宗教与文学之间:愿文、僧传及志怪中的往生想象

Buddhism and Literature: Death Image from Prayer Manuscripts, Biographies of Monks and Buddhist Miracle Tales

用于"七七斋"仪式祝愿的文书承载着一种对亡灵转生的良好祝愿,显示出与西方净土信仰的密切联系.它们以文学为表现形式,传达汉传佛教对往生的想象。与之相似,僧传与志怪小说也传达着各自关于往生的想象,修为高深者直升天界,而凡俗之人则需要进入被称为"中阴"的过渡期,等待冥官依据其生前作为判断出罪福,而后再定转生的去向。三种文体表达了对同样的对象的想象,尽管其创作意图并不相同,在客观上却因信仰的传递产生了关联。

Some manuscripts from Dunhuang had been attested to be used at funeral rituals. They convey good wishes to death as well as describe images of death, by what way revealing the relationship between the texts and the belief in western pure land. Similarly, in biographies of monks and Buddhist miracle tales, there are descriptions about death, in which people of high cultivation may directly go to the heaven, while mediocrities may step into a transitional period of Zhongyin, waiting for subsequent judgments of their final destination based on their sins and merits. Though the three categories of the texts, prayer manuscripts, biographies and Buddhist miracle tales were invented and composed for varied purposes, they were finally connected while Buddhist beliefs spread.