佛教神话在日本近世的纠葛:当须弥山说遭遇西洋天学  

The Entanglement of Buddhist Mythology in Tokugawa Japan:When Sumeru Theory Encounters Western Celestial Studies

作　　者：高伟 Gao Wei

机构地区：[1]深圳大学东亚研究中心

出　　处：《世界历史评论》2024年第3期157-183,M0006,共28页The World History Review

基　　金：教育部人文社会科学研究青年基金项目“日本近世国学的中国神话考研究”(项目编号:19YJC770007)的阶段性成果。

摘　　要：在传统东亚世界,佛教须弥山说作为一种神话宇宙论曾深刻影响着人们的地理空间观念。它与其他知识体系的冲突不仅仅发生于中国,也发生在日本。当西洋天学流入日本,以不干斋·巴鼻庵所著《妙贞问答》为表征,须弥山说首先受到了耶稣会士的批判。随着西洋天学知识的普及,对须弥山说的非难也出现在了儒者、神道家等群体中,他们借助西洋地理观念为批判武器。日本佛教界的应对策略,早期主要从教义本身来捍卫须弥山说,如铃木正三对天主教乃“实有之见”的批判。18世纪初出现了将须弥山世界与西洋地理观念相融合的尝试,如“久修园院地球仪”的制作。到了19世纪早期,圆通等人吸纳西洋天学的部分手法对佛教天文学进行整理。这场所谓的“梵历运动”先后设计出“须弥山仪”“视实等象仪”等器具,用以演示天眼所见须弥界与肉眼所见世界的不同。但这种模仿只是一些形式上的借鉴,在实证思维上与近代科学存在巨大差异,因为圆通仍抱持了强烈的宗教目的论和修行境界说。须弥山说最后走入式微,与这种对信仰进行“类科学”化的知识转变存在重要关联。可以看出,在西学流播的背景下,18世纪后日本在知识功用观念上出现了一种新理解。知识从主要为了内在德性或宗教品质的提升,变为需要展示对外部世界的实际功用。In the traditional East Asian world,the Buddhist Sumeru belief as a mythological cosmology had exerted profound influence on people’s geographic conception.Its conflict with other knowledge tradition occurred not only in China but also in Japan.When Western astronomy flowed into Japan,the Sumeru belief was first criticised by the Jesuits,as manifested in the“Myōtei mondō”by Fukansai Habian.Similar attack also came from Confucianists and Shintoists,after knowledge of Western astronomy gained wider acceptance.The Buddhist counterattack strategy in the initial stage was mainly reasserting its own belief,as in the case of Suzuki Shozō’s denouncing Catholicism as a“view of reality”.In the early 18th century,however,there appeared attempts to integrate the Sumeru world with the Western geography,such as the making of“Kushūonin Globe”.During the early years of 19th century,Entsu,a monk of Tendai sect appropriated some approaches of Western astronomy in structuring the Buddhist cosmology.In the so-called“Bonreki Movement”,demonstrative apparatus like“Sumeru Instrument”and the“Vision and Reality Instrument”were invented to show the difference between the Sumeru world seen by the celestial eye and the realm seen by the naked eyes.However,this imitation is only carried out in some limited forms.A gap still exists between its“positivist”thinking and that of the modern science,on account of a teleological and cultivation-related concern of religion still present in Entsu’s thought.The decline of the Sumeru doctrine is closely related to these intellectual attempts at transforming faith into“science-like”knowledge.It can be seen that a new understanding of the utility of knowledge emerged in Japan after the 18th century in the context of the spread of Western learning.Knowledge that had been primarily for the enhancement of inner virtues or religious qualities,now had to prove its practical utility in the external world.

关 键 词：须弥山说 西洋天文学 佛教神话 佛教天文学 梵历运动 

分 类 号：P1-09[天文地球—天文学] B948[哲学宗教—宗教学]