“变文”概念的再辨析

A Further Discussion About the Concept to the Phraseology of the Bianwen

变文是一种俗文学,但它更重要的特质在于其宗教性,是佛教俗讲的产物。俗讲是对僧讲的模仿,起初,俗讲题材和僧讲一样,主要是义理类的经典如《金刚经》《妙法莲华经》等,由于其讲唱结合,通俗易懂的特点,很受普通信众欢迎,后来扩展到因缘类经典,其曲折、离奇的故事情节深为一般信众所喜欢。在因缘类俗讲的基础上,后来又出现了讲唱结合的形式和曲折生动、变幻离奇故事情节相结合的变文。“变文”之“变”,如同儒家《诗经》中的诗有正、变之分一样,是与俗讲中的讲经文、因缘相对而言的,讲经文、缘起为“正”,而变文为“变”,它体现着变文内容离奇、夸张和变幻的特点。随着时间的推移,民间人士也模仿变文的形式创作了一些以历史和民间故事为题材的俗变文,为民众所喜闻乐见。

The Bianwen is a kind of popular literature,but its more important characteristic lies in its religiosity,and it is the product of Buddhist Sujiang.The Sujiang is the imitation of the Sengjiang.At first,the Sujiang,s subject as same as the Sengjiang,tant is mainly the Buddhist sutra of doctrine such as The diamond Sutra The Lotus Sutra,etc,that was named Jingjingwen.Because of its combination of speaking and singing,popular and easy to understand char⁃acteristics,it is very popular with ordinary believers,and later the subject extended to the Buddhist sutra of karma that was named Yinyuan,its twists and turns,bizarre story plots are deeply liked by the general believers.In the process of speaking and singing the Buddhist sutra of Yinyuan,a form of Bianwen with a combination of speaking and singing and the combination of twists and turns appeared.Just as the poems in the Confucian“Book of Songs”have the distinction of“positive”and“changing”,the Sujiang also has a distinction of“positive”and“changing”.The characteristic of the Jingjingwn and the Yinyuan is“positive”,but the characteristic of Bianwen is“changing”.It reflects the characteris⁃tics of bizarre,exaggerated and changing content of the Bianwen.With the passage of time,the folk people also imitated the form of the Bianwen and created some popular Bianwen with history and folk stories as the theme,which became popular with the people.