“惡王”傳説——“法滅故事”諸版本的時代綫索

Legends of“Evil Kings”:The Order Clue of 12“Extinction of Dharma”Buddhist Literatures

一、引言所謂“法滅故事”,是指印度佛教認爲:在佛滅之後若干年,會發生佛法在世間的徹底消亡;預言中這一悲劇的發生地,是在恒河流域“中國”之地的憍賞彌國,此即“憍賞彌國法滅故事”。在憍賞彌國最終發生“法滅”之前,還有一個重要的前奏,即憍賞彌國國王擊敗了入侵印度的幾位外國國王。在不同的“法滅”故事版本中,漢譯版本通常稱他們是“惡王”或“夷王”;本文所謂的“惡王”,就是指這些在“法滅故事”中作爲憍賞彌國國王敵對勢力的異族入侵者。他們主要從北、西、南三方(只有一個版本説是從東、南、西、北四方)入侵印度,破壞塔寺,殺戮僧徒。

In the Indian Buddhist prophecy,there would be a proemial scene before the final result of the“extinction of Dharma”,that the King of Kausambi who believed Buddhism would have defeated and killed other three or four evil Kings who destroyed the Buddhism.Étienne Lammote and Jan Nattier have studied the basic literatures focused on this Buddhist prophecy.But they couldn,t agree with each other on some basic ideas,such as which literature would be the earliest one in more than 10 kinds of different languages Buddhist literatures.Lammote suggested that the MahavibhaSa,while Nattier believed that Prophecy of Kātyāyana would have been the earliest one.But they didn,t give us the sufficient evidences to prove their ideas.They had noticed that the“Evil Kings”images were made by the authors based on the historical events of the foreign Kings who had invaded northwest India areas.There were many different ethnic groups of the foreign Kings invasion events in ancient Indian history.The Empire of Persia and the Great Alexander,the Empire of Kushan and Kingdom of Hephthalites,who had indeed invaded into northwest India while they hadn,t been called“evil King”.While the Yavanas,Sakas,and Pahlavas had been recognized the stereotyped version of“evil Kings”.Why these kings?Not those kings?In this paper,I hope I can observe 12 versions of“Evil Kings”,and find a clue of the orders of these different language literatures.This work will be a basic prepare for the topic on the Indian Buddhist prophecy of Extinction of Dharma.