Cultural Diversity in China 2015; 1(2): 141–163

Research Article Open Access

Der-Ruey Yang* Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park#

DOI 10.1515/cdc-2015-0008 # This paper is an outcome of the research project “The Transmis- Received September 14, 2014 accepted January 1, 2015 sion and Acceptance of Religion: An Exploration of Cognitive Anth- ropology and Psychology (宗教的传习与接受—认知人类学与心理学 Abstract: Despite having been sharply criticized and 的探索)” (project no. 10YJA730016), funded by the Humanities and ridiculed on ecological and/or theological grounds by Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China. people both in and outside the Buddhist community for decades, fangsheng (animal release) is still one of the The booming of Buddhism in China since the end of most popular devotional acts among Chinese Buddhists, the Cultural Revolution has been evident for all to see. especially urban Buddhists. In fact, to the dismay of According to Ji (2012–13), probably the most up-to-date and those enlightened critics, this controversial practice may comprehensive synthesis of survey results about the growth well be one of the key factors that have made Buddhism of Buddhism in China in recent decades, the population of the fastest-growing religion in China in recent decades. self-identified Buddhist believers in China has increased This paper thus attempts to explain why Chinese urban from less than 70 million in 1997 to 100 million in 2005 and Buddhists persistently favor fangsheng. It begins with then to around 230 million (18.2 percent of the total Chinese a brief review of the process by which famous Buddhist population) in 2010. Meanwhile, the population of Han monks and pious emperors constructed the classical form Chinese Buddhist clergy grew from 70,000 in 1997 to 100,000 of animal release in China from the late fifth through in 2006. In addition, from 1994 to 2010 a total of 66,538 people the eleventh century. Then it describes several styles of were ordained in 149 ceremonies in Han Chinese Mahayana animal release that are currently practiced in Nanjing, Buddhist monasteries. As for Buddhist temples, the number especially those being reformed and enthusiastically rose from some 13,000 in 1997 to more than 15,000 in 2006. organized by numerous jushi (Buddhist laity) groups. Maybe except for Protestant Christianity, there is no other After that, it discusses why fangsheng has become one of religion in China that can compare with Buddhism in terms the most popular devotional practices in Nanjing. Based of speed of growth in every respect. on participant observation and in-depth interviews, So how to explain the marvelous success of the Buddhist the author argues that the most remarkable advantage mission in contemporary China? According to works by of fangsheng is the dramatic, sensational effects it can specialists in this field (Yang and Wei 2005; Ji 2011; Ji 2012– produce easily and reliably, which may explain why it is 13), the factors behind this success can be summarized as an invincible method of Buddhist spiritual cultivation. follows: (1) the official Buddhist establishment maintains More precisely, fangsheng in practice is the enactment of a a compliant and conservative stance in terms of political sensational ritual drama that represents the pilgrimage of ideology; (2) the central government began to support all mortals from hell (the marketplace) to heaven (a park). Buddhism because this is an effective means of obtaining Many practitioners and attendants appear to be deeply cultural influence over Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and moved by witnessing the creatures chosen for fangsheng, other overseas Chinese communities; (3) provincial and onto which those practitioners often project themselves, lower-level governments began to support Buddhism, saved from torture and tragic death. as they found Buddhist sites can boost tourism and local economies; (4) the general public’s “nostalgia” for and/or Keywords: method of religious cultivation, urban renewed interest in “traditional” Chinese culture privileges religion, Buddhism, fangsheng (animal release) Buddhism because Buddhist symbols are key constituents of this culture; and (5) the strategic efforts of Buddhist institutions to build a rapport with relevant academics and *Corresponding author: Der-Ruey Yang, Nanjing University, to directly sponsor academic research on Buddhism have E-mail:[email protected] effectively exalted the religion’s image.

