愛國僧人釋熙仲和他的佛教編年史《釋氏資鑑》

公元1279 年，元世祖（1264∼1294 在位）擊敗了南宋（1127∼1279）最後一支抗戰武力而征服整個中國之後，華人首次嚐到國土全部於異族蒙古人的痛苦凡九十七年（1279∼1368）。到了公元1336，蒙元治下的華僧釋熙仲撰成佛教編年史《釋氏資鑑》十二卷，此書極力奉承蒙元征服者，以至誇頌蒙古帝國有「寸地尺天，皆入版圖」的強大（事實上蒙古人絕未征服整個世界）。雖然蒙元帝王歷來對華夏佛寺賞賜甚優渥，熙仲即使有感恩的心，但其言論顯示他不過一介凡夫僧而已！不過，作者注意到熙仲在他著作的開頭處敘述了華夏傳說中「三皇五帝」和真正出現於歷史舞台上的夏、商、周三個遠古的朝代的簡史，這些朝代的存在遠在佛教傳入中國之前凡千年。而且，書中也言中國歷代的帝王多數跟「五帝」有點血緣。經過作者的一番研究，知道熙仲有意提醒他的讀者們中國本來有久遠的獨立國傳統，現今被異族統治，不過一時的困厄而已！更有進者，這部編年史本來極力避開描述異族入侵中國的史事，但卻正面描述了南宋滅亡的經過，更說明了熙仲其實是一位愛國的僧人，他著書是為了暗中鼓吹民族主義以圖復國，前面所述刻意奉承蒙古帝國的言論，不過為了掩飾自己的真正目的而已。本文對熙仲的史學方法，亦加以論及。

關鍵字

1.愛國僧人； 2.凡夫僧； 3.喚醒讀者； 4.民族主義

並列摘要

Since 1279, Emperor Shizu 世祖 (Setsan Khan, r. 1264～1294) of the Mongolian Yuan 元 Dynasty defeated the last resistant force of the Chinese Southern Sung 宋 Dynasty and then conquered the entire China proper, people in the whole of China began to experience the suffering of a barbarian rule which lasted 97 years (1279～ 1368). In 1336, Ven. Shi Xizhong 釋熙仲 a Chinese monk, composed a chronicle entitled Shishi Zijian 釋氏資鑑 (A Comprehensive Chronicle of Buddhism in China) in 12 fascicles. In this work, Xizhong fulsomely praises his Mongolian conquerors by exaggerating that the Mongolian Empire had already put ＂every inch of land and each foot of sky＂ under her sovereign control (in fact the Yüan Empire had never conquered the entire world). Even though the Yuan emperors traditionally donated to Chinese Buddhist establishments handsomely and Xizhong would have been expressing his gratefulness in this way, his adulatory words still exposed that he himself seems to be a morallylow Buddhist cleric! But, the author notices that in his opening pages, Xizhong mentions the Chinese legendary 'Sanhuang' 三皇 (Three Emperors) and 'Wudi' 五帝 (Five Imperial Rulers) , and also the ancient dynasties, i.e., the Xia 夏, the Shang 商 and the Zhou 周. All of the dynasties mentioned above, no matter whether they are legendary or historical existed long before the penetration of Buddhism intoChina for a thousand odd years. They have nothing to do with Buddhism. Besides, Xizhong also emphasized that the emperors of the dynasties established after the Zhou Dynasty were all the descendants of the Five Imperial Rulers. After doing research, the author found that Xizhong intended to awaken his readers by indicating that our China has long been an independent sovereign country, and now we just suffering from this barbarian rule temporarily. Moreover, in Xizhong's work, he did his best to avoid mentioning history involving barbarian invasions of China, but exceptionally, he describes the downfall of the Southern Song Dynasty. This reveals that Xizhong is in fact a monk patriot and his Chronicle is prepared under an aim of propagandizing nationalism to his Chinese compatriots. Then, his fulsome adulation mentioned above is but a way of disguising his true intentions. This article also discusses the historical methods in Xizhong's Chronicle.