“白莲教”质疑:无时不在抑或子虚乌有

The “White Lotus”: A Historical Religious Sect or Something That Never Existed?

"白莲教"之有无,原本无人怀疑,但细加推敲,历史上确实有过"白莲教"这一教派吗?则令人难以回答。以杨讷为代表的传统观点认为,"白莲教"是一个统一的教派名称或是一个通称,虽然在具体表述上存在诸多差异,但总体上认可中国历史上存在"白莲教(派)"。专攻民间宗教史的马西沙否定明清时期存在"白莲教",认为真正的"白莲教"只存在于元代。荷兰学者田海(Barend ter Haar)分析了自宋至清这一长时段中"白莲教"一词的语义变迁,认为历史上并不存在一个所谓的"白莲教";宋元时期存在具有积极意义的"白莲传统",在16世纪时被一种新出现的贬义性标签--"白莲教"所掩盖,这一标签成为政府和文人实施宗教迫害的依据,进而也被一般民众所接受。通过辨别传统的、新出的相关观点,可得出结论:如果说历史上确有白莲教的话,那是专指南宋茅子元创立的白莲宗,属于佛教净土系统;后世意义上的"白莲教",乃明清王朝对于各种主要含有弥勒救世思想的民间教派的攻讦之词,或曰标签性用语;同时,由于传统惯性的原因,用"白莲教"指称那些具有融合白莲宗、摩尼教与弥勒信仰等宗教教义,后来又糅合佛、道、巫术内容(如扶乩)的民间教派未尝不可,但要注意区分"标签"与"史实"、宏观与个案之间的差距。

Few seemed to have doubted the existence of the "White Lotus"(bailianjiao) as a religious school, but did there really exist such a sect in Chinese history? It is hard to answer. According to the traditional view represented by Yang Na, "bailianjiao" is a unified denomination name or a general name. Despite the many different names, the traditional view generally recognizes the existence of "bailianjiao" in Chinese history. Ma Xisha, who specialized in the history of Chinese folk religion, denied the existence of "bailianjiao" in the Ming and Qing dynasties, believing that it only existed in the Yuan dynasty. Barend ter Haar, a Dutch scholar, after analyzing the semantic change of the word "bailianjiao" in the long period from Song dynasty to Qing dynasty, claimed that there was no so-called "bailianjiao" in history. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, there was a positive "White Lotus tradition", which was covered up by a new derogatory label-"bailianjiao"-in the 16 th century. By analyzing traditional and new viewpoints, we can conclude that if there was a historical "bailianjiao", it was the White Lotus Sect(bailianzong) founded by Mao Ziyuan in the Southern Song dynasty, which was part of the pure land system of Buddhism. The "bailianjiao" in later generations was a name used to criticize the various folk sects preaching Maitreya’s salvation in the Ming and Qing dynasties. At the same time, due to the traditional inertia, it is acceptable to use "bailianjiao" to refer to those folk sects that integrated the religious doctrines of the White Lotus Sect, Manichaeism and Maitreya belief, and later the teachings of Buddhism, Taoism and sorcery(such as fuchi). However, we should pay attention to the differences between "labels" and "historical facts", and between macro and individual cases.