中日佛教文化交流中的《法華經》 — 從中古時期東亞佛教儀式文本的角度出發=Lotus Sutra in Buddhist Cultural Exchanges between China and Japan: East Asian Buddhist Ritual Texts in Middle Ages as Clues
Ritual is an important part of Buddhist Culture, and is strongly regulated both in Buddhist temples and in state ceremonies. Daily life experiences in Tang temples were highly regarded for monks who travelled to Tang in Heian Japan, and the experiences also were the most remarkable part during their assimilating of Chinese Buddhist knowledge. Meanwhile, as foreign visitors, these Japanese monks were also acute at the image of Tang Buddhism. This article focuses on the understanding of Buddhist ritual in early Heian period, and reveals the importance of Chinese ritual during the construction of Tendai and Shingon Buddhism. Japanese Buddhism is known for its state-protection tradition, and was highly respected by the Emperor-centered ruling class. That is, Japanese Buddhist ritual is usually state-protective, and combined with state ceremonies. In both the greatest founders of Japanese Buddhism, Kukai and Saicho's works, many ritual related articles can be found. Some of them are manuals of rituals, while some of them are articles that reflect social background of the ritual. Within these works, hyobyak and ganmon are the most characteristic genres that illustrate the essential nature of Japanese Buddhism. Through the inspection of the Fahuazhuanji, this article explicates the general apprehension of Lotus Sutra in Tang, and further compares it with Kankebunso and the works of Kukai and Saicho, to provide the commonality and divergence of Lotus Sutra in Buddhist ritual texts in East Asian Buddhist cultural exchanges. Notably, while Kukai is the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. Lotus Sutra is often highly worshipped in his works, both in state-protective texts and ganbun for family members. It is connected to Kukai's expertise in exoteric and esoteric Buddhism, and also related to a long term social background that Japanese Buddhism has been influenced by Sui and Tang Buddhism.