如來佛的手掌心——試論明末耶穌會證道故事裡的佛教色彩

Exemplum and Apadana: Buddhist Influences on the Chinese Writings of Late-Ming Jesuits

本文旨在處理明末耶穌會士中文著作中尚未經人觸及的一面，亦即利瑪竇、金尼閣、高一志與龍華民等人所譯述的證道故事中的佛教色彩。天主教係一神教，排他性強，翻譯教義時尤其不願沿襲佛教既有的語彙。不過由於某些自覺與不自覺的原因，明末耶穌會士所譯介入華的「歐洲」證道故事中，某些顯然和彿教的譬喻故事有關。這種關連所涉以譯體和故事源流為主，本文的論述主體即循此推展。在譯體上，本文以金尼閣《況義》中的〈南北風相爭〉及〈三友〉為例，剖析耶穌會士借鑑譬喻經體中最常見的四字格的大要，並由此回溯荀賦，試圖為此一譯史上的重要現象正本清源。在故事源流上，本文舉以為例的是〈三友〉及〈空井〉二喻。利瑪竇等人在華講述這些「天主教」故事時，並不知道這些故事有其梵典上的本源，南北朝時就已經在華出經，而且版本不少。利氏等人所講，另又涉及一六○二年龍華民所譯的《聖若撒法始末》，而此書的希臘文原典所據其實也是輾轉來自梵籍。耶穌會向來闢佛不遺餘力，龍華民譯書的目的正在是在此，沒料到所譯或所述的證道故事居然源出佛教的譬喻文學，從而在中西文學交會伊始就在譯史上形成一個的強烈的反諷。

The present study offers a close analysis of the Buddhist influences on the European exempla translated into Chinese by such late-Ming Jesuits as Matteo Ricci, Nicholas Trigault, Alfonso Vagnoni, and Nicholaus Longobardi. Christianity had been so monotheistic by nature as to exclude linguistic influences from Buddhism, especially in its doctrinal rendition. In a few cases in their apologetic writings, Ricci and his brothers in the same order retell exempla which, for certain reasons, have great bearing upon Buddhist apadana or parabolic literature. To unravel these Christian connections with pagan stories, the present paper focuses on both the Jesuit borrowing of the Buddhist style in Trigault's translation of “De Vento et Sole” and the Sanskrit origin of Ricci's “Unicorn” and “Amicus,” even going as far back as the rhapsodies of Hsun-tzu to locate the genesis of the Buddhist style known as the “four-character unit” in the history of translation in China. Ricci and the other Jesuits were neither conscious of the Sanskrit roots of the stories they retold, nor did they have any knowledge of the rendition of these stories into Chinese as early as the Six Dynasties. Most of the exempla discussed in the present essay can also be found in Longobardi's Chinese Barlaam et Ioasaph, a hagiographical classic which, generally believed by modern scholars to be a Christian version of the life of the Buddha, was translated by him in 1602 to counter-attack the Buddhist criticism of the Christian lack of a doctrinal corpus as enormous as the Tripitaka. The early dialogue of European exempla with China, as a result of this ignorance on the part of the Jesuits, turned out to be a highly ironic episode in the history of early Christianity in China.