© 2015 Der-Ruey Yang licensee De Gruyter Open. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. 142 Der-Ruey Yang

These five structural factors may all have been crucial has inspired a huge array of Buddhist learning camps all to the continuous thriving of Buddhism during the past two over China, such as Chan Qi (seven-day Zen camps) and decades. Indeed, the attitude of the government is definitely Fo Qi (seven-day Pure Land Buddhism camps), but serious the most powerful factor in the fortune of virtually any study of this mode of religious cultivation and transmission sort of enterprise in China. However, one cannot help but is still lacking. wonder how Buddhism has consolidated its “power base” As a response to the situation described above, this or “human resources”—its loyal followers—in the first place paper discusses one of the most popular devotional practices so it could start carrying out all sorts of maneuvers. If we among contemporary Chinese Buddhists, especially those overlook the microlevel tactics through which Buddhism who live in urban areas—fangsheng (animal release).4 attracts, teaches, and secures the allegiance of its followers, The ethnographic study on which this paper is based was then how can we explain why Daoism does not thrive like conducted in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, intermittently Buddhism despite the fact that it enjoys similar structural from 2012 to 2014. Nanjing is among the ten biggest cities in support? More important, there are many religions in mainland China, with 4,7oo square kilometers of land and China that the government has never supported or has more than eight million residents. Certainly, it is impossible even prosecuted—such as the innumerable underground for a case study conducted in such a big city to claim to Christian churches and the new Eastern Lightning1—but represent the rest of the country. Nevertheless, there is no are still thriving. It seems that government support or some good reason to regard the Buddhism practiced by local fashion in popular culture, no matter how influential it Buddhists here as atypical of those in other Chinese cities. may be, is neither a sufficient nor a necessary condition for the success of a religion in China. The microlevel tactics in attracting and training followers and then securing their Fangsheng’s Formation Process allegiance are probably more essential. Before discussing its present-day form in Nanjing, let us Yet academic discussion of the microlevel tactics of briefly review the historical process by which fangsheng contemporary Chinese Buddhism is in short supply. Among arose and became a typical Buddhist devotional practice. the rare works concerning this issue, Gareth Fisher’s research Similar practices, such as banning hunting and fishing on how the production and circulation of morality books in certain periods and areas or deliberately enlarging function to revive lay Buddhism in contemporary China the mesh of nets, have a long history in China.5 They are (2011) is an excellent example.2 With rich ethnographic details, Fisher beautifully illustrates how the Buddhist establishment uses the printing and circulation of popular bly, it has neither sufficient detail about how the camp is conducted Buddhist literature to reach potential followers, convert nor an analysis of why it is so successful. 4 Fan 2005 reports the popularity of fangsheng in Shenzhen in re- them, and help them create lay Buddhist communities. It is cent decades. only in works like Fisher’s that we can really get some clue 5 For instance, in the chapter “Liu Tao·Hutao Pian 六韜·虎韜篇” (Six about how Buddhism has become the most popular religion strategies, strategy of tiger) of Qunshu Zhiyao (An anthology of books), in China today. However, printing and circulating morality the author approvingly quotes the prohibition in the time of Shen books is just one means of promoting Buddhism—and it is Nong 神農, a legendarily sage king of ancient times, against harming very likely that its importance is diminishing quickly. There creatures born in the spring or summer (Wei et al. 1985, 525). Similarly, the chapter “Dajü Jie 大聚解” (The interpretation of big settlement) of are many new ways of promoting Buddhism that have not the Yi Zhou Shu (Lost books of Zhou), recalls the Ban of Yu 禹, ano- received the attention they deserve from scholars. Take just ther legendarily sage king of ancient China, as stating that “gathering one example: the Life Chan Summer Camp organized by firewood in mountains is banned during the springtime and fishing the Bailin Chan Temple in Hebei for university students. is banned during the summer” (Zhu 1937, 191; all translations, unless This camp became