唐代彌勒信仰與政治關係的一側面--唐朝皇室對彌勒信仰的態度

汪娟

Author

汪娟

Source

中華佛學學報=Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal=Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies

Volume

n.4

Date

1991.07

Pages

287 - 296

Publisher

中華佛學研究所=Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies

Publisher Url

http://www.chibs.edu.tw/publication_tw.php?id=12

Location

新北市, 臺灣 [New Taipei City, Taiwan]

Content type

期刊論文=Journal Article

Language

中文=Chinese; 英文=English

Keyword

唐朝; 彌勒信仰; 政治

Abstract

彌勒信仰所以會與政治發生密切關係，主在彌勒將
繼釋迦後降生人間成佛，擁有未來佛 (新佛) 的特殊地位
. 利用這個特點，可使政治上的纂位奪權獲得正統化的藉口
，以謀取得新統治者的地位，武則天的革唐為周便是最有名
的例子. 又因彌勒下生時的世界是個政治清明，社會進步
，和諧安樂的人間淨土; 除說法度眾生解脫生死煩惱的彌
勒佛外，還有個「不以刀杖，自然靡伏」的轉輪聖王; 故
為一般民眾極其憧憬的政治理想國. 而統治者以輪王自居，
不僅可以使帝位神聖化，也有利於政權的穩固. 因此，把
彌勒，輪王和人間帝王結合在一起，其目的就是藉著宗教的
力量來取得政治上民心歸向的實質利益.

另一方面，彌勒信仰也經常受到民間野心分子的歪曲和
改造，企圖達到改朝換代的目的，故形成依託彌勒的宗教
反亂，也造成了統治者的心腹之患. 因此唐長孺認為「彌勒
信仰自北朝後期至唐而趨於衰落，禁止彌勒教派至少是個
重要原因; 而西方淨土徹底排擠了彌勒淨土，不僅由於阿彌
陀淨土出了像曇鸞等那樣大師，而是封建統治者在兩種淨土
間作出了選擇.」這種說法表面上似乎言之成理，極易為一
般人所接受，實際上卻與統治者對彌勒信仰的利用情形不符
. 因此本文臚列了唐代帝王在個人方面或政治，外交方面有
關彌勒信仰的資料，希望能平實地呈現出唐朝皇室對彌勒信
仰的態度.

The Maitreya Cult became closely involved with
politics primarily because Maitreya will be the next
Buddha in this world. This peculiar position of
"future Buddha" served new rulers as a pretext for
legitimizing their usurpation of political power the
most famous example being Empress Wu who supplanted
the Tang house with the house of Jou. Another reason
was that at the time of Maitreya this world will be
a harmonious pure land with clean politics and a
progressive society. Besides Buddha Maitreya who
expounds the teaching in order to save sentient
beings from samsaric afflictions there will be a
universal monarch who subjugates in a natural way
without taking recourse to weapons. This belief
became a political ideal longed for by the general
populace and encouraging rulers to regard themselves
as universal monarchs, a move which allowed them to
sanctify their imperial position and stabilize their
political power. To establish a connection between
Maitreya, the universal monarch, and the worldly
ruler thus aimed at obtaining the concrete advantage
of popular support.

On the other hand，commoners with political
ambitions frequently distorted the Maitreya cult
with the purpose of establishing new dynasties.

This lead to religious rebellions which used
Maitreya as a vehicle and caused the ruling circles
much trouble. In his "The Maitreya Cult and Its
Decline in the Northern Dynasties"，Tang Jang-ru
believes that "the Maitreya movement declined in the
period from the later Northern Dynasties to the Tang
Dynasty. The prohibition of Maitreya sects was at
least one main reason for this, but it was the
western pure land which pushed Maitreye's pure land
definitely to the side not only because there were
great masters like Tan-Luan propagating Amitabha's
pure land，but also because the feudal rulers made
their choice between the two pure lands." On the
surface，this theory seems to be quite reasonable
and is easily accepted. In reality，however，it does
not accord with the way in which ruling circles
availed themselves of the Maitreya movement.
Therefore the present paper introduces historical
materials on the attitude of Tang emperors towards
the Maitreya cult on both the personal and political
level in order to demonstrate realisticly how the
Tang rulers viewed this religious movement.

ISSN

10177132 (P)

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