Franciscus Verellen, Imperiled Destinies. The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China,
Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 118, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019.
About the author
Franciscus Verellen is Professor in the History of Daoism at the École française d’Extrême‐Orient and Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles‐Lettres, Institut de France.
About the book
Imperiled Destinies examines the evolution of Daoist beliefs about human liability and redemption over eight centuries and outlines ritual procedures for rescuing an ill‐starred destiny. From the second through the tenth century CE, Daoism emerged as a liturgical organization that engaged vigorously with Buddhism and transformed Chinese thinking about suffering, the nature of evil, and the aims of liberation. In the fifth century, elements of classical Daoism combined with Indian yogic practices to interiorize the quest for deliverance. The medieval record portrays a world engulfed by evil, where human existence was mortgaged from birth and burdened by increasing debts and obligations in this world and the next. Against this gloomy outlook, Daoism offered ritual and sacramental instruments capable of acting on the unseen world, providing therapeutic relief and ecstatic release from apprehensions of death, disease, war, spoilt harvests, and loss. Drawing on prayer texts, liturgical sermons, and experiential narratives, Franciscus Verellen focuses on the Daoist vocabulary of bondage and redemption, the changing meanings of sacrifice, and metaphoric conceptualizations bridging the visible and invisible realms. The language of medieval supplicants envisaged the redemption of an imperiled destiny as debt forgiveness, and deliverance as healing, purification, release, or emergence from darkness into light.
本書簡介
本書檢視了八個世紀中道教關於罪責與救贖信仰的流變，簡述了道教掃轉厄運的儀式活動。從公元2世紀到10世紀，道教作爲一個儀式宗教組織，在與佛教頻繁交流中，改造了中國本土關於苦難、邪惡、解脫的宗教思想。在5世紀，傳統道教元素融合了印度瑜伽修行，內化對拯救的尋求。中世紀的記載描述了一個充滿邪惡的世界，人類因出生就欠下“債務”，此後、甚至在死後，各種“還債”的義務罪責又進一步增加。爲了應對這個問題，道教提供了溝通幽冥世界的儀式和法器，用類似治療或讓人出神以釋放壓力的方式，減輕人們對死亡、疾病、戰爭、荒災、虧損的憂患。本書作者以祈禱文、講經文以及宗教經驗的叙事爲材料。其關注問題則在於，道教對束縛與救贖的術語，對祭祀的不同解釋，對幽明二界的比喻性概念等。中古時期祈禱、許願之人的語言是將多舛命途中的救贖構想爲債務的免除，將解脫構想爲治療、淨化、解放和重見天日。
書評
道教研究者對傅飛嵐（Franciscus Verellen, 1952–）教授不會感到陌生。他主要關注中國中古宗教文化及晚唐和五代社會史，重要的著作包括《杜光庭─唐末五代皇家道士》（法蘭西公學院，1989年）、與施舟人教授合編的《道藏通考》（芝加哥大學出版社2004年出版）等。如果以我們所熟悉的經典作品類比的話，他的新作《命途多舛──中國中古道教對救贖之追求》（Imperiled Destinies: The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China, Harvard University Asia Center, 2019, x+376 pp.）與唐長孺先生的《魏晉南北朝隋唐史三論》是比較近似的。兩本書都將作者在各自領域中的精細個案研究進一步理論昇華，融合入一個宏大的架構中，來解釋研究對象在長時段中的變化。就這個意義而言，該書是一部道教史。更確切地說，是從宗教的社會性著眼，以救贖儀式（redemptive rituals）為對象來寫道教史。該書處理的時期橫跨東漢至五代，不僅包含六朝這個儀式創新的高峰，而且也涉及道教形成期與六朝之後儀式流變所及。在此基礎上，作者揭示出道教史中被長期忽略的、關於救贖的深切宗教關懷……
——吳楊《傅飛嵐《命途多舛──中國中古道教對救贖之追求》評介》
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