a famous brand in Chinese Buddhist otherwise identified, are mine). Besides, in Li Ji (The book of rite), we find many similar records, in chapters such as “Qu Li曲禮,” “Wang Zhi circles after its inauguration in 1993, as it has recruited 王制,” “Yue Ling月令,” and “Yu Zao玉藻” (Chen 2004, 10, 91–93, 118, tens of thousands of young and highly educated Buddhist 212). Moreover, in the chapter “Lu Yu 鲁语” (The history of Lu State) of converts over the past twenty years.3 Its impressive success the book Guo Yu (The history of states), there is a story about how the minister Li Ge destroyed the king’s fishing nets when the King of Lu had fished too much in the summertime (Zuo 2010, 116–17). Echoing 1 Eastern Lightning (東方閃電) is a Christian sect founded in 1990 in those ancient codes, Confucius taught the wisdom of “fishing without Henan Province by Zhao Weishan. For more information, see http:// nets but with hooks, shooting no resting animals” (Kong 1999, 53), and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Lightning. his line was followed by Mencius, who coined the famous motto in 2 See also Lu and He 2014; Yang 2014. ancient Chinese economic thought “No fine-net fishing in pools; lum- 3 Yang and Wei 2005 briefly describes this summer camp. Regretta- bering at the right season” (Meng 2000, 5). Finally, Lüshi Chunqiu (The Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 143 commonly seen in records as far back as the Warring nicely contained in just one paragraph, which followers States era, implemented by ancient kings and emperors frequently quote: to promote frugality and display their great compassion for not just human beings but all living creatures. For When a Buddhist practices fangsheng for the sake of compas- sion, [he or she should think to him- or herself that] all the men example, Liezi 列子, a book written no later than the East in the world are my fathers and women my mothers. They gave Han dynasty, mentions an institutionalized practice called birth to me during the innumerable past reincarnations of mine. zhengdan fangsheng 正旦放生 (releasing an animal on the For the same reason, all living creatures, regardless of which first day of the lunar year) in a quote of Zhao Jianzi 趙簡 one among the six ranges of life-forms they are currently assig- 子, Minister Jian of the Zhao Kingdom.6 That is why some ned to by the karmic wheel, are my parents. To hunt and to eat any one of them is to kill my parents and so amounts to killing Chinese people, especially orthodox Confucians and Han my previous bodies. All the earth and water are my previous Chinese nationalists, insist on appealing to Confucianism bodies. All the fire and wind are my noumenon. So those who and/or Daoism instead of Buddhism as the basis of their always practice fangsheng will always be given lives so as to fangsheng practices.7 Yet it is beyond any doubt that be reincarnated. Whenever you see that some animal is going Buddhism is the “legislator” of fangsheng practice which to be butchered, you should rescue it in any possible way at has given it a sacred origin in the hagiography of Buddha, your disposal and release it from suffering and disaster. Keep on promulgating, preaching the Bodhisattva precepts to rescue a structure of activity, and several optional liturgies and lives! . . . Whether it is a human being or a tiny insect, you extended it to the entire Chinese population across different should always try your best to release it if there is even the sligh- areas and social statuses. test chance to rescue its life. The Buddhist formulation of fangsheng started with the fabrication of a hagiography of the Buddha. Sometime The idea here is arguably not authentic Buddhism but a around the end of the fifth century bce, a Chinese monk hybrid of Buddhism and indigenous Chinese thought. forged a sutra called Fan Wang Jing梵網經 (Sutra of Certainly, elements of Buddhism—which includes the Four Brahma’s net) and claimed it as the translation of an Rupakaya (earth, water, fire, and wind), the six ranges of authentic Sanskrit sutra by Kumarajiva, one of the greatest life-forms, the wheel of karma, karmic retribution, and translators of Buddhist sutras. This sutra soon became the reincarnation—are evident here. Moreover, we can easily ultimate authority for theorizing and justifying fangsheng see how this refers to some profound Buddhist ideas, in Chinese Buddhism.8 The sutra’s core message is such as equality among all living beings, compassion, salvation, and the way of Bodhisattva. However, its appeal to the love between parents and children and its ripplelike spring and autumn annual compiled by Lü), a small encyclopedia logic that sets ego as the center and then evolves outward compiled around