《药师经》真伪问题新论

摘要

Bhaisajyaguru Sutra is very popular in China. However, it is considered by some scholars a forgery because of the obscure origin of its first Chinese translation. After comparing it with the Sankrit scriptures by Fei Changfang and Hui Ju, and especially after the appearance of another three Chinese translations, Buddhist bibliographer are inclined to believe that Bhaisajyaguru Sutra is a translated work. But modern Buddhism researchers believe Bhaisajyaguru Sutra must have been created by Chinese monks as it contains some elements of Chinese culture; at last, they think the appearance of the later three translations is"backflow culture" phenomenon. This statement seems fresh and convincing, but it fails to explain some problems. In fact, Bhaisajyaguru Sutra has a number of Buddhist sources, and the Chinese translation of Bhaisajyaguru Sutra has corresponding Sanskrit edition, from which some textual problems can be clarified. So, for the moment, we cannot decide that Bhaisajyaguru Sutra is a forgery created by Chinese.%《药师经》宣传东方药师如来信仰，在中土流传很广。由于其第一译来源不明，僧祐认为该经是“依经抄撰”的伪经。但在费长房、慧矩对勘梵本之后，尤其是后三译出现后，佛经目录学家均倾向于认为《药师经》为翻译佛经。现代的佛教研究者因该经中有一些中国文化因素而认为其是中土所撰之伪经，并认为后三译是《药师经》梵本回流中土后翻译而成的。这种说法固然很有新意，但忽视了佛教“抄经”与“伪经”的区别，也对当时的中印文化交流状况认识不足。其实，《药师经》有着一系列的佛经渊源，汉译《药师经》也有着梵本依据，其中的异常处均能得到很好地解释。因此，目前尚不能认定《药师经》为中土所撰之伪经。