從個人佛教實踐看唐代寫經、印經的文化意涵

On the Culture of Copying and Printing Buddhist Scriptures in the Tang Dynasty from the Perspective of Personal Practice

In this article, I discuss the interactions between the Buddhist sutra copiers and printed scriptures from the perspective of personal Buddhist practice. By analyzing and comparing how Buddhist believers treated and used the manuscripts and printed scriptures, this paper illustrates the usage of the printing technology and the manuscript culture of the Tang dynasty. In the Tang dynasty, hand-copying Buddhist scriptures copying is one of the vital religious practices and people can personally connect with the Buddhist scriptures through handwriting them. In addition, sutra copying has always been practiced with some rituals that could endow the Buddhist manuscript with remarkably religious meaning. It is worth noting that the central meaning and function of sutra copying in the Tang dynasty lie not in circulating and preserving them. On the contrary, Buddhist believers valued much morethe experience of handwriting itself and the merits acquired from copying sutras the personal handwriting because they believe that the printed scriptures cannot lead to the same religious and ritual results. Until the end of the Tang dynasty, the Buddhist manuscripts have remained the dominant medium for Buddhist believers even though they would also obtain the printed Buddhist scriptures for their use. We can find that the challenge that the invention of printing technology brought to medieval Buddhists seems to be confined in a scope due to the distinct attribute of Buddhist manuscripts.