Persuasion and Entertainment at Once——Kumarajiva's Buddhist Storytelling in His Commentary on the Vimalakirti-Sutra

學者研究鳩摩羅什多半僅著重其譯經活動，而甚少注意其對佛經所作之注解。本文將通過對什公僅存的《維摩詰經注》的仔細分析，探討佛教翻譯大師鳩摩羅什如何以注疏形式宣講佛教故事。本文將論證什公深明故事演說對宣揚佛家教義之重要性，同時，又指出什公演說故事率多隨機應變，因而所講故事與經文原意未必相關。什公所演說之故事往往刻意出奇，引人入勝，似在娛人，實欲宣教。此外，由於什公本人既不太可能親筆撰述，本文又嘗試考察什公注中之故事及其演說方式，從而探究其故事之口述性質。什公之《維摩詰經注》極有可能乃其譯講同施之結果，而由其助譯之弟子筆錄成篇。

This paper addresses how Kumarajiva, one of the greatest Buddhist translators in China, practiced his storytelling in the form of philosophical commentary. Through an analysis of his commentary on the famed Buddhist classic Vimalakirti-sutra, this paper will demonstrate that Kumarajiva appreciated the virtue of storytelling in religious proselytization, and that he told stories throughout his lengthy commentary even when the textual contexts do not seem to call for them. Storytelling was crafted to be entertaining and, it was hoped, in the disarming presence of fun and pleasure, Buddhist osmosis would materialize. As a secondary issue, this paper also attempts to examine the issue of orality in Kumarajiva's commentary. As far as we can surmise, it is unlikely that Kumarajiva himself would write his commentary in Chinese, even though he presumably had learned Chinese for more than a decade before he finally arrived in central China in 401. However, virtually no scholar has been curious enough to examine the exact nature of the writing itself in his commentary. It appears to be a non-issue to most scholars whether Kumarajiva’s commentary on the Vimalakirti-sutra was penned down by himself or it was in fact transcribed from an oral delivery. This paper will show that apart from tacit assumption, the commentary was, in all likelihood, delivered orally to a live audience and was probably committed to writing as a record of extemporaneous sermons.