17世纪前欧人笔下的中国佛教形象

13世纪的天主教教廷使者、传教士,还有大旅行家马可·波罗,当时已经注意到了中国的宗教问题,他们几乎无一例外地谈到了中国佛教,尽管充满了误读,但不难看出他们在介绍异国宗教状况的表象下,理解异国文化的努力。大发现时代的欧人对中国的认识还多停留在异国情调层面,商人、传教士未能也不可能深刻理解和感悟中国佛教,但其意义重大:这是继马可·波罗之后两百余年,欧人首次向西方传递了中国佛教形象。考察17世纪前欧人笔下的中国佛教形象,对今日中西宗教文化的交流不无重要的现实意义。

Europeans' Images of Chinese Buddhism before the Seventeenth Century

European travelers, envoys and missionaries before the Great Age of Discovery first observed Chinese religious practices as a sort of idolatry, and they addresses Chinese as "pagans and idolaters". They failed to penetrate beneath the surface manifestations of Chinese religious life and none of them distinguished between Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Although Franciscans saw little of value in Buddhism, they didn't have the Buddhists as their rivals apparently. More and better information about Chinese religion became possible in Europe only after the Jesuit missionaries, beginning with Matteo Ricci and Michael Ruggieri, obtained residence in China, learned the language, and became conversant with Chinese thought and religion. By studying Europeans' images of Chinese Buddhism before the Seventeenth century, we could understand how those early westerners, the image-makers of China, got to know Chinese Buddhism by and by, and how they filtered and transferred images of Chinese Buddhism to the West.