《观世音应验记》考

Abstract

The story of 《Avalokitesvara應驗記》 contains the narrative that tells how ordinary people overcome all the challenges and adversities from daily troubles to desperately dangerous situation of death. Its narrative, which shows a simple flow of “gloomy reality-making wishes-fulfilling wishes”, is directed toward supernatural power of surrealistic existence, Avalokitesvara. Such a simple narrative structure is supposed to strengthen the effectiveness of the story, playing a role in spreading the story and reproducing various kinds of imitators. The story of 《應驗記》 is focused on the narrative about Avalokitesvara's practice of skillful means(upaya) and salvation by means of it. Devices embedded in the story that build up the feeling of mystique and curiosity enlarge imagination on Avalokitesvara. In the story, the expression of imagination can be found in various incarnations of Avalokitesvara. Maintaining its basic feature as a savior responding to people's wishes, it embodies as far as a divine buddist saint, an ascetic, an ordinary man and an animal. This kind of incarnation might prompt imagination of readers and listeners that in turn help create production of Avalokitesvara's incarnation who has more complicated personalities. “Transcendence” of Avalokitesvara gains “reality” by interruption by those who pass the story down. To increase reliability, various editors emphasized the fact that they had experienced the whole events in the story by firsthand and secondhand. Besides, the story of 《應驗記》, which represents religion life of that time, vividly shows the hardships people had to suffer through their lives. Thus, its historical background found in the story shows close equivalent to the facts in real world. In short, this kind of 《應驗記》 stories passed down as oral literatures in private show their own traits and characteristics properly.