“青莲居士”由来考辨

A Discriminative Investigation of the Origin of "Buddhist Qinglian"

由于唐宋两代的典籍中,绵州只有“清廉乡”之称,而无“青莲乡”之记载,故谓李白以居地“青莲乡”为号是没有根据的。李白号青莲居士是因李白居住在绵州彰明县青莲乡的说法始于明代的杨慎,乃其个人之臆断。实际上,“青莲”是一个包含佛理的名词,是佛教中很重要的一个意象,在《全唐诗》和《全唐文》中,该词绝大多数都与表达佛教意义的内涵有关。熟悉佛教的李白,是感兴趣于“青莲”一词的佛理内涵而以之为号的。

The saying that Li Bai got his sobriquet after Qinglian Village, his place of residence, is believed to be groundless because, in the records of classics in the Tang and the Song Dynasty, Jinzhou, Li Bai＇s place of residence, was known only as ＂Village of Honesty and Uprightness＂ but not as ＂Qinglian Village＂. This saying was contributed by Yang Shen, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty, who insisted in his opinion that Li Bai chose Buddhist Qinglian as his sobriquet because he came from Qinglian Village in Zhangming county, Jinzhou. In fact, ＂Qinglian＂ contains some Buddhist sense and associates with an important Buddhist image, which was mostly used in relation to Buddhist sense in ＂The Complete Collection of the Tang Poetry＂ and ＂The Complete Collection of the Tang Works＂. It is just because of the word＇ s Buddhist sense that Li Bai chose ＂Buddhist Qinglian＂ as his sobriquet.