서역에서의 법화신앙 전개 ─천산남로와 양주를 중심으로

Abstract

Of the types of faith in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the faith in the Lotus-Sutra is assumed to have been established and developed in wide area from quite early time. The faith in the Lotus-Sutra here basically refers to the type of faith formulated based on the contents of Lotus-Sutra. During the spread of early Buddhism and the appropriation of culture,the faith in Lotus-Sutra appeared most frequently. As considerable parts described in the Lotus-Sutra have been discovered inside the cave and some of them provide clues to estimate the types of faith over time, the paper tries to examine the faith in the Lotus-Sutra on the southern route of Silk Road. The paper will also attempt to reinterpret the issue of reincarnation in paradise, which has been discussed around Sūtras about Maitreyanātha, with regard to the Maitreyanātha in Lotus Sūtra. In addition, the paper will also examine how the faith in Lotus-Sutra changed over time, by region from the cultural perspective. Over time, the image of two Buddhas sitting side by side appears gradually from the iconography of Maitreyanātha Bodhisattva and the image of seeing each other as well. As it appeared during the process of penetrating into China, how it changed will show us the state of development in types of faith. Through this we will investigate the spread of early Buddhism and state of exchange of the time. In addition, among various routes through which early Buddhism were spread, we will deal with the faith in Lotus-Sutra found in areas such as Tunhuang, a gateway to inner China. Most of the faith in Lotus-Sutra discovered in the sourthern route of the Silk Road can only be understood when viewed from the perspective of exchange. We will limit the comparison to the area of Gansusheng and to the period preceding Sui and T’ang dynasty.