「業秤」小考

Research on 'Yecheng'

「業秤」是冥府地獄中審判亡人之刑具，多由特定之冥官（如閻羅王或五官王等）來執掌，籍其稱量亡人生前所積之善惡功過。「業秤」之說，在中土始見於唐代佛教典籍中，亦為宋明道教經書所採納，明清民間宗教實卷中更屢見此說。本文著眼於佛、道經書及寶卷中所出現的「業秤」，討論其宗教含義，並從圖像學之視角分析「業秤」的演變過程。

”Yecheng” (業秤) is a kind of trial instruments of torture of the dead in the hell. ”Yecheng” is usually be charged by certain governors in the hell such as Yanluo wang (閻羅王), Wuguanwang (五官王) and so on and with it can weigh good and evil plot of the merits and demerits in the life before death. The theory of ”Yecheng” (業秤) was firstly found in the books of Buddhism during the Tang Dynasties (唐代) and adopted by the books of Taoism of Song and Ming Dynasties (宋明時期) The theory was also found in the Baojuan (寶卷) of civil religions during Ming and Qing Dynasties (明清時期). This thesis focused on ”Yecheng” (業秤) in the books of Buddhism, Taoism and in Baojuan (寶卷) of civil religions in order to discuss its religious meaning and analyze its evolution from the perspective of the science of image.