the end of the Warring States era and the beginning to incorporate parents, men and women, all living of the Qin dynasty, contains an anecdote about Tang 湯, the sage foun- things, and finally the Four Rupakaya are characteristic ding emperor of the Shang dynasty, who was said to use nets on only one side and to keep them away from the other three directions while of Confucian teachings about xiao (filial piety) and ren fishing. Consequently, “Kingdoms in the south of Han heard that Tang (benevolence, compassion).9 extends his great compassion to cover even animals. The forty king- As one hybrid of Buddhist and Confucian ideas, Fan doms thus pay homage to him” (Lü 1986, 283). Wang Jing proved extremely contagious among Chinese The original text can be translated as “On the first day of the Lunar 6 people. Only decades after it was authored, Emperor Wu New Year, people in Handan offered turtledoves to Minister Jianzi, and he awarded them generously with great pleasure. A guest then of Liang, probably the most pious Buddhist emperor in asked him why he did this, and he answered, ‘Fangsheng at the first day of the Lunar New Year is an important gesture for showing com- passion’” (Lie 1985, 108). an incarnation of the Buddha before he became Sakyamuni, practi- 7 For how Confucian literati-officials during the fourteenth through ces the dharma of Bodhisattva by saving a lot of fish. This story has sixteenth centuries practiced fangsheng and theorized their practi- been widely claimed as a precedent for the sanctuary pond of later ces with Confucian texts, see Smith 1999. There seems to be no acade- times. However, it is not very impressive among the many stories mic discussion of the involvement of Daosim in fangsheng practices. of Sakyamuni’s exploits presented in the sutra, which attaches no However, it is certain that the Daoist liturgy for fangsheng, which I theological comment or exposition to this story. Its influence does personally witnessed being practiced by Daoist nuns in present-day not at all compare with that of Fan Wang Jing, which artfully mixes up Zhenjiang, was composed before the fifteenth century. This proves the Buddhist concept of karmic retribution with traditional Chinese that Daoism has also involved fangsheng for centuries. ethical concepts such as filial piety. Therefore, Jin Guang Ming Jing 8 Before Fan Wang Jing was forged, Tan Wuchen 曇無讖 translated cannot be regarded as the beginning of the Buddhist formulation of Suvar aprabhāsottama-sūtra as Jin Guang Ming Jing 金光明經 (Gol- fangsheng in China. den light sutra), around 426 bce. In chapter four, there is a story 9 For a detailed analysis of the elements of Confucianism in Fan in which Liushuizhangzhe 流水長者子 (The senior of flowing water), Wang Jing, see Xia 2014. 144 Der-Ruey Yang

Chinese history, used his political might to wage a series of alive from butchers and then releasing them is more active movements banning the killing of animals and promoting and decisive. Although we cannot find any record of when vegetarianism, beginning in 527 bce. Meanwhile, there this approach was developed, it would not be absurd to emerged a group of monks whose commitment to the tenet infer that it appeared at roughly the same time as the Ban of nonkilling was so passionate that they did not hesitate on Butchering in the Long Months. The reason for this is to mutilate themselves in order to rescue animals. For simple: the ban is a strong hint that slaughter in urban example, Bhikku Huiji 慧集 burned his own arms to raise areas (e.g., national and prefectural capital cities) was funds for rescuing animals, and Bhikku Pu’an普安 cut off concentrated in butcher’s shops inside marketplaces at flesh from his own leg to exchange for a pig that was going that time. Therefore, it was simply practical and efficient to be sacrificed. These antitraditional, even antisocial, and for urban residents to buy live animals from butchers definitely scary “behavioral arts” seemingly proved that when they wanted to practice fangsheng. many Buddhist missionaries of the time already reckoned If this inference is acceptable, then we can further infer the doctrine of fangsheng propagated by Fan Wang Jing as that the interest of urban residents in practicing fangsheng the leading banner of Buddhist evangelism. would have been frustrated if there was no proper place for With the theory of fangsheng established, there them to release these animals. For fangsheng to have been a followed the invention of some practical activities that workable activity for urbanites, there must have been some could realize the idea with a relatively low cost. Apparently, easily accessible, well bordered, and safe, guarded place banning killing and enforcing