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标 题: 日本佛教与政治的关系简谈 （一） 一点点历史 （一稿）(转自BLOG)
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Fri May 28 04:02:45 2004), 站内
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http://www.smth.edu.cn/pc/pccon.php?id=210&nid=38172&s=all 日本佛教与政治的关系简谈 （一） 一点点历史 （一稿）
An outline/summary of ideas (KGB 2004)
（二）部分的观点全部原创
Why Japanese Buddhism had been so political during the medieval period, and
do this historical fact reconciles with Buddhist’ philosophical disposition
of rejecting the “real” world, i.e. an embedded other-worldliness?
■ Historical background
Buddhism had been very political in Japan from the beginning, when the
religion was introduced to the country in 6th century from China; a cursory
look at this historical fact will tell that there had always been a tradition
of active political engagement embedded in Japanese Buddhism. In the Nara （奈
良）period, Buddhism was formally incorporated into part of the state
structure: large number of temples were built and sponsored by the state;
under mandate of central authority, all provinces built their kokubunji （国分
寺）, in which Buddhist sutras were read on the daily basis in a purpose to
protect and pacify the state; monks were trained and recruited to the
government offices; clerics gradually became part of the Japanese ruling
class and source of political power. The Buddhist law, buppō （仏法）, was
elevated to the status of official law. This is a period that historians see
a unification of religion and politics and “ecclesiastification”. This
early political experience served to set the tone of late development of
Buddhism in Japan.
From the mid Heian （平安）period onwards, namely the medieval period, is
what I term a period of “temple politics”, where Buddhist temples gained
significant independence, autonomy and accumulated vast resources, gradually
developed into political powers in their own right.
These temples all tried to expand by means of the honji-matsuji (本寺) system
by establishing new branch temples in existing and new territories; they
gradually became major landholders controlling vast lands in Japan
(approximately one-fourth of the whole country in their heyday) and enjoy
extensive legal and political privileges and immunities (effective
extraterritoriality) such as rights of free from political persecution and
tax exemption and righ of no-entry (不入権) by secular political authorities;
economically, these temples controlled commercial towns, business centres,
agricultural, urban manufacturing and trade. These were all sources of
economic wealth for the temples and were perfectly fungible to political and
military might and influence. Militarily, these temples established their own
armed force, namely the sōhei （僧兵）, perhaps a unique feature in Japanese
Buddhism, which were used to protect interests of the temple and occasionally
undertake aggressive acts against other powers.
Honganji (本願寺), Negoroji (根来寺）, Enryakuji (延暦寺), Kongōji (金剛寺),
Kōfukuji (光福寺), Onjōji (園城寺), Taitokuji (大徳寺),Tenryūji (天竜寺)
and Daidenōin (大伝法院), were all major temples of the period, whose powers
rivaling that of central and local political authorities. They were all
independent political actors, and there had been conflicts amongst Buddhist
temples themselves and with local daimyō and bushi.
In particular was the Honganji, the major temple of Jōdo Shin-Shū. Jōdo
Shin-Shū （浄土真宗）, a new sect founded in the Kamakura （鎌倉）period,
had a teaching which was so basic and simple: to achieve nirvana in the
current world is not possible, the only way is through entering the Pure Land
(Jōdo 浄土), from where achieving nirvana is far more easier; thus a ticket
to Jōdo is effectively a ticket to nirvana. By worshipping Amida Buddha （阿
弥陀仏）, reading sutras and his name everyday, Amida will come to help and
take his followers to the Jōdo. Such teaching was closer to apocalyptical
monotheism than to traditional Buddhism, However, it was approachable for the
uneducated and very easy to practice. Thus Honganji was able to attract mass
followers. The believers were directly loyal to the leader of Honganji and
Amida, instead of local and state authorities, thus create a potential source
of conflicts between the two sort of authorities.
At the time Honganji acted with little or no effective difference to a
typical local daimyō （大名）; in particular, led by cuning leaders such as
Rennyo (蓮如), Honganji was a highly hierarchical, sophisticated political
organisation which was extremely capable of organising and directing its
believers to act on the behalf of the interest of the temple, often in the
name of Amida. For example, Honganji very often ordered its grassroot
followers, mostly peasants, to undertake revolts against local political
authorities, i.e. the ikkō ikki (一向一揆). The capacity massively increased
Honganji’s political power and influence and made it a formidable political
actor.
So why mediaeval Japanese Buddhist temples had been so political, so much so
that they were stranded in the political affairs of the “real” world, in
sharp contrast to traditional Buddhist teachings?
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