中國佛教捨身考

Benn, James (trans. Zhang Dewei 張德偉, Li Jianxin 李建欣, He Yongshan 何泳杉, and Chen Zhiyuan 陳志遠; Collated by Zhang Dewei 張德偉 and Ji Yun 紀贇). Zhongguo Fojiao sheshen kao 中國佛教捨身考 [Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism]. Hualin Foxue Yicong 華林佛學譯叢 [Hualin Translation Series on Buddhist Studies] III, 2021.

This book is a Chinese translation of Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism by James A. Benn, Professor of Buddhism and East Asian religions at McMaster University.

Burning for the Buddha is the first book-length study of the theory and practice of “abandoning the body” (self-immolation) in Chinese Buddhism. It examines the hagiographical accounts of all those who made offerings of their own bodies and places them in historical, social, cultural, and doctrinal contexts. Rather than privilege the doctrinal and exegetical interpretations of the tradition, which assume the central importance of the mind and its cultivation, James Benn focuses on the ways in which the heroic ideals of the bodhisattva, present in scriptural materials such as the Lotus Sutra, played out in the realm of religious practice on the ground.

總序   《華林佛學譯叢》
致謝
中文版前言

引論
第一章   “騰煙曜彩”：中古早期中國的捨身
第二章   《法華經》、燒身和不壞之舌
第三章   僧團和政權：捨身的力量
第四章   捨身是一種“善行”嗎?——永明延壽論捨身
第五章   分裂王朝中的地方英雄：晚唐及五代的捨身
第六章   持續千年的捨身
結論

附錄一   記載捨身事蹟的主要史傳集
附錄二   慧皎、道宣、贊寧的論讚

參考文獻
索引