vegetarianism with coercive where the released animals could survive without worrying power like Emperor Wu of Liang had done was neither about being caught again. Apparently, clearly marking a realistic nor sustainable. Consequently, during the Sui and water surface for this purpose in or near the city would have Tang dynasties, some activities emerged that were much been the most economic way to set up and maintain such more practical and moderate and much less challenging an ideal place. Hence, it was said that the Venerable Zhiyi to the customs of Han Chinese. The key to the feasibility 智顗 (538–97 bce) of the Tiantai Order 天台宗 invented an of these activities was quite simple: concentrating the animal-releasing pool (放生池) at roughly the time when energy for promoting fangsheng on two strategic points— Emperor Wen instituted the ban.12 Emperor Su of the Tang the marketplace and the park—instead of trying to fight dynasty (唐肅宗) then spread this invention throughout with the entrenched customs of the whole population. China when he ordered, in 759 bce, the establishment of Surely there is no more efficient way to promote eighty-one animal-releasing pools around the country.13 nonkilling than to lock up the butchering center: the Perhaps it was starting with this order that animal- marketplace. It is impossible to close down all butchers releasing pools began to be created in various forms. Many forever, but it is certainly possible to shut down some of were not just a lake near the monastery anymore, but a them for a short period. This is just what Emperor Wen pond or a swamp that could not be cultivated or settled in of the Sui dynasty did in 583 bce when he instituted the or near a city. After a local mandarin designated a place Ban on Butchering in the Long Months, which ordered all as the site of an animal release pool, a tablet carved with butchers near temples, especially those in the national a related imperial decree and a pavilion for protecting and prefectural capital cities, to shut down from the eighth the tablet were soon set up. Then pavilions, platforms, to the fifteenth day of the three “long months,” January, bridges, and docks were built for the convenience of local May, and September.10 This policy was so thoroughly mandarins who held fangsheng ceremonies there. Later, executed and widely accepted by the people that it has some stones or tablets inscribed by famous calligraphers become a folk custom in many places across China.11 with beautiful prose or poems composed by literati- Even today, we can still witness its memory in some rather officials to champion the cause of fangsheng were also conservative Chinese communities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, erected.14 Consequently, fangsheng pools were often part and southeast Asia where all the butchers close down of fabulous resorts for urbanites. The most classic example during the festivals for celebrating the Buddha’s and is West Lake in Hangzhou, the most well-known animal Bodhisattva’s birthdays. release pool in history and probably the earliest open city Compared with temporarily halting the killing in park and suburban ecological preservation center. butcher’s shops, rescuing animals by purchasing them

12 See Daoxuan 1934. 10 See Yan 1999, 32–33. 13 See Jianzhaijushi 2011. 11 See Liu 2008, 75–111, for a thorough description of how the Ban 14 See Smith 1999 for more about this genre, which was named on Butchering in the Long Months evolved in medieval China. “fangsheng texts 放生文” in Ming and Qing China. Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 145

To summarize, at the time of the Sui and Tang steps (based on the Fangsheng Ciji Famen): dynasties, two fangsheng-related points were 1. Proclaiming the reason for performing the fangsheng established. One was identifying butchers in liturgy today marketplaces as the front line for stopping killing, and 2. Purifying the animals with water while chanting the the other was building ecological parks as destinations mantra Da Yuan Man Tuo Luo Ni Shen Zhou Hui Ji Zhen for releasing animals. A set of easy and practical Yan 大圓滿陀羅尼神咒穢跡真言 procedures for fangsheng practice was thus settled. 