信仰与史实的统一——慧皎《高僧传》叙事分析

Unity of Belief and History: Narrative Analysis of Stories of Dignitary Monks

该文从叙事学的角度对慧皎《高僧传》的文学性进行分析,认为慧皎善于抓住表现人物内心情感的细节,运用各种叙事手法,突出人物的性格特征,避免了人物形象的脸谱化与单一性。《高僧传》将神异情节放置在历史背景之中进行叙事,体现了作者努力使僧传与史传取得平衡,使信仰与史实得到统一的良苦用心。佛教生死观念的特殊性,使《高僧传》叙事存在某种内在的形式规则,主要表现在传中的人物结局往往呈开放式状态,造成了一种与史传迥然不同的美学特征。

From the perspective of narrative,this paper analyzes the literary characteristics of Stories of Dignitary Monks written by Huijiao.Huijiao tactfully manipulates the details expressing the profound emotions of the personages,and employs various narratives to give prominence to their characters,thus avoiding the simplification of the personages.The magical plots narrated in the historical background show that the author makes efforts to balance between the stories of monks and history,and to unify religious belief and history.The depictions of images of dignitary monks in Art Volume of History of Jin Dynasty(Jin Shu) are influenced by the narrative technique of Stories of Dignitary Monks,which provides its literary characteristics.The particularity of the Buddhist conceptions of life and death endows Stories of Dignitary Monks with some intrinsic narrative rules.The end of the personages is in an open-ended state,which make it different from history in aesthetic features.