《二十四尊得道羅漢傳》與羅漢信仰：文字與圖像敘述

The Biographies of Twenty-Four Arhats and Related Cult: Literal Narration and Visional Description

朱星祚編寫之《二十四尊得道羅漢傳》，為目前所知第一部以文字描繪羅漢的神魔小說，但是明萬曆三十三年（1605）出版以來，此書不傳。學者向來歸咎其文筆粗鄙，二十四成數不符民間熟悉之十六、十八與五百之數等，但是也接受其羅漢形象禪師化、中國外號成功的在地化嘗試。考量中國羅漢信仰傳播的主流以圖像而非文字為主，本文遂以此書中外號等文字敘述的羅漢形象，對比羅漢雕塑圖畫的造型原則，探討通俗文學與信仰崇拜的聯繫方式。結合通俗文學、寺廟雕塑、文人畫的研究，本文關注神魔小說具像化神祇信仰的功能，而非小說對於經典的考證與轉化，以呈現閱讀通俗文學的多樣性，以及文字與宗教實踐接榫的可能性。

The Biographies of Twenty-Four Arhants, compiled by Chu Hsing-tsuo and published in 1605, was known as the first Chinese fiction on Arhats. Comparing with the popularity of the Cult of Arhats at the time, ironically, this fiction seems soon went out of circulation. Previous researches have often attributed its short life to rough writing, as well as the unfamiliar count of twenty-four Arhats to the sixteen, eighteen, or five hundred in common folklore. On the other hand, scholar Hu Wan-chuan recognizes the triumphant attempt of Chu Hsing-tsuo at domesticating Indian Arhats imagery to that of Chinese Zen masters by naming them with nicknames. It is the iconography rather than letters having acted as the most important medium in the Arhat Cult. In this paper I investigate how the narration skills of the fiction create the new iconography of arhats and how the images in letter interacted with the underlying principles of temple sculptures and aristocrat paintings of Arhats. In the complicated interaction, the forgotten fiction exemplifies the connection between popular fictions and religious cults in the objectification of deities and faith, as well as the necessity for of a match between religious realization and literature through iconography.