The Impossibility of the Given: Representations of Merit and Emptiness in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
The Impossibility of the Given: Representations of Merit and Emptiness in Medieval Chinese Buddhism
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给定的不可能：中世纪中国佛教中功德与空性的表征
DOI：
10.1086/502698
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发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
W. Adamek
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
W. Adamek
ç 2005年由芝加哥大学发布。版权所有。中世纪中国佛教功德话语和施与实践构成了一个多样而肥沃的领域，等待着全面的研究。在这篇文章中，为了阐明礼物、空虚、救赎形象和对死者的纪念等概念之间的关系，我选取了几个截然不同的功德表现形式的例子。让我先总结一下佛教的救赎论，把这些概念联系起来。佛教的基本教义之一是，善行可以获得“功德”（pu n ya），这将抵消过去恶行的影响，并导致有益的未来条件，特别是好的转生。慷慨的布施（布施），特别是对僧尼的支持，是典型的功德修行。根据“两谛”的“大车”教义，布施和积德的修行属于相对于空性/相互依存的绝对真理的“暂法”真理。与此同时，在佛教中，慷慨被认为是菩萨们在最终成佛的道路上所修持的完美之一，居士和出家的奉献者都可以追求这条道路。1
ç 2005 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0018-2710/2005/4502-0003$10.00 Medieval Chinese Buddhist merit discourse and donor practices constitute a diverse and fertile field that awaits comprehensive study. In this article, I take up several quite different examples of representations of merit in order to elucidate relationships among notions of gift, emptiness, salvific images, and commemoration of the deceased. Let me first summarize the Buddhist soteriology linking these concepts. One of the fundamental tenets of Buddhism is the notion that good deeds earn “merit” ( pu n ya ) that will negate the effects of past evil deeds and lead to beneficial future conditions, especially good rebirth. Generous giving ( dana ), especially giving support to monks and nuns, is the paradigmatic merit-gaining practice. In terms of the Mah a y a na (Greater Vehicle) doctrine of the Two Truths, the practice of generosity and the accumulation of merit belong to the truth of “provisional means” relative to the absolute truth of emptiness/interdependence. At the same time, in Mah a y a na contexts generosity is construed as one of the perfections practiced by bodhisattvas on their path to ultimate Buddhahood, and both lay and ordained devotees can aspire to this path. 1