“怀情不尽曰隐”——沈约天监初之崇佛与梁武帝之关系

“Concealment with Endless Feelings”——The Relationship between Shen Yue’s Worship of Buddhism and Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty

沈约天监初年重拾佛教信仰,其实是为了迎合梁武帝推尊佛教的策略。天监六年群臣对《神灭论》进行围剿,是武帝公开以政治权力为后盾,提高佛教地位的行为。尚书令沈约作为朝臣之首,在武帝弘佛过程中扮演着重要角色。《究竟慈悲论》《六道相续作佛义》等佛教论文与梁武帝对佛义的理解极为相似。另外,沈约晚年的忏悔、舍身、千僧会、八关斋等行为,皆直接或间接受意于武帝。然而沈约对佛教的信仰具有很大的投机成分,诚心不足,是以在临终前露出破绽,激化了其与武帝之间的矛盾。沈约天监年间的崇佛行为及其遭遇,须结合梁武帝方能看得分明,亦可借此观察梁代士人的宗教信仰及其所处的政治实态。

Shen Yue regained Buddhist belief in the early years of Tianjian to cater to Emperor Wu’s strategy of promoting Buddhism.In the sixth year of Tianjian,the Emperor Wu’s political power was used as the backing to improve the status of Buddhism.As the head of the courtiers,Shen Yue played an important role in the process of Emperor Wu’s promotion of Buddhism.The Buddhist theses such as On Earth Compassion and The Six Successive Works of Buddhism are very similar to the understanding of Buddhism by the Emperor.In addition,Shen Yue’s repentance,self-sacrifice,thousand monks’Association and baguanzhai in his later years were directly or indirectly influenced by the emperor.However,Shen Yue’s belief in Buddhism had a lot of speculative elements,and his sincerity was not enough.Finally,his flaws showed before his death,which intensified the contradiction between him and the emperor.Shen Yue’s worship of Buddhism and his experience in the Tianjian period can be better understood by combining with the Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty,which also reflected the religious beliefs and political reality of the scholars in the Liang dynasty.