3. Praying to Buddha for granting wisdom to animals and Then, since the Song dynasty, as the development of making them understand the truth of Buddhism the market economy and urbanization accelerated 4. Vowing to pay homage to the Three Treasures of and common civilians were more and more involved Buddhism (Buddha, Sutra, and Sangha) on behalf of in religion, urban residents gradually formularized the animals fangsheng as buying animals from marketplaces and 5. Chanting the names of many Buddhas, such as releasing them in parks. As can be expected, the smell of Baosheng Buddha 宝胜如来, more than seven times hypocrisy that always comes with the formularization of 6. Preaching the Twelve Nidanas (十二因緣) to the animals any kind of devotional act—which allows for its mindless 7. Leading the animals to confess the evil karma they have practice—triggered disaffection in true believers. From accumulated in their previous lives the Ming dynasty onward, many Buddhist thinkers criticized formularized fangsheng, calling instead for After this, the ritual master gives the animals a few short a spontaneous, nondeliberate approach. However, as blessings and then releases them. the trend toward further urbanization could not be To conclude: We have briefly reviewed the history of curbed, the established formula became more and more fangsheng’s gradual development into a well-packaged consolidated. After all, the marketplace was becoming and practicable module of devotional activity. Surely it the major if not the only place where urbanites could was not invented specifically for proselytizing urbanites, find animals to release. Also, as cities expanded in but the later formularization of its procedure, which is both territory and population, urban and suburban pinned to marketplace and park, clearly reveals that it parks could not help but be the only feasible places for had become a characteristic devotional activity for urban urbanites to release animals. Buddhists by the ninth century. Not only was the whole practice more and more formularized, but its final part, the release of the animals into their sanctuary, was also ritualized. The earliest Fangsheng in Nanjing Today endeavor to standardize the liturgy of fangsheng can Animal release has a long history in Nanjing. Given the be credited to the Venerable Zunshi遵式of the Tiantai fact that it was the capital city from which Emperor Wu Order, who wrote the Fangsheng Ciji Famen 放生慈濟法門 of the Liang dynasty, the most pious Buddhist emperor in (Manual for mercifully rescuing and releasing animals).15 Chinese history, began to promote the ethic of nonkilling Similarly important is the Fangsheng Wen 放生文 (Text for by forbidding meat consumption, we can reasonably animal release), composed by the Venerable Zhili from infer that it was probably one of the earliest centers of Siming 四明知禮.16 These two ritual manuals were written Buddhist-style fangsheng practices. Therefore, the oldest at nearly the same time and are extremely similar. They monument marking the presence of fangsheng in this jointly established the framework of the fangsheng liturgy city, Wulong Pond 烏龍潭, in today’s downtown area, is in Chinese Buddhism,17 which can be divided into seven probably also one of the oldest relics of this sort across the entire country. The local magistrate Yan Zhenqing 顏真 15 See Zunshi 1975–89, vol. 2. 卿, the renowned model Confucian literatus-bureaucrat, 16 See Zongxiao 2010. designated Wulong Pond as the animal-releasing pool of 17 The most popular form of fangsheng liturgy after the late six- Jiangning 江寧, the name of Nanjing at that time, following teenth century (the later part of the Ming dynasty) was authored by the aforementioned edict of Emperor Su of the Tang the Venerable Zhuhong 袾宏 (also known as Master Lianchi蓮池大 師, 1535–1615). Despite the prominent status he had already achieved dynasty in 759 bce.18 Regrettably, unlike in Hangzhou,19 at that time, he claimed in the preface of his ritual manual that he had done nothing but reedit the classic by the Venerable Zhili, inclu- ding very few of his own additions and deletions. Although this hum- 18 See Jianzhaijushi 2011. ble gesture is misleading, it does prove how much later Buddhists 19 For brief but complete overviews of the fangsheng tradition in venerated the framework established by Zunshi and Zhili. Hangzhou, see Gu 2005; Chen 2010; Zhao 2012. 146 Der-Ruey Yang there is not much record in Nanjing about how common courtyard is spacious and has an animal-releasing pool people have practiced fangsheng since the eighth century. attached to it. If this facility is not ideal, the ceremony Nevertheless, we can be more or less sure that large-scale can be performed in the temple’s neighborhood. As for collective fangsheng ceremonies in Buddhist temples on those temples that are very unsuited to host fangsheng, the Buddha’s Birthday (佛誕日, also called the Bathing they might divide the ceremony into two episodes—the the Buddha Festival 浴佛節, on the eighth day of the liturgy and the release. In such cases, the liturgy would fourth month of the Chinese lunar calendar) have been a still be performed inside the temple, but the release popular tradition in Nanjing for centuries. would occur at the closest park, hillside, or