震旦見緣：道宣《集神州三寶感通錄》塔緣敘事與其當代性

Encountering Traces in Zhendan: Daoxuan’s Stupa Narratives in Ji Shenzhou Sanbao Gantong Lu and Their Contemporaneity

本文以道宣（596-667）《集神州三寶感通錄》卷上20則塔緣為核心，探討其如何透過塔緣敘事，重構佛陀於震旦的神聖臨在。佛塔源自印度舍利崇拜，傳說阿育王（r. c. 268-c. 232 BCE）分建八萬四千塔，其中19座曾明確地顯現於中國。道宣綜合文獻、傳聞與親見，記述感通靈跡與建塔因緣，以此形塑在地的佛教聖境，並作為確立漢地佛教正統性的論述策略。
相較於造塔記強調功德、寺記塔記文著錄形制沿革，塔緣以感通顯跡為敘事中心，呈現佛塔、舍利與信眾之間的靈異連結，生成超越線性時間的多重現在。本文更進一步指出，塔緣書寫體現佛教史觀中的「機與時」理論，使佛塔成為連結過去、現在與未來的神聖臨在媒介，展現宗教當代性。

This paper examines twenty stupa-related accounts in the upper fascicle of Daoxuan’s道宣(596–667) Ji Shenzhou Sanbao gantong lu集神州三寶感通錄(Record of the Miraculous Resonances of the Three Treasures in China), and explores how Daoxuan employs stupa narratives to reconstruct the Buddha’s sacred presence in Zhendan震旦. The Buddhist stupa originated in India as an outgrowth of relic veneration. Tradition holds that King Aśoka阿育王(r. c. 268–c. 232 BCE) distributed relics and erected 84,000 stupas, nineteen of which were said to have manifested in China. Drawing on textual sources, oral traditions, and his own observations, Daoxuan records miraculous resonances and karmic conditions associated with these stupas, thereby shaping a localized sacred Buddhist landscape; he further deploys these narratives as a discursive strategy to establish Buddhism’s orthodoxy in China.
In contrast to stupa-construction inscriptions (zaotaji造塔記), which emphasize merit-making, and monastery inscriptions (siji寺記), which document architectural forms and historical development, stupa-affiliation narratives (tayuan塔緣) foreground miraculous manifestations. They highlight the numinous connections among stupas, relics, and devotees, thereby generating a religious temporality of“multiple presents”that transcends linear time. This paper further argues that such narrative practice embodies the Buddhist historiographical doctrine of ji機and shi時(karmic occasion and temporal conditions), through which the stupa functions as a medium of sacred presence linking past, present, and future, and thereby articulating a form of religious contemporaneity.