北京大學佛學研究系列講座 第27講

TheLife of the Buddha: Roads Taken and Not Taken

時間：2019年12月9日19:00-21:00

地點：北京大學人文學苑2號樓B112教室

主講人：佛爾（Bernard Faure）哥倫比亞大學教授

主持人：王頌 北京大學教授

一、主講人簡介

BernardR. Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, received his Ph.D. (Doctoratd’Etat) from Paris University (1984). He is interested in various aspects ofEast Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on Chan/Zen and Tantric or esotericBuddhism. His work, influenced by anthropological history and cultural theory,has focused on topics such as the construction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, theBuddhist cult of relics, iconography, sexuality and gender. His currentresearch deals with the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism and itsrelationships with medieval Japanese religion. He has published a number ofbooks in French and English. His English publications include: "TheRhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism"(Princeton 1991), "Chan Insights and Oversights: An EpistemologicalCritique of the Chan Tradition" (Princeton 1993), "Visions ofPower: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism" (Princeton 1996), "TheRed Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality" (Princeton 1998), "ThePower of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender" (Princeton 2003), and"Double Exposure" (Stanford 2004). He is presently working ona book on Japanese Gods and Demons. The Fluid Pantheon: Medieval JapaneseGods I (University of Hawai'i Press, 2016) and Protectors and Predators:Medieval Japanese Gods II (University of Hawai'i Press, 2016).

二、內容提要

It wasaround the middle of the nineteenth century that Buddhist studies took off,with the rise of philology and historicism. In reaction to what they perceivedas "fabrications," historians sought to reduce the Buddha's legend toits simplest expression, hoping to find its historical substratum.Unfortunately, there is no method that allows us to separate the "man" from the legend. Most of those who claim that the Buddha"must" have lived behave as if such a method existed, without botheringto explain why they believe it is (or should be) so. We must therefore reversethe usual way of thinking. There are no criteria to separate the historicalfact by peeling the many layers of myth and legend. The life of the Buddha, asit has come to us, belongs essentially to the hagiographic imagination. Even ifone could detect some traces of memorized events in it, they hardly provide abiographical canvas. Yet historians have been quick to trace and fill thiselusive canvas with so-called "facts.” There is no valid reason forprivileging the only stories that seem to come from a "primitive state”supposedly still close to a raw “historical” fact.

For thehistorian of religions, all the myths and legends are more or less equivalent.The Life of the Buddha is first and foremost a narrative, and in the end itdoes not matter whether it is mythological or realistic. At any rate, whetherthe Buddha existed or is only a myth, the mythological Buddha, for one, isindeed very real — since all Buddhism derives from it.

Thus,all the developments of the Buddha’s legend — including those that took placeoutside India — are worthy of consideration, as they contributed to thecreativity of the Buddhist tradition.

主辦單位：北京大學佛教研究中心

特別鳴謝：廣東四會六祖寺