a flourishing of Buddhism in China. However, at the same time not a few “Evil Buddhist monk stories” were written and published. The “evildoing” of the monks may be classified into two categories. The first is a real crime such as murder, rape, abduction and so on. The second is a violation of the commandments within the world of Buddhist monks. Real crimes portrayed included a wide range of situations: (1) monks' personal crimes such as a monk’s murder of a woman seen in Longtu gong’an; (2) group violence in temples such as the story in Feng Menglong’s Xingshi hengyan, juan 21 of monks in Baohua temple, who, knowing that candidates for the civil service examinations staying at the temple had lots of money, killed forty candidates; (3) cases of Buddhist monks raping women who stayed in the temple to pray for a child, such as the story in Xingshi hengyan, juan 39. In addition, the nunnery often became a private meeting place, and the nuns mediated between lovers. In some of the late Ming fiction, monks who violated the commandments were cast in a positive light. Lu Zhishen in Shuihu zhuan is a good example. Lu Zhishen murdered, ate meat, drank wine, and rampaged around. But at the end of the story, while listening to the sound of the tide of the Zhejiang River, he attained enlightenment and passed away peacefully. It means that Lu Zhishen was successful as a Buddhist monk. One of the reasons why so many “evil Buddhist monk stories” were written in the late Ming may be connected with the persecution of Buddhism by the Emperor Jiajing, who worshiped Taoism.