中国佛教艺术研究中的文化观照与情境重构

Cultural Observation and Reconstruction of Contexts in the Research of Buddhist Art in China

佛教自传入中国之始,就与图像产生了亲密久远的关系。要真正理解一件佛教艺术品,必须将其放置到为之诞生、为之存在、为之消亡的社会文化背景中加以考察。在"文化"的视野下研究中国佛教艺术史,要警惕一个陷阱,即企图寻求整一的历史体系,用普遍的法则解释种种错综复杂的关系。只有从"情境"和"制像任务",而不是时代精神出发,才能获得对佛教艺术品更真切的认识。现代社会博物馆的兴盛与复制技术的进步增加了佛教艺术品的展示价值,但同时也可能伤害到它们的文化价值。因此,我们必须在将佛教艺术发展置于佛教史整体考察的同时,努力进行"文化"视野下佛教艺术品的"情境重构"。

Since its entry into China, Buddhism has gained an intimate relationship with images. The grasp of thespirits of a particular Buddhist art should be completed when that piece of art is put into the social and cultural background of its birth, existence and death. However, we have keep alert when studying the history of Buddhist art withinthe framework of ＂culture＂, namely, the intention to pursue an integrated historical system and the employment of a general rule for all complicated relationships. Only by ＂context＂ and ＂imaging task＂ instead of the spirit of the age can wehave an appropriate understanding of Buddhist art pieces. The prevalence of modern museums and the advancement of duplicating technology can enhance the displaying value of Buddhist art pieces, but can also decrease its cultural value.Therefore, we should reconstruct contexts for Buddhist art pieces within ＂cultural＂ field when probing into the developmentof Buddhist art.