中國佛教的齋講

Chinese Buddhism's Treatment of “Zhaijiang”

「齋講」一詞，在漢譯佛典中雖不多見，但卻早自後漢時代的譯經中即已可見，而後在六朝隋唐的中國佛教相關文獻中也時或出現。據筆者管見，論及此一詞語之相關研究其實寥寥無幾。這或許是因為與「齋」有關的語彙頗多，意義複雜化之故，因此多以推測之詞模糊帶過。但事實上，這一詞語自有其歷史變遷的背景，也有中國、印度兩大文化混同的部分，因此雖然只是一個語彙，正確理解它卻有其一定的意義。因此本論文希望能透過文獻的解析，明確闡釋「齋」、「齋講」等詞語之內涵，解明其中之佛教根源、社會文化等意義。

The Chinese word “zhaijiang” is a dichotomy consisting of two characters: the first is “zhai”, while the second being “jiang”. This particular diction makes occasional appearances in the Chinese Buddhist Cannon, monastic biographies, and the Chinese Official History; although, its occurrence in the latter source is comparatively few and mostly in the Nan/Bei Chao records. Other than its stereotypical Buddhist-related connotation, the word “zhaijiang” in its individualistic form has a history dating back to the Chinese bone inscriptions period. Moreover, the word “zhai” is still frequently used in today's conversation such as zaozhai, liuzhai, baguanzhai, changzhai, sengzhai, zhaiji etc. all of which signifies its realistic nature and close interfusion into the secular sphere. A full study of the current topic would involve analyzing Buddhist rituals, the development of “jiangchang”, discussing ancient literature, philosophical debates as well as textual studies of the Confucius, Daoist and Buddhist's cannon and their commentaries. However, in this paper the author wishes to focus solely within the Chinese Buddhism scope and through critically analyzing its linguistic nature, and surveying primary sources that discusses the “zhaihui” service and the “jiangjing” assembly to piece together and reconstruct the development of the “zhaijiang” usage throughout the Chinese Buddhist history.