riverbank. After the half-century interruption by war and political 3. Liturgy: Liturgy is widely regarded as the most crucial part turmoil beginning in the 1930s, some prominent temples of a fangsheng ceremony. There is also an entrenched such as Qixia Temple 棲霞寺 revived the ancient tradition assumption among the laity that only formally ordained in this city in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then, clergy have the authority to perform the liturgy. Pious according to the testimonies of several senior Buddhist folk often express this notion in simple words such as practitioners, the popularity of fangsheng in Nanjing “A fangsheng ceremony can produce merit only when increased slowly but steadily until the mid-2000s. After real monks or nuns perform the liturgy.” that, enthusiasm for it among younger Buddhist followers in Nanjing became such an eye-catching phenomenon Figures 1, 2, and 3 illustrate typical scenes of traditional that it even worried many conservative Buddhist clergy fangsheng ceremonies in Nanjing today. and senior lay practitioners. They consider “fangsheng The large-scale communal ceremony described fever” a superficial, distorted, even superstitious form of above is but the classic model of traditional fangsheng Buddhism that misleads both new practitioners and the practice. There is also a scaled-down fangsheng ceremony general public. designed for individuals and families. Its structure is So what exactly is this recent “fangsheng fever”? To almost identical to that of the classic communal model. answer this question, we must first clarify the traditional It differs in only two aspects: the sponsor/participant form of fangsheng, from which the new style deviates. and the time/occasion. A private fangsheng ceremony To be brief, traditional fangsheng is a set of practices is always sponsored and participated in by only one that have been almost fully integrated into temple individual or a few members of a single family when they Buddhism as a marginal but inevitable component. Its are undergoing some significant rite of passage, such as a basic structure—its theological rationale, its spatial- funeral, a wedding, or the birthday of a very aged person. kinematic schema that straddles the butcher’s shop/ Undoubtedly, the death ritual for a relative is the most marketplace and the sanctuary/park, its concluding common occasion for a private fangsheng ceremony. Also, liturgy—is exactly what the previous section discusses. children often organize a fangsheng ceremony in some The local tradition in Nanjing can thus be seen as an temple as an auxiliary part of a longevity-enhancing ritual, example of this organization strictly in the context of such as Yansheng Pufo延生普佛 or Xiaozai Pufo消災普佛, temple Buddhism. Its character can be summarized in celebrating an aged parent’s birthday. Apart from these according to the following criteria: variations, all the rules about space, liturgy, and the role 1. Time/occasion: Fangsheng is normally a large-scale of clergy are identical to those of the communal format, communal ceremony attached to the temple festivals which means that the private fangsheng ceremony is fully 廟會organized by local Buddhist temples. Therefore, it integrated with temple Buddhism, just like its communal is usually occasioned by important Buddhist festivals counterpart. such as the Buddha’s Birthday, the birthday of Guanyin Apparently, the traditional format of fangsheng is Bodhisattva, or the Hungry Ghost Festival. It may also highly restrictive in many ways. If the tradition were be organized to accompany a temple festival celebrating strictly abided by, a pious lay Buddhist could not some locally important religious event, such as the attend communal fangsheng ceremonies more than a opening of a new shrine or a memorial service for a few times per year, and it is very unlikely that he or she deceased renowned monk. But there cannot be any could afford to sponsor many proper private fangsheng public fangsheng ceremony when there is no temple ceremonies during his or her lifetime. For conservative festival, which means the frequency of public fangsheng Buddhists this restrictiveness is appropriate, because cannot be higher than a few times per year. fangsheng is nothing but an additional device that may 2. Place: The communal fangsheng ceremony is normally be of some help in the proper pursuit of a Buddhist— held inside a temple’s compound, especially when its achieving enlightenment and nirvana—but can never Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 147

Fig. 1. A communal fangsheng liturgy being performed in the backyard of Dulu Temple 兜率寺on March 19, 2011, the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva.

