唐代彌勒信仰與政治關係的一側面－唐朝皇室對彌勒信仰的態度－

One Aspect of the Relationship between the Cult of Maitreya and Politics in the Tang Dynasty: The Attitude of the Ruling House towards the Maitreya Movement

汪娟(Jiuan Wang)

《中華佛學學報》 4期 (1991/07) Pp. 268-276

https://doi.org/10.6986/CHBJ.199107.0268

摘要

彌勒信抑所以會與政治發生密切關係，主要在於彌勒將繼釋迦之後降生人間成佛，擁有未來佛（新佛）的特殊地位。利用這個特點，可使政治上的纂位奪權獲得正統化的藉口，以謀取得新統治者的地位，武則天的革唐為便是最有名的例子。又因彌勒下生時的世界是一個政治清明、社會進步、和諧安樂的人間淨土；除了說法度眾生解說生死煩惱的彌勒佛外，還有一個「不以刀杖，自然靡伏」的轉輪聖王；故為一般民眾極其憧憬的政治理想國。而統治者以輪王自居，不僅可以使得帝位神聖化，也有利於政權的穩固。因此，把彌勒、輪王和人間帝王結合在一起，其目的就是藉著宗教的力量來取得政治上民心歸向的實質利益。另一方面，彌勒信仰也經常受到民間野心分子的歪曲和改造，企圖達到改朝換代的目的，因而形成依託彌勒的宗教反亂，也造成了統治者的心腹之患。因此唐長孺認為「彌勒信仰自北朝後期至唐而趨於衰落，禁止彌勒教派至少是一個重要原因；而西方淨土徹底排擠了彌勒淨土，不僅由於阿彌陀淨土出了像曇鸞等那樣大師，而是封建統治者在兩種淨土間作出了選擇。」[1]這種說法表面上似乎言之成理，極易為一般人所接受，實際上卻與統治者對彌勒信仰的利用情形不符。因此本文臚列了唐代帝王在個人方面或政治、外交方面有關彌勒信仰的資料，希望能平實地呈現出唐朝皇室對彌勒信仰的態度。

並列摘要

Teaching Assistant, Department of Chinese Literature, Chinese Culture UniversityThe Maitreya Cult became closely involved with politics primarily because Maitreya will be the next Buddha in this world. This peculiar position of ＂future Buddha＂ served new rulers as a pretext for legitimizing their usurpation of political power the most famous example being Empress Wu who supplanted the Tang house with the house of Jou. Another reason was that at the time of Maitreya this world will be a harmonious pure land with clean politics and a progressive soctiey. Besides Buddha Maitreya who expounds the teaching in order to save sentient beings from samsaric afflictions there will be a universal monarch who subjugates in a natural way without taking recourse to weapons. This belief became a political ideal longed for by the general populace and encouraging rulers to regard themselves as universal monarchs, a move which allowed them to sanctify their imperial position and stabilize their political power. To establish a connection between Maitreya, the universal monarch, and the worldly ruler thus aimed at obtaining the concrete advantage of popular support. On the other hand, commoners with political ambitions frequently distorted the Maitreya cult with the purpose of establishing new dynasties. This lead to religious rebellions which used Maitreya as a vehicle and caused the ruling circles much trouble. In his ＂The Maitreya Cult and its Decline in the Northern Dynasties＂, Tang Jang-ru believes that ＂the Maitreya movement declined in the period from the later Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty. The prohibition of Maitreya sects was at least one main reason for this, but it was the western pure land which pushed Maitreye's pure land definitely to the side not only because there were great masters likte Tan-luan propagating Amitabha's pure land, but also because the feudal rulers made their choice between the two pure lands.＂ On the surface, this theory seems to be quite reasonable and is easily accepted. In reality, however, it does not accord with the way in which ruling circles availed themselves of the Maitreya movement. Therefore the present paper introduces hristorical materials on the attitude of Tang emperors towards the Maitreya cult on both the personal and political level in order to demonstrate realisticly how the Tang rulers viewed this religious movement.