力爭上游：明代僧人的遊方活動

「遊方」是僧侶離開寺院，尋佛學進境或增長見聞的旅遊活動，而從事遊方活動的僧人，在明代統稱為「遊方僧」或「行腳僧」，亦稱為「雲水僧」。固然，「遊方僧」的歷史淵源甚早，但明代僧人因何遊方？如何遊方？遊方活動的具體內容為何？而明代中葉之後復興寺院的活動，又是如何展開？依循哪些機制？遊方僧入世有哪些「向上」管道？同時，「遊方僧」為社會帶來哪些負面影響？國家、僧人與士大夫在世俗社會中如何彼此關聯？又有何觀感與對策？這些歷史圖像都尚待拼湊。透過本文爬梳與分析，明代僧人遊方的社會空間受太祖朱元璋的佛教政策影響，且寺院清規也同時限制僧人與世俗社會的接觸管道。然而，僧人之所以遊方，除傳統定義下的遊方活動外，參與世俗社會的各種活動，提高自身於寺院叢林及世俗社會的名譽、地位和聲望，藉以傳播佛教理念獲得世俗社會的接納，也是僧人進行遊方活動的主要目的之一。因此，當佛教政策逐漸鬆垮，寺院清規廢弛，加上戰亂、天災與賦役，使大量寺院頹圮、僧人散逃時，復興寺院恢復百丈古風，便成為遊方僧的宗教使命。但欲得創建寺院之經濟資源，難免與世俗社會接觸，甚至須以「外道」之學為管道、手段，搏得仕紳居士、商人與其他民眾信徒的贊助。但隨著佛教制度難以維繫，遊方僧素質參差不齊，明代政府也逐漸將遊方僧、強盜、妖僧與叛逆分子一視同仁，而藉「外道」之學涉入俗世的僧人，也因名聲顯揚而樹大招風，使人非議。

關鍵字

佛教；遊方僧；寺院

並列摘要

“Yuo-fung” describes the type of excursion activity when a monk leaves the temple to further study religious philosophy or widen the knowledge horizon. In the Ming dynasty of China, a monk who conducts “yuo-fung” activity is labeled “yuo-fung monk” (wandering monk), “shing-jiau monk” (walking monk) or “yuen-shui monk” (Cloud and water monk). Even though the history of yuo-fung monk can trace back centuries ago, why the Ming dynasty yuo-fung monk travels, how and what constitutes the excursion activity remain unexplored. What is the mechanism of this “yuo-fung” activity? When a travel is initiated, what are channels that a monk can further its religious status through yuo-fung? What are negative impacts the wandering monk activity might bring to the society? How the government, monk and intellectual relate and interact with each other? How the wandering monk is perceived and dealt with? Those are puzzles that are of interest of this thesis. Through the analysis of this thesis, it is found that not only Ming dynasty wandering monk is greatly constrained by the Buddhist policy of Emperor Yuan-Chang Chu, rules of the temple generally limit the channels where monks reach out to the outside world. Therefore, the reason why a monk decides to conduct ‘yuo-fung’ activity includes the conventional excursion for the aim of participating various daily events in the society and upgrading his religious status and reputation both among monks and in the eyes of civilians. Beyond that, the wandering monk also wishes to spread Buddhist belief and gain wider support from the society through yuo-fung activity. Therefore, once the Buddhist policy is unattended, rules of the temple unobserved while war is widespread, natural disaster hits recurrently and tax reaches record high, to revive the glory and reputation of the temple becomes the primary mission of the wandering monk. However, in order to obtain funds to rebuild and revive the Buddhist order, it is inevitable for a monk to have extended contact with the outside world, including to act more proactively by using so called “wuai-dao” (unauthentic way of spreading Buddhist belief) and to use commercialized method to rally financial support from the intellectual, business community and the followers. As the Buddhist system slowly collapses, activities of yuo-fung monks become unstructured and raged for good and bad. It finally reaches a point when the Ming government has to group wandering monk with thief, witch and the outlaw. As for those wandering monks who wrongly use “wuai-dao” to be famous, when their reputation can soar, they can also become the center of scandal.