佛教傳記文學研究方法的建構 -- 從敘事的角度解讀高僧傳記=The Construction of Research Method in Biographical Literature of Buddhism: From the Narrative angle to interpret the Hagiography of the Eminent Monk
Hagiography of the eminent monk is a combination of Buddhism, history and literature, based on the eminent monk's practice of his religious belief, to offer a great moral example for the followers. However, the author based on selected historical materials and adaption to build up a typical figure of an eminent monk, behind the creation there often carried the religious mission of the Buddhist monk. Narratives itself is a subjective interpretation activity, the narrator's viewpoints towards the main character of the biography, the way of narrating and the degree of involvement to the story, as well as the relative position with the readers, are all contributing to the image of the main character of the biography. Therefore, this article is based on the multiple properties of the Buddhist monk's biographies, to review on the limitation of the previous Buddhist monk's biographies that was mainly based on textual research of historical materials, and try to figure out the possibility of study Buddhist monk's biographies by narrative methods. Take "Song Gaoseng Zhuan" as an example, to find out how eminent monk's image was built and what the religious meaning was behind the eminent monk's moral practice. The purpose is to set up a basic interpretation foundation of Buddhist monk's biography, and so as to extend the different research ways on the Buddhist monk's biography and the value or the text, and to examine the development and progress of the traditional Chinese Buddhist monk's biographies of all the past dynasties.
