東亞文獻與敦煌文學中的佛教無常世界——以九想觀詩為中心

The Impermanent World of Buddhism in East Asian Texts and Dunhuang Literature:A Study Centered on the Poems of Nine Consciousnesses

'無常'是佛教思想的精髓、教理的核心。無常觀念給予世人精神慰藉與解脫,不但是勸誘世人、化導眾生的宣教題材,也是佛教文學中獨特的主題。本文論述佛教無常觀與早期中國文學中的無常,並從敦煌文獻中梳理出《十无常》《百歲篇》《九想觀》《十二時》等'無常'主題的作品,考察其所呈現的無常世界;據敦煌九想觀詩寫本進行内容析論,探究其淵源與流變;進而連結日本文獻中有關'九想觀'的詩歌與繪畫,藉以說明中國佛教與藝文對佛教無常思想的接受與轉化,及其在東亞漢字文化圈的影響與發展,闡釋中國佛教文學中的九想觀從觀想到勸化轉變的現象。

Impermanence is the essential concept and the core doctrine of Buddhist thought. The concept of impermanence offers sentient beings spiritual comfort and liberation. It is not only the preaching theme for teaching and transforming sentient beings, but also the unique subject of Buddhist literature.This paper will discuss the Buddhist concept of impermanence and the impermanence in early Chinese literature. It will survey the texts in Dunhuang documents including the Ten Impermanences, Text on Hundred Years,Visualization of Nine Consciousnesses, and the text of Twelve Times, etc. These works are all about the theme of impermanence. This paper will examine the impermanent world shown in these texts,and focus on the poems about the visualization of nine consciousnesses in Dunhuang Manuscripts, analyzing their contents and looking into their origins and evolutions. It will then move to connect these poems with similar texts in Japanese literature and related paintings, to illustrate the reception and transformation of the Buddhist impermanence idea in Chinese Buddhism and literature as well as its development in East Asian cultural sphere of Chinese characters,and interpreting the transition of the visualization of nine consciousnesses from visualization to persuasion.