佛教、佛陀与中国诸神

　　历史上的佛陀生活在公元前5世纪时的北印度，大约与孔子同时。佛陀教诲说，人生与（痛）苦相俱不离。苦则缘于人对物质性的东西的渴爱，因此离苦的惟一方法就是离欲。要离欲，人就得忘身、服务于他人，以及坐禅，最重要的还是在生活中不眷恋世俗之物。这样，人也就能达到佛教的涅?理想。
　　大约在东汉初，通过商路自印度沿来华的传法僧人，佛教到达中国。《汉书》提到，公元第1世纪时，在皇室成员的支持下，佛教僧人就在洛阳建寺。不过，经历长期的分离局面，佛教到汉朝末年才真正在中国人中间立住了脚。这当中的原因不难理解：儒教坚持认为人性从根本上说是善的；它也强调统治者与被统治者相互之间、父亲与家庭成员间、长幼之间的责任和义务。在汉末，谋活图存的法则似乎取代了儒家的关系原则和人性理论。佛教的悲观似乎比儒教的乐观更契合时代。

　　中国人接受了佛教，并把佛陀纳入了中国的诸神谱系。这个神谱是天上的朝廷，在普通人心目中, 它极其类似于人间的皇帝朝廷。它由玉皇、其各部大臣和不同的臣工组成。这中间有各种类型的神祗，星宿之神，地空元素的神，战争神与雨水神；当然这个神谱中还包括佛陀、他的弟子，也有在人世间生活过的显赫帝王，或是一些特别有道德的人物；这里还包括司文学的神、谷物之神、甚至帝国内各大山系的山神。

　　 The historical Buddha lived in northern India around the 5th century BC., about the same time as Confucius lived in China. The Buddha taught that life and suffering are inseparable, that suffering is due to desire and the thirst for material things, and that the only way to escape from suffering is to be free of desire. To be free of desire one must forget oneself and serve oth-ers, meditate, and above all live with-out passionate attachments to worldly things. Then one can reach the Buddhist ideal, nirvana.
　　 Buddhism arrived in China via mis-sionaries who followed the trade routes from India just as the Eastern Han era was beginning. The Han Shu (Han Chroni-cles) mention that, by the first century AD., Buddhist monks had established tem-ples in Luoyang under the patronage of members of the imperial family. But it was during the long period of disunity at the end of the Han era that Buddhism really took hold among the Chinese peo-ple. It is not difficult to understand why. Confucianism held that human nature was essentially good; it emphasized the network of mutual duties and obligations between ruler and ruled, father and fam-ily, elder and younger, husband and wife. At the end of Han, the law of sur-vival seemed to have replaced Confucian relationships and Confucian theories of human goodness. Buddhist pessimism seemed more in keeping with the times than Confucian optimism.

　　 The Chinese adopted Buddhism and in-troduced Buddha into the Chinese pan-theon of gods. This pantheon consisted of a godly court in heaven, which was a close analogy to what the common people thought of as their emperor's court on earth. It was ruled by the Jade Emperor (Yudi), his ministers, and his various consorts. There were gods of the guilds; gods of the planets, elements, earth, and sky; war and rain gods; and, of course, the Buddha, his disciples, and those remarkable people who had lived on earth such as emperors, or individuals who had been particularly virtuous. There was a god of literature, a god of grain, even a god for each of the sever-al mountain ranges within the empire.