试论萧瑀三女的出家原因

On the Causes of Xiao Yu's Three Girls Becoming Buddhist Nuns

岑仲勉先生曾在其《金石证史》之"萧瑀佞佛"一节中介绍过萧瑀三女这三位比丘尼,但颇为简略,缺乏对于她们出家修行的详细考察[1].爱宕元先生曾集中研究过萧瑀及其家族其他成员的佛教信仰、佛学造诣以及与高僧的交往关系,但对于萧瑀三女的表述十分简略,并没有深入探讨[2].除此之外,李玉珍先生也曾考察过出家的萧瑀三女,认为法乐三岁出家很有可能只是挂名寺中,或像隋文帝那样在七岁以前由比丘尼智仙抚养于家寺.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty,Prime Minister Xiao Yu’s three daughters became Buddhist nuns whose religious names were:Fale,Fayuan,and Fadeng.By analyzing the similarities and differences recorded in their epitaphs,this paper found that the influence from politics and family was the key factor made them nuns.Fayuan became nuns under the influence of family Buddhism tradition while Fayue and Fadeng became nuns driven by their political backgrounds and parents’wishes.Different intentions directly led to the difference in the attitudes and achievements of the three people as nuns.For the nuns who were born in the eminent family clans in the Middle Ages,some of them were not entirely motivated by passions for Buddhism practice.This fact might become a new perspective for us to understand the Buddhism nuns in the Tang Dynasty.