麦积山瑞应寺清代小型纸像牌水陆画的用途

The Usage of Small-scale Buddhist Shuilu Paintings in the Qing Dynasty from the Ruiying Temple in the Maijishan Grottoes

麦积山瑞应寺旧藏清代小型纸像牌水陆画,突出显示“唵哑吽”三字总持咒题记,可能主要用于小型瑜伽焰口施食道场。参考与小像牌水陆画关系密切的冥货文书、往生西方文书和麦积山下老人回忆,推测此种小型瑜伽焰口施食道场可能在特定时间如丧期、鬼节与冥货、往生西方文书的布施配合举行,在寺院或居民家中庭院或其他便宜场所,用于追荐超度刚过世的、久过世的亲属等亡故者。

The small-scale Buddhist shuilu(“water and land”)paintings of the Qing dynasty found in the Ruiying Temple at the Maijishan Grottoes were likely used primarily in the small-scale Buddhist ceremonies of offering food to hungry ghosts,a ritual with the accompanying three-words incantation of“ong a hong”(no semantic meaning).Based on documents related to these paintings,texts about being reborn into the western pure land,and the memories of the old people living at the foot of Mt.Maiji,the author of this paper concludes that this kind of small-scale ceremony would have been carried out at a specific time,during a mourning period or annual Ghost Festival for example,and at a specific place,usually in temples,residential yards,or other expedient locations.