5세기 北魏 佛敎에서 보이는 위기의식 - 「大慈如來告疏」를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The “Proclamation of the Compassionate Tathāgata” (Daci rulai gaoshu 大慈如來告疏), a Dunhuang manuscript copied in 454, has been studied from the perspective of the Maitreya cult, and regarded as the earliest evidence to the heterodox cult of Maitreya, which would become very popular and often provide religious ground to a number of rebellions in northen China from the early sixth century on. Previous studies by and large identified the Compassionate Tathāgata with Maitreya and assumed that the text warns in the voice of Maitreya about the deterioration inside the Budhist community, suppression from the secular power, and finally the decline of the Buddha’s dharma; the text then predicts that Maitreya will save Buddhists from calamities. However, given that the text is in many part incomprehensible due to the physical damage, a careful reading of the manuscript reveals that Compassionate Tathāgata, the speaker, is not Maitreya but Śākyamuni. On the contrary to the conclusions of previous scholarship, the text does not describe Maitreya as the saviour who would save the faithful from the eschatological calamities, but merely as a future Buddha who would revive the dharma. Advent of Maitreya in this world does not even appear to be the main theme in the narrative. Rather, what the text emphasizes is that Buddha’s dharma would soon decline. The notion of the decline and subsequent extinction of the dharma is not particularly Chinese in itself. Indian Buddhism had long developed such notions, of which Kauśāmbī story is the best known example. The Kauśāmbī story had been known in China through a number of scriptures since the fourth century. Judging from the similar elements and notions found in both Kauśāmbī story and the “Proclamation”, it seems that the former provided the basic motifs for the latter. Then the historical experience of the first suppression of Buddhism in 440s under the reign of the Emperor Taiwu 太武帝 brought to life the subconscious fear of declining dharma in the mid-fifth century China. The “Proclamation” reflects the concern of Buddhists of the mid-fifth century and heralds the production of Chinese Buddhist apocrypha, which in the following centuries would warn the extinction of Dharma and propagate heterodox cults expecting the advent of Maitreya the saviour.