紅塵浪裡難修行──宋僧犯罪原因初探

Temptations from the Secular World: Why Did Sung Monks Commit Secular Crimes?

本文嘗試從佛教在宋代的發展來探討僧人觸犯國法的原因，指出（1）政府度僧制度的破壞，使僧眾的數目增加而素質下降；（2）寺院管教條件（師資、教材、教育環境等）的惡化，無法改善僧眾的素質；（3）大寺院的市場化和營利化，使僧眾暴露於物質的誘惑中，追名逐利；（4）中小寺院經濟基礎的不穩，使僧眾不得不迎合大眾文化怪力亂神的要求，易觸法紀；（5）密宗的咒術法事，跡近旁門左道，使僧人恆成嫌犯；（6）禪宗提倡在欲修禪，替犯戒開了方便之門；（7）戒律的鬆懈和矛盾，使犯者容易脫身；（8）佛教若干基本教義（如酒戒、色戒，和因果報應六道輪迴）被士大夫同化改造，例如醉僧罪該還俗，卻被文人形諸筆墨，傳為佳話，進入士大夫控制的地獄亦能減罪。部分僧人接受這些士大夫文化價值觀，酒色財氣一樣不缺，所謂「文化僧」，不過是「士大夫文化僧」甚至「官僚文化僧」而已。

This essay explores why Sung monks committed secular crimes from the perspective of the development of Buddhism in the Sung. It points out that (1) the deteriorating government control of the ordainment produced numerous under-qualified monks; (2) the decline of the monastic training (including teachers, teaching materials, and educational environments) failed to improve the moral qualities of monks; (3) the market and profit orientations of big monasteries exposed monks to the secular temptation of fame and wealth; (4) the unstable financial situation of medium and small monasteries forced the monks to accede to the superstitious demands of the population, which in turn made them susceptible to claims of conducting illegal witchcraft; (5) some sacrificial rituals and shamanistic practices of the Tantric School bordered on criminal acts; (6) the belief of the Ch'an School which held that enlightenment could be achieved by living a worldly life gave leeway to having sex, eating meat, and drinking wine; (7) the relaxation and contradictions of the Buddhist rules created structural loopholes that enabled criminal monks to escape due punishment; (8) some basic Buddhist principles (e.g. on sex, wine, causation and transmigration) were acculturated by Sung scholar-officials. Monks getting drunk, though punishable by relegation to lay status, were made legendary in literati paintings and writings. Criminal monks might be exonerated in hell, the interpretations of which were now controlled by scholar-officials with their secular values. Monks who accepted these values saw nothing wrong with indulging in wine, meat, and even sex with scholar-officials. These ''cultured monks'' were merely ''scholar-official cultured monks'' or even ''bureaucratic cultured monks.''