西方發現佛教=Buddhism discovered by the West; 佛教接受史=History of acceptance of Buddhism; 西方佛教研究史=History of Study of Buddhism in the West; 米歇爾-讓-弗朗索瓦·奧澤雷=Michel-Jean-François Ozeray
摘要
關於全球精神版圖的發現史研究大大落後於對有形世界版圖發現史的研究。歐洲與亞洲最大宗教的邂逅即是一個很好的研究案例。每個孩童都很熟悉哥倫布等歷史人物，而即便是研究佛教的學者也往往不知道那些在西方世界發現佛教的主要人物。因此，毫不奇怪的是，在關於西方發現佛教的研究中，西方出版的第一部關於佛教的著作至今幾乎不曾受到關注，這就是1817年米歇爾-讓-弗朗索瓦·奧澤雷（Michael-Jean-Francois Ozeray）在巴黎出版的《東亞宗教創始者浮屠或佛馱研究》（Recherches sur Buddou ou Bouddou, instituteur religieux de l’Asie orientale）。 該文講述和分析了奧澤雷對佛教及其創立者的理解，發掘他所依據的主要資料，並解釋了奧澤雷的書何以為西方對佛教及佛陀的知識作出有益貢獻。奧澤雷著作出版時，立足於大學的佛教和佛教文獻研究處於即將起步的前夕，他的研究主要依賴的是派往亞洲國家的西方大使和僑居在那裡的西方人對藝術品的複製和報告，而不是傳教士的書信、書籍和論辭。雖說奧澤雷的開拓性研究有許多明顯的缺陷，他對奉行於亞洲的佛教的整體視野更契合於現代研究的實地考察，而非大多數當代流行的佛教讀物。
The historiography of the discovery of our globe’s spiritual continents is very much lagging behind that of its physical counterparts. Europe’s encounter with Asia’s largest religion is a case in point. Whereas every child is familiar with figures such as Columbus, the protagonists of the Western discovery of Buddhism tend to be unknown even to scholars of Buddhism. Thus it comes as no surprise that the earliest Western book about Buddhism, Michel-Jean-François Ozeray’s Recherches sur Buddou ou Bouddou, instituteur religieux de l’Asie orientale (Paris: Brunot-Labbé, 1817), has hitherto received almost no attention in modern studies about the Western discovery of Buddhism. This article presents and analyzes Ozeray’s view of Buddhism and its founder, trace his main sources, and explains why Ozeray’s book deserves to be recognized as a valuable contribution to Western knowledge about Buddhism and its founder. Published just before the onset of university-based study of Buddhism and its texts, Ozeray relied heavily on artistic reproductions and reports by ambassadors and Western residents of Asian countries rather than on the letters, books, and arguments of missionaries. In spite of the evident flaws of Ozeray’s pioneering study, its overall vision of Buddhism as practised in Asia appears more congruent with modern field work than the majority of modern popular books on Buddhism.
