中古佛教護生思想容受與動物觀轉變－以《冥報記》為核心的考察

佛教的東傳與中國化是中古文化思想研究中備受關注的課題。本文以初唐《冥報記》為核心，觀察六朝以降護生戒殺應驗故事中動物觀的轉變，說明人們如何在外來知識與思想的衝擊下重新調度固有文化資源，並於容受過程中形成新的世界觀。首先，對「殺生報應」故事的考察可以看出《冥報記》中的應驗記化用志怪小說冤魂索報母題，使動物從單純的被害者轉為具有意志的行為主體，並在過程中展現出控訴、論辯、權衡、協商等屬於人的特質。而「六道輪迴」應驗故事則在「至親相啖」論述外引入中國傳統生死相續的觀念，以有情有識的魂神取代輪迴的假我，消解傳統義辨原則下人與動物間的絕對界線。綜而言之，比起過去強調報應必然性以訴諸恐懼的應驗記，《冥報記》中的應驗故事更著重於強調動物的主體性及其與人的相似，賦予牠們「道德地位」，讓牠們得以脫離早期中國「人禽之辨」陰影下的「他者」身分。這種新的動物觀使人必須重新正視動物的痛苦與恐懼，不再理所當然視之為可輕易犧牲的他者。此一對動物的新想像模式與原有的仁愛思想結合，遂使戒殺護生在各階層信徒中獲得廣泛響應。

關鍵字

《冥報記》；動物觀；護生戒殺；報應；佛教中國化

並列摘要

The spread and signification of Buddhism in early medieval China has drawn great attention of researchers in relevant fields. This paper is based on Tang Lin's Ming Bao Ji (Retribution after Death), which is written in the Early Tang period, to examine the transformation of the perception of animal since the Six Dynasties, and to describe how people adapted foreign concepts by incorporating them with existing Chinese notions. The first part will discuss the stories about retribution of killing, arguing that by merging with the traditional Chinese motif ＂the revenge of ghosts,＂ Ming Bao Ji turned the animals' role from victims to subjects that have wills and can debate, make tradeoffs, negotiate-just like humans. The second part will describe how Ming Bao Ji integrated the Chinese concept of soul into samsara and broke the boundary between animal and human. This paper will try to demonstrate that compared to earlier efficacious stories which focus on the necessity of retribution, Ming Bao Ji tends to put emphasis on the subjectivity of animals, emphasizes the similarity between animal and human, and thus bestows moral standings on them. This new conception of animal frees them from being ＂the other,＂ and pushes human to face the pain and horror of animals seriously as well as to feel the hardness of killing. Combined with the traditional concept of ＂Ren＂ (benevolence), the concept of ahimsa (refraining from killing and the protection of life) has been widely accepted by Chinese believers.