佛教发展与西游故事之流衍

Development of Buddhism and Spread of the Story of the Journey to the West

汉至唐 50 0余年间 ,以西域僧携经东传为主流 ,自玄奘始 ,形成了唐代“西行求法之运动”。《高僧传》对早期中国僧西行求法的叙写影响了《慈恩传》的叙写 ,从而在一定程度上影响了西游故事的发展走向。六朝至唐佛教信仰的变迁 ,决定了西游故事中弥勒的信仰和消隐、毗沙门天作为主要护法神的短暂出现以及最终以观音独擅其场。唐五代寺院俗讲等形式使西游故事出现神魔化倾向 ,宋、元、明佛教民俗化给西游故事的发展带来了广阔的空间。

The 500 years from the Han to the Tang Dynasties witness a general trend of Buddhists in west Asia to spread Buddhist Sutra to the East. Starting from Xuan Zang, however, there emerged a movement of going to the west to seek Buddhist learnings. The narration on Chinese Buddhists' going west to seek Buddhist learning in the Biography of Gao Seng affected the narration of the Biography of Ci En which, in turn, influenced the development of the story of the journey to the west. Changes of Buddhist beliefs from the Six Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty gave birth to the belief and incredulity on Maitreya, the brief appearance of Vaisravana deva as the main god protecting the Buddhist theory, and the final belief on Guanyin alone. Such literary forms as the vernacular narration in monasteries during the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties added the tendency of deification to the story of the journey to the west. Another general trend of Making Buddhism the folk custom during the Song,Yuan, and Ming Dynasties opened up boundless broad space for the development of the story of the journey to the west.