佛國因緣－《洛陽伽藍記》中佛寺園林的自然與文化再探=The Dependent Rising and Ruining of the Buddhist Kingdom: The Nature and Culture of the Buddhist Gardens in Luo-yang Qie-lan Ji
The main theme of Yang Xuan-zhi's楊衒之 Luoyang qielan Ji洛陽伽藍記 is to record the Buddhist temples and gardens in the Capital Luoyang洛陽 during the Northern Wei北魏. Meanwhile, it also records the politics, economics, figures, customs, geographies and numerous anecdotes of that period. Therefore, it represents the rise and fall of ＂Buddha land in the human world＂ during the Northern Wei. Those Buddhist temples and gardens are not only natural landscapes, but also religious. This essay attempts to return to the historical situations to explore paradoxical senses of time and space by the contrast between the present and the past, the prosperity and the decay, the engaged and transcended spirits. What kinds of historical messages did those Buddhist symbols connote? How to represent a new concept of nature by the material images of those gardens, and then combine the two different kinds of universal models and the sites of enlightenment? In conclusion, the essay would interpret that how the ruinous images of Buddha kingdom enlightened and rebuilt people's spirits.
