荷花佛教寓意在唐宋的演变

Changes and Development of the Connotation of Lotus in Buddhism after Tang - Song Dynasties

荷花在佛教中象征着“不染”、清净,有“不著不染”与“著而不染”两种发生途径。中唐以后,随着佛教的变化、禅宗的兴起,荷花“不染”的发生途径呈现了从“隔”(“不著不染”)到“即”(“著而不染”)的总体态势。到了宋代,理学家以儒解禅,对荷花的“不染”进行本体思考,指出“向上一路”,荷花成为士大夫人格象征。此外,在中国文学中,“青泥莲花”特指有才德的妓女,这是荷花佛教寓意在中国“向下一路”的发展。

In Buddhism lotus symbolizes the state of being unstained and pure, which results from two channels - 'no touching no stains' and 'touched but with no stains'. With the changes of Buddhism and the advent of the Chan after the Mid - Tang Dynasty, the way for lotus to remain unstained changed from Sequestering ( 'no touching no stains' ) to Approaching ( 'sut with no stains' ). Then in the Song Dynasty the Ethicists interpreted the Chan by referring- to Confucianism. They considered unstainedness of lotus from the ontological perspective and denoted that it symbolized the personality of the official intellectuals by ascending to the connotation of lotus Moreover, lotus growing out of sludge typically refers to the moral and talented prostitutes in Chinese literature, and this development finds its connotation in Buddhism by descending itself.