<論説>仏法と人法

Abstract

「王法と仏法」という中世日本の正統的な秩序観にたいして、新たに登場する「人法興隆」「人法繁昌」といった「人法」概念は、体制の変容を物語るものとして鎌倉末南北朝の時代を語る際に注目されてきた。このような「人法」の用例を広範に蒐集検討すると、「人法」は「仏法」と対峙する世俗・の秩序をさすのではなく、それは主要には寺僧など寺院の構成員をさすのが通例であったと判断できる。この語はかなり長期間にわたる用例が確認できるが、当該時期の寺院のありかたに現実的な基盤をおくものであった。また「人法」には中世の仏教的人間主義といえるような認識をそこに見いだすことができる。一部では、寺僧らに限定されない広義の用例もあったが、それは可能性に止まり、「人法しは矯小化された用例に局限された。

The appearance of the concept of ninpo 人法, human law, which is seen in the terms ninpo koryu 人法興隆 and nimpo hanjo 人法繁盛 (flourishing of human law) and understood in contrast to oho 王法 (royal law) and buppo 仏法 (Buddhist law, dharma), the orthodox conceptions of the social order in medieval Japan, has become the focus of accounts of those who seek to recount changes in the conceptions of the social order in late-Kamakura and early-Nanbokucho period. Having made a wide-ranging survey and investigation of the use of the term ninpo, I have been able to conclude that in general ninpo did not refer to the secular order in contrast to buppo, and that it was chiefly used to refer to the monks who constituted temples communities. Though I was able to confirm that the term was widely used for a rather lengthy period, it had been based on the actual foundation of temple life. We can also observe a consciousness of informing medieval Buddhist humanism in that term. There are some examples of the usage of the term in a broader sense, unrestricted to temples and monks, but these remained undeveloped, at a stage of potentiality, and the use of ninpo was limited to examples in the narrowly defined sense.