「人間佛教」概念成立與日本「佛陀人間論」之關係考

「人間佛教」作為專有名詞，系近代佛教改革先行者太虛於1930年代提出，通過對文獻的爬梳，可見太虛著作中「人生佛教」與「人間佛教」並用，就太虛本人而言，更傾向於使用其早年提出的「人生佛教」一詞，但其含義與「人間佛教」無本質區別，皆旨在使佛教與現代文明相互調適，針對傳統佛教的鬼神信仰進行「祛魅」，使其轉向為關注現世問題並肩負起濟世利生的責任。日本晚近學者基於「大乘非佛說」思潮及「新佛教運動」之理念，提出了「佛陀人間論」之概念，其有關理論探索，與後來太虛、印順等前輩開啟的「人間佛教」思潮有許多高度的相似之處。中國的「人間佛教」是否受到了日本這些佛學思潮的影響，雖目前還缺乏直接證據，但可以證實的情況是，「人間佛教」思潮的開啟者太虛大師早年有可能對日本的「佛陀人間論」有一定瞭解，太虛本人之所以更傾向於使用「人生佛教」這一概念，可能與日本「佛陀人間論」概念中「人間」一詞在漢語和日語中的區別有關。

關鍵字

人間佛教；佛陀人間論；大乘非佛說；太虛；忽滑谷快天

並列摘要

＂Humanistic Buddhism＂ (人間佛教) as a fixed word is created by Taixu the modern Buddhism reformer in the 1930s and then this idea was spread widely by his disciples. Taixu preferred ＂Life Buddhism＂ (人生佛教) in his early years though the ＂Life Buddhism＂ used as usually as ＂Humanistic Buddhism＂ in his books. The general meanings of ＂Life Buddhism＂ or ＂Humanistic Buddhism＂ are aimed at making the Buddhism and the modern civilization mutual adjustment, in view of the traditional spirits of ＂disenchantment＂ of religion of gods and ghosts, make it turned to focus on responsibility of the salvation. Basing on the thought about ＂Mahayana is not Buddha's teaching＂ (大乘非佛說) and ideas of ＂New Buddhism Movement＂ (新佛教運動), recent scholars in Japan put forward the theory of ＂Buddha is a human being＂ (佛陀人間論), in which theory exploration, has high similar characteristic to ＂Humanistic Buddhism＂ (人間佛教) started by subsequent Chinese monks such as Master Taixu, Master Yinshun and so on. It was lacking material evidences about whether ＂Humanistic Buddhism＂ in China was influenced by thought of Buddhism from Japan or not, however, one fundamental fact could be realized is that, as a pioneer, Master Taixu maybe have some understanding about the theory of ＂Buddha is a human being＂ in his early life. Master Taixu preferred to adopt the concept of ＂Humanistic Buddhism＂, which is very likely due to different distinct understanding about ＂ningen＂ (人間) in ＂Buddha is a human being＂ in Chinese and Japanese.