梁武帝佛教孝道觀：在傳統中國政治文化中的突破與困境

Abstract

本論文著眼於佛教中國化的孝道課題，探討佛教出家教義在中國社會重視孝道文化的背景下，佛教與中國孝道觀點之間產生的衝突與融合。有別於學界較多認為佛教孝道的出現是在唐宋時代；本文則把時代往前延伸至南北朝時期，考察佛教與孝道兩者融合之源頭以及對於當時社會政治產生的影響。在研究方式上，是透過考察崇佛士人在佛教信徒與士人的雙重身分下，所進行的孝道論述。藉此了解佛教教義與孝道結合過程中，所被依據的思想教義為何。 本研究以梁武帝蕭衍作為主要考察對象。藉由史書記載以及當時文字創作，分析過去梁武帝研究中較少被注意的：蕭衍如何在身兼孝子、統治者與佛教信徒的情況下，對孝道進行獨特地詮釋與實踐，其中佛教部分教義在蕭衍孝道思想中也被運用解釋，成為其孝道思想之重要內涵以及政治改革的依據。 本論文可分成四部分：首先點出蕭衍登基之前所面對之孝道問題，共分成承襲儒家孝道觀念、其自身強烈的孝思情感以及當時政治之中的孝道實踐等三項，並鋪陳論述上述三點如何形塑影響之後梁武帝的孝道觀點。 第二部分則是回溯孝道觀念如何在漢代落實，並且延續影響蕭衍所生長的南朝。透過分析《孝經》得以了解漢朝所定義規範的孝道觀念內涵；漢朝政府推行「孝」作為政府提倡的至要德性，則是結合在政治制度之中。 第三部分探討蕭衍登基後，如何將佛教義理運用在孝道之中。主要表現在佛寺追思、神不滅、素食施行以及菩薩戒等四方面。在此一系列關於佛教孝道的論述中，可見佛教孝道所重視之私人親情，如何在蕭衍菩薩戒法轉化之下成為改革社會政治的重要動力。 第四部分將梁武帝的佛教孝道與政治改革結合，如何以佛教孝道取代被傳統政治所重視孝道德行。此過程顯示梁武帝蕭衍的佛教孝道概念不僅限於個人層面，更延伸到國家制度之上，影響同時期的佛教信仰者。 考察梁武帝融合與詮釋佛教以及孝道之間的貢獻，得以了解佛教與孝道的結合已出現於南北朝時期：因為佛教信仰者內心對於孝道之「情」的需求，而利用佛教教義增添孝道的內涵，彌補了傳統孝道觀點中過於忽略的情感層面。由此研究可發現士人在佛教孝道論述中所具有重要貢獻，即是能夠援引佛教教義補充孝道觀點之不足，在佛教與孝道兩者思想概念的融合上成為重要交會；藉由考察政治層面的改革，也展現梁武帝將佛教孝道觀點延伸至統治之上，成為政治理想而並予以實踐。

This essay emphasizes on the issue of filial piety during the sinicization of Buddhism, aiming to investigate, in the context of the encounter between the Buddhist monasticism and the conventional Chinese filial piety, the integration and conflict between both, which, once integrated, leads to the emergence of the Buddhist filial piety. Unlike other researches that, mostly, set their eyes on Tang, Song dynasty when discussing the Buddhist filial piety, I attempt to trace further to Early Medieval China in order to inquire the origin of the integration and the subsequent social, political influences of contemporary China. I focus on the Buddhist gentries to consider how they discourse filial piety with their dual identities, and through so to investigate what Buddhist doctrinal recourses were applied in the discourse of integration with filial piety. Among all Buddhist gentries in Early Medieval China, Emperor Wu of Liang is the centerpiece of the research. How he, with his trio identity, a filial son, a piety Buddhist, and a ruler of Liang Dynasty, discourse and practice filial piety, of which Buddhist doctrines were frequently applied in his thoughts of filial piety and were relied as both fundamental intellectual contents and political ideological foundations, is rarely discussed by modern studies on Emperor Wu of Liang. In order to analyze this ignored subject, i.e. the emperor’s thoughts and govern policies and their affinity with Buddhist filial piety, I devote to historical narrative and contemporary literatures that records and reflects the emperor’s role. This essay is composed in four parts. The first part discusses the emperor’s dilemma between Buddhist doctrines and filial piety before coronation. The discussion would consider the Confucian legacy of filial piety inherited by the emperor, the emperor’s fierce filial sentiment, and how filial piety was practiced in political field at the time. I suggest that these three phases is the intellectual background of the emperor’s concept of filial piety in later years. The second part is tracing. I traced back to Hang dynasty to inquire how filial piety is political practiced, and that such practices lasted and influenced the world of Emperor Wu of Liang. Here the Classic of Filial Piety serves to be an important intermediate to understand the doctrine and the definition of filial piety in Hang dynasty. Through analyzing the Classic of Filial Piety, I propose that the government of Hang encouraged filial piety as the arch virtue, and that filial piety is highly woven with political institutions. The third part returned to the world after the coronation of the Emperor Wu of Liang. This part emphasized on how Buddhist doctrines were applied in the practice of filial piety, which mainly represented in four faces: 佛寺追思, 神不滅, 素食施行, 菩薩戒. This investigation how the importance of filial sentiments in Buddhist filial piety, through the emperor, transformed into the motivation and mobility of political, social reformation. The forth part turns to the combination between the emperor’s Buddhist filial piety thoughts and his political reformation, discussing how Buddhist filial piety replaces the conventional political filial piety inherited from Hang dynasty. This part of investigation presents that the Buddhist filial piety thoughts of the emperor is not restricted to personal sentiments alone, quite contrary, it expanded to the constitution of the Liang dynasty, and hence influenced the Buddhists inhabited in the empire. As the result of this research, I suggest to reconsider the periodization of current studies of Buddhist filial piety. Through investigating the interpretation and integration between Buddhist doctrine and filial piety, which nourishes the Buddhist filial piety, of Emperor Wu of Liang, I suggest that the integration of Buddhist monasticism and filial piety, i.e. the birth of Buddhist filial piety, has occurred in the Early Medieval China, due to Buddhists’ pursuit of the sentiment of filial piety and their application of Buddhist doctrines to enrich the contents of filial piety that eventually compensate the original absence of sentiment in filial piety. In this aspect, I suggest the other notion of the research of Buddhist filial piety. During the integration, Buddhist gentries played important roles in discoursing Buddhist filial piety. They, familiar with both ends of knowledge, applied Buddhist doctrines to nourish the conventional concept of filial piety, hence created the conceptual encounter of Buddhist monasticism and filial piety. Meanwhile, this encounter can be represented by the political practice of Buddhist filial piety of Emperor Wu of Liang’s political reformation. Buddhist filial piety, as fruit of the integration, not only changed the conventional concept of filial piety, but it also became new ideal political virtue to be practiced.