一方之師與佛化之母：《佛教女眾》與《覺有情》「婦女學佛號」之佛教女性論述比較分析

A Buddhist Teacher and Carrying Forward Buddhism’s Mother: Comparison and Analysis of the Discourse of Buddhist Women in Buddhist Women and The Bodhisattva: The Special Issue on Women Learning Buddhism

中國大陸民國時期是個政治動盪、戰爭頻仍、文化巨變的時代，女權議題與變化是其中重要的一環。對佛教而言，隨著世變，人生佛教的改革方向，因勢而起，佛教女性議題亦同之而興，這些佛教女性議題的討論前所未有，具有啟蒙意義，非常值得觀察。本文選擇專門作此論述的二種期刊：《佛教女眾》、《覺有情》之「婦女學佛號」為聚焦；前者是武昌的尼眾學校菩提精舍刊物，民國26年出版，為中國佛教第一本佛教女性刊物，皆為比丘尼的言論；後者是上海陳無我居士創辦，民國32年2月開始特設「婦女學佛號」，歷時七個月，以女居士發言者多。由此分析觀察這些佛教女性論述的各種面向與背景：有改革救亡、菩薩行、人生佛教的大論述，認為佛教女性亦有責任承擔；有闡揚大乘平等觀、發掘經證與典範、書寫傳記；亦有自立自強之論，並自我檢點，以及興女學，振女德等等論述，還因此勾出太虛對女性出家的看法，以及當時比丘尼的回應與反思。同時分辨出這二份刊物的不同展現，亦即同為佛教女性，比丘尼與女居士所被期許的有同亦有異，而「一方之師」與「佛化之母」是兩者重要的分歧點。

Great changes that took place during early Republican period gave rise to important issues such as female rights. As Buddhism carried out its revolution based on Humanistic Buddhism, topics on Buddhism and women also emerged. As a topic unheard of, relationship between Buddhism and women is an inspirational topic worth investigating. In this study, two periodicals were selected for discussion: Buddhist Women and issues of “Women learning Buddhism” from The Bodhisattva with the former published in 1937 by Bodhi Vihara of Wuchang School of Nuns as China’s first Buddhist reading material designed for female containing the words of nuns while the latter established by Grha-pati Chen Fa-Xiang from Shanghai with special issues of “Women learning Buddhism” containing mostly of speeches made by female Grha-pati specially established in February, 1943, for 7 months. By analyzing and observing various aspects and backgrounds of topics made by the aforementioned Buddhist women which include speeches on revolution, and acts to save the nation and Humanistic Buddhism, Buddhist women were found to be equally responsible for spreading the concept of equality of Mahayana, discovering testimonies and examples in Buddhist scripts, documenting biographies as well as being independent and strong with the ability to self-examine, propagandize female studies and revive female virtues. By differentiating the contents of the above two publications and identifying common and different directions and situations of the nuns and female Grha-pati, definitions on “virtuous teacher capable of propagating Buddhism” and “virtuous woman who teaches her children and holds her family together with teachings of Buddhism” were found to be crucial dividing points.