Fig. 2. A communal fangsheng ceremony being performed in the main hall of Dinglin Temple 定林寺 on March 30, 2013, the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva. 148 Der-Ruey Yang

Fig. 3. The fangsheng liturgy being performed beside the animal-releasing pool of Dinglin Temple 定林寺 on March 30, 2013, the birthday of Guanyin Bodhisattva. replace serious spiritual cultivation practices, such as By implication, all the rules about time, place, liturgy, asceticism (e.g., vegetarianism), jishunianfo計數唸佛 and clerical authority that constitute the aforementioned (chanting Buddha’s name by telling beads) or simply tradition should be discarded. History proves that the nianfo 念佛 (chanting Buddha’s name; called nembutsu challenge of suiyuan fangsheng has not been able to in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism), and the study of subvert the long-established fangsheng tradition within sutras.20 However, for those devoted jushi居士 (lay temple Buddhism, but it has helped jushi win the Buddhist practitioners) who are inclined to eschew the moral sanction to practice fangsheng in a more flexible, formalism and ecclesiastical authority that characterize autonomous, and arguably sincere fashion. Consequently, temple Buddhism, the restrictiveness of traditional as jushi Buddhism has gradually evolved into a vibrant fangsheng practices is meaningless and misleading, alternative to temple Buddhism, the nonclerical and even hypocritical.21 Therefore, some jushi and reformist sometimes even liturgy-free fangsheng practice it has clergy began to propagate the idea of suiyuan fangsheng endorsed has become a tenacious subtradition in the jushi 隨緣放生, which might be translated as “improvisatory community. fangsheng” or “free-style fangsheng,” in the sixteenth The fangsheng of the recent “fangsheng fever” is century. Practically speaking, suiyuan fangsheng is a undoubtedly a modern twist on suiyuan fangsheng. Just call to stop doing any kind of preplanned fangsheng like the latter, it is also invented and primarily promoted ceremony while encouraging improvisatory fangsheng in by the jushi community. According to the accounts any situation where some living being is going to be killed. of some senior jushi, fangsheng was reintroduced to Nanjing sometime in the latter part of the 1990s from big cities of the southern Yangtze River delta such as Wuxi, 20 For information about the current practices of the aged and Suzhou, and Hangzhou, where the public presence of rather conservative lay practitioners of Pure Land Buddhism in Nan- jing, see Xie 2009. Buddhism was much more notable than it was in Nanjing. 21 For detailed explanations of jushi and jushi Buddhism in China, Some of my informants suggested that influential Pure see Pan 2000. Land Buddhist missionaries from Taiwan, such as the Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 149

Venerable Jingkong 淨空法師 and the Venerable Haiqing jushi groups have gone so far as to organize fangsheng 海清法師, inspired this revival. In any case, the fangsheng every day! Most of the young jushi communities conduct practiced at that time was arguably quite traditional, as it their fangsheng activities in larger suburban parks, in was almost completely integrated with temple Buddhism. ecological conservation areas, or by some large body of However, the situation changed abruptly at the beginning water such as the Yangtze River instead of in a compound of the twenty-first century. A large number of young or at a small animal-releasing pool beside a temple. And urbanites, who were mostly born in the late 1970s or in most perform some kind of liturgy, quite seriously. In fact, the 1980s, comparatively well educated, IT literate, and many younger jushi strongly emphasize the necessity of still university students or newcomers to their career life, proper liturgy, just like the traditionalists. However, most converted to Buddhism, at an accelerating speed. The then of them would like to perform it themselves instead of rather sober and passive ethos of temple Buddhism seemed calling on the service of ordained clergy. The reason they unable to satisfy the passionate religious demands of give for not inviting ordained clergy is avoiding the hassle these energetic converts, so new-style jushi communities and expense this would incur, but the unspoken reason— began to burgeon in cyberspace. They started as a range the desire for the autonomy of the jushi community and of chat rooms and message boards affiliated with some for spiritual equality among all the participants—seems local social websites such as Xicihutong (www.xici.net). more essential. Then, starting in the mid-2000s, when smartphone and Despite their similarities, the fangsheng of the “fever” other mobile platforms began to be popularized in China, is nevertheless different in some crucial aspects from the mobile internet communication applications such as QQ suiyuan fangsheng championed by old-fashioned jushi and the more recent WeChat became the most fashionable Buddhism. The different weight they give to fangsheng is venues for the quickly multiplying jushi communities. one of the most remarkable divergences between the two. Currently, there seems to be several dