敦煌莫高窟隋唐西方净土变空间结构演变研究

A Study of the Changes in Spatial Structure in Illustrations to Pure Land of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in the Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang

敦煌地处边鄙,能够侥幸逃脱历代兵燹的侵害,保存了中古时代大量的西方变图像,甚至能够形成比较完整的谱系。本文即是在这样一个有利的研究前提之下,以西方变净土空间的表达作为文章的首脑与主干,在历史的纵轴上,主要谈敦煌隋唐西方变的基本面貌、净土空间的发展演进规律及其背后潜在的弥陀净土义学影响。以中古时代中国人对极乐天国概念的理解、生成与转换作为落脚点,最终实现对图像寓意的合理解释。敦煌西方变净土空间经历了由简单到复杂,由抽象而具体,由自然世界至人间寺院的发展历程,这种画面空间变化反映了伴随弥陀净土义学研究的推进,中古时代中国人对极乐世界的概念由虚幻化土转成真实报土并逐渐清晰、完善和丰富,至盛、中唐时宗教画师们基本完成了对理想天国的现实构建,并隐喻出人间佛寺即娑婆净土,依法修行才可往生极乐的终极理想。

The author investigates the illustrations to Pure Land and explores what the illustrations to Pure Land look like, how the illustrated space of Pure Land has changed, and the implications of Amitabha Pure Land Buddhism, during the Sui and Tang dynasties. The study examines how the concept of Pure Land or the Paradise was generated, understood and changed in ancient China, and gives a reasonable interpretation to the illustrations, which became increasingly complicated and more concrete, covering Nature and temples. The changes demonstrate that as Amitabha Pure Land Buddhism kept evolving in ancient China, ancient Chinese’s concept of the Paradise shifted from something illusory to something realistic, and religion painters of the flourishing and middle periods of the Tang dynasty basically completed the construction of the Paradise in the real life illustration works, implying that temples were the Pure Land in this world and people could only go to the Paradise by practicing Buddhism.