中國傳統佛學有關人的義蘊

On the Traditional Chinese Buddhist Concepts of “Man”

本文試圖就人的緣起、人的本質、人的認知、人的歸宿四方面，描述中國傳統佛學有關「人」的義蘊。首先援引華嚴宗五祖宗密的《原人論》，說明「人」緣起的五個步驟。其次，依據宗密、竺道生、達摩、慧可、僧璨、道信、弘忍、慧能等祖師的觀點，闡明「人」的本質就是如來藏、佛性、自心、本心。佛性就在眾生自身之中，就是眾生自己的本性，只須向自性皈依，不須向別處皈依。然後，再依僧肇的《般若無知論》說明人的感官無法認識抽象的、絕對的佛性或如來藏。僧肇認為由感官所獲得的凡情知識「有所知，則有所不知」，要達到無所不知，就必須捨離常人的俗知，這是運用消融認知的方法，擺脫有限的束縛，以便直達無限的真諦境界。最後陳述中國大乘佛學認為「人」的歸宿就是涅槃，涅槃是擺脫煩惱，掃除無明的清淨境域。另外，分別論述鳩摩羅什、僧肇、道生等高僧的涅槃思想，以及獲得涅槃的方法。結論部分，強調佛本是人，與凡夫一樣有生死。人必須建立自己本來是佛的自信和自覺，突破自卑情結，喚起主體意識。尤其是中國後期南禪強調人的「自在」、「自由」，和自覺自己的位置，實現自己的價值，更能活潑的表現了主體自身的存在，體現了與佛平等的地位和人格。

This paper tries to describe the traditional Chinese Buddhist concepts of “man” in relation to four aspects: the origin, essence, cognition and final resort of “man”. At first, the fifth patriarch of the Hua-yen school, Tsung-mi, is cited, who in his “Treatise on the Origin of Humanity” explained in five steps the origin of “man”. Next, the essence of “man” is explained according to the ideas of the patriarchs Tsung-mi, Chu Tao-sheng, Bodhidharma, Hui-k’o, Seng-ts’an, Tao-hsin, Hung-jen and Hui-neng, who defined it as “Tathagatagarbha, Buddha-nature”, “one’s own mind, the original mind”. The Buddha-nature is in the sentient beings themselves, it is the original nature of the sentient beings, and they only have to take refuge in their own self-nature, not in anything different from themselves. Subsequently, Seng-chao’s treatise “Prajna is without Knowledge” is quoted, in which Seng-chao explained that the sensory organs of man are incapable of knowing the abstract, absolute Buddha-nature or Tathagatagarbha. Seng-chao held that the profane knowledge acquired through the sensory organs “knows something, and therefore knows not everyhing (i.e. truth)”, if one wants to know anything, one has to give up the common knowledge of ordinary people by means of melting away from cognition and casting off its limitation, whereby one directly attains to the unlimited sphere of absolute truth. Finally, it is explained that according to Chinese Mahayana Buddhist thought the final resort of man is Nirvāņa, the pure sphere free from passions and ignorance. Additionally, it is discussed how eminent monks like Kumarajiva, Seng-chao and Tao-sheng described the Nirvāņa and the method to acquire it. In the concluding remarks it is emphasized that the Buddha was a man himself, and that he like any other ordinary man was bound to the cycle of birth and death. Man should be confident and aware of his own original Buddhahood, get rid of his inferiority complex, arouse his subjective consciousness. Especially the later Southern Ch’an school, which emphasized “freedom” and “easeness”, the position of self-awareness and the value of actualizing oneself, expressed even more vividly the existence of an independent self and manifested a position and personality equal to the Buddha.