《六祖坛经》书名考述

On the Title of Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch

六祖惠能与韶州有缘,生在新州,得法黄梅,广州剃度,却在韶州弘法约40年,并在韶州创作了《六祖坛经》,这是中国的第一部佛教经典,也是禅宗的传法依约和根据。但它在一千多年的传播演变过程中,书名与作者发生过一些变化。这些变化反映了禅宗思想的发展演变,也是那个时代禅宗发展的需要。

The sixth patriarch Hui-neng was born in Shaozhou, obtained Buddhist doctrine in Huangmei and he had taken the tonsure in Guangzhou. He had promoted Buddhism in Shaozhou more than 40 years and finished the creation of Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, the first Buddhist Classical, which was also the Zen Buddhism＇s contract and base. In its spreading process of more than one thousand years, the. title of Sutra might have some changes, but the changes reflects the development and evolution of the Zen Buddhism＇s thought which met the needs of the Zen Buddhism.