日本古代小说的佛学烙印与文化成因

Effect of Buddhist Awareness on Ancient Japanese Fictions and Culture Cause

日本古代小说大都具有浓郁的佛学色彩,净土、无常、果报是最典型的三个侧面。净土思想是日本佛教的主流且具有明显的现世特征:平安物语的净土信仰成为救赎宫廷贵族脱离苦难的精神支柱;中世战记物语的净土信仰多与死亡紧密相连,成为对战乱中人们渴求来世幸福的终极关怀。无常是日本小说尤其是中世物语中最浓墨重彩的一笔,无常既是对人间永无常住的感性叹息,也是对盛者必衰社会法则的理论解释,更成为武家社会切身感受的"生死观"。因果报应思想贯穿日本小说史的始终,它与宿世、轮回、转生等观念互为表里,成为孕育日本怪异小说流行的土壤之一,并表现出与儒家劝惩观念相结合的世俗化趋势。

Buddhist awareness had a large influence on ancient Japanese fictions, the Pure Land, Anicca and Karma are three most typical aspects. The Pure Land belief is the mainstream of Japanese Buddhism with obvious characteristics of ＂this life＂. In Heian tales, Pure Land becomes spiritual support to redeem people from the suffering. In Middle - Age war tales, Pure Land belief is closely linked with death, as people＇ s ultimate concern for a happy afterlife in war turmoil. Anicca, an important factor in Middle -Age war tales, is not only a perceptual sigh for impermanent human lives but also theoretically explains the social law, that is to say,＂when a thing reaches its extreme, it reverses its course＂, what＇ s more, it becomes warriers views of life and death stemmed from personal experiences. The history of Japanese fictions is permeated with the thought of Karma. Karma, Samsara, Reincarnation and other Buddhism factors bred Japanese popular teratology. These teratologies shows a trend to combine with the Confucian viewpoint of encouraging virtue and punishing evils.