“開皇”年號與道教“劫運”思想

The Reign Title of Kai-huang and Daoist Concept of Kalpa Cycles

一、引言1957年,芮沃壽(Arthur F.Wright)先生在封論隋文帝治國的意識形態時,韶爲隋朝的第一個年號'開皇',有可能是文帝受道士張賓的影響而采用的道教術语。~①周一良先生亦韶爲'阴皇乃道家語','蓋楊堅取周而代之,故多方製造舆論,援引道家之説亦大有可能'。~②李剛先生進而坐實其論,認爲'開皇'是隋取材自道教神仙系统的年號,以此作爲隋文帝利用道教大作宣傅,爲其政權合理性尋找依據的例證之一。~③多年來。

Many scholars believe that the Kai-huang reign title of Sui Dynasty had been inspired by the Taoist theory of Kalpa which had been fabricated from Buddhism. In fact, we can trace the history lines to show how the Taoist theory had been established from the end of Former Han Dynasty in 1st century BC. to Liu Song Dynasty in 5th century. There had been some calculations on the cycle calendars, but no ideas about how the heaven and earth would ruin and restart in the traditional Chinese thoughts. When Buddhism entered into China, it brought the theory of the universal cycles and the concept of the long time kalpa which inspired Taoism indeed at first. The medieval Taoism,especially in the Lingbao scriptures, had modified these concepts and established the Taoist Kalpa theory. There had been at least five phases of the Taoist kalpas, i. e., Long-han, Yan-kang, Chi-ming, Kai-huang, and Shanghuangy and they would be a cycle of the heaven and earth from the beginning to the end, then restarted in every phase of kalpa. According to such Taoist theory, the Kai-huang era had been a phase of the past period long long time ago. Did the Sui Dynasty have to choose a past kalpa name in Taoism? I don’t think so. Despite the importance of kalpa theory inside the Taoism, it seems very hard to trace its influence in medieval China. And I have to doubt the spread range of the Taoist theories that time.