韓愈南山詩與曇無讖譯馬鳴佛所行讚

Abstract

The poem by Han Yü entitled Nan-shan or "South Mountains" is famous for its length and for the way in which it uses the word huo 或, "one" or "some, " at the beginning of fifty-one lines, to depict the shapes of the various mountains in the Nan-shan range. The writer believes that the poet borrowed this device from a passage in the Chinese translation of Aśvaghosa's Buddha-Carita which was made from the Sanskrit by T'an-wu-ch'an early in the fifth century. In this work we also find the word huo used over fifty times at the beginning of lines describing the various types of devils which tormented the Buddha, An examination of the Sanskrit text shows that huo is being used as a translation of kācit or kāścit, Ch'en Yin-koh, in his "On Han Yü", pointed out that Han Yü's work had been influenced by Buddhism, but many scholars disagreed with him. The author here offers proof to support Ch'en's statement. Although Han Yü is famous for the severity with which he attacked the Buddhist religion, he does not seem to have hesitated to borrow a poetical device from its literature. Other examples of the influence of Buddhist literature on the literature of the T'ang period may be found, such as that seen in the poem entitled "Eclipse of the Moon" by Han Yü's disciple Lu T'ung 蘆仝, where the poet has borrowed something from Buddhist sutras in his device of depicting devils eating up the moon. The writer hopes that these examples of Buddhist influence in T'ang poetry may be of interest to those who would study the relationships between the literatures of India and China.