华严妙相——释迦说法的视觉表达与觉知

A Grand and Magnificent Spectacle——Visual Expression and Awareness of Shakyamuni Teaching

释迦说法是佛“八相成道”之重要一相。《华严经》所述释迦牟尼成道后,在菩提树下为十方世界众菩萨、金刚力士及诸神诸天说法的故事,在佛教造像艺术中极为常见。以文字叙述释迦说法和菩提道场盛况的《华严经》,和以视觉表达形式呈现的大量佛教雕刻绘画,互为文本,将俗世不可见的法会,以可见的形式描绘出来;将佛理不可言说的玄妙因果,通过意象思维进行了“言说”,从而在不可思议处,开显妙旨,实现觉知与禅悟。而不同时代、不同宗派、不同作者、不同观者、不同供养人“言说”或描绘的华严妙相,又都折射了文化、族群和世俗的影像,成为世人建构的视觉文本。本文在分析图像意义的同时,也试图从审美角度,对不同作品艺术表现的风格与技法,做一些形式的分析。

Shakyamuni teaching(Whirling Falun)is one of the important phases of Buddha’s"the Noble Eightfold Path".In the Avatamsaka Sutra,the story that after becoming Buddha,Shakyamuni under the bodhi tree explained Dharma to bodhisattvas,vajrayos,and gods and deities at the Dharma assembly is very common in Buddhist sculpture art.The Avatamsaka Sutra narrating Shakyaamuni Teaching in words and the great spectacle of the bodhi Ashram and a large number of Buddhist sculpture paintings in the form of visual expression are the texts to each other to depict the invisible dharma in a visible form to the world.Meanwhile,the unspeakable mystical cause and effect of Buddhism is"spoken"through imagery thinking.Thus,in the inconceivable place,the mystery is revealed,realizing awareness and enlightenment.The grand and magnifcent spectacle,narrated or depicted by different times,different schools,different authors,different viewers,and different donors,has reflected the culture,ethnic groups and secular images and become the visual text constructed by the world.While analyzing the meaning of images,this paper also tries to probe in to the styles and techniques of artistic expression of different works from an aesthetic point of view.