The Construction of a Buddhist-Confucian Discourse Community: A Discourse Analysis of the Family Ethics Propagated by Hwadzan Pure Land Association

This paper aims at analysing the creation of an exclusive discoursive community regarding the lay education of 'Hwadzan Pure Land Association' (huazang jingzong xuehui 華藏淨宗學會) by applying Michel Foucault's theoretical concept of 'discourse.' Hwadzan displays distinct characteristics in terms of its advocated path towards rebirth into Amitābha's Pure Land. The recitation of Amitābha's name (nianfo 念佛) is not enough to achieve rebirth, instead, monastics and laypeople have to focus on this-worldly cultivation based on Confucian and Daoist scriptures to build a foundation that allows them to advance towards higher levels of spiritual cultivation. Discourse analysis helps us understand the societal level of meaning that lies beyond grammatical minutiae and how individuals, although already being part of certain discourses, are able to utilise power, knowledge, and truth to construct a discourse that provides a religious identity and existential meaning. Reality shapes discourse but the individual and collective reality is also transformed by discourse. Discourse, as an institutionalised pattern of knowledge, manifests itself in disciplinary structures by connecting knowledge and power, it includes the process of writing, reading, and exchange. Hence, central questions are (1) what can be spoken of, (2) where and how one may speak, and (3) who may speak. In other words, what is the doctrinal foundation referred to, where and how can be spoken about it, and who controls the discourse to speak about it? I argue that the umbrella terms 'Traditional Chinese Education' and 'Buddhist Education' are at the centre of the Buddhist-Confucian discourse of Jingkong's Pure Land movement and Hwadzan's lay education. Both terms are broad enough to structure the temporal meaning of the mundane world in Confucian terms, while at the same time opening a Buddhist path out of suffering, leading to rebirth into Amitabha's Pure Land.

關鍵字

Pure Land Buddhism ； Taiwanese Buddhism ； Jingkong ； Michel Foucault ； Discourse Analysis

並列摘要

本文主旨在利用米歇爾．傅柯（Michel Foucault）的「論述理論」分析華藏淨宗學會獨創的居士教育群體。華藏在提倡往生阿彌陀佛淨土的道路上表現出鮮明的特徵。念阿彌陀佛的佛號並不足以實現往生西方極樂世界，僧侶與居士皆要以儒家和道家的經文為基礎，注重此世的修行，建立此基礎，才能向更高層次的精神修養邁進。「論述分析」（discourse analysis）有助於我們理解超越語法細節的社會層面的意義，以及個體如何在已經是某論述群體的一部分，利用權力、知識和真理來建構一種提供宗教身份和存在意義的論述。現實塑造了論述，但個人和集體體現的現實也被論述所改變。論述作為一種制度化的知識模式，通過連接知識與權力而表現在學科結構中，其中包含寫作、閱讀和交流的過程。因此，核心問題是：（1）可以說什麼？（2）在哪裡可以說，如何說？（3）誰可以說？換句話說，文中意旨的教義基礎是什麼，在哪裡可以講，如何講，誰掌控論述權說話？我認為空法師的淨土運動和華藏淨宗學會的居士教育，以「中國傳統教育」和「佛陀教育」的統稱為塑造一種獨特的「佛儒論述」。兩者論述皆很寬泛，可以用儒家的論述來建構世俗世界的時間意義。同時又開闢了一條出離苦海的佛道，使人到阿彌陀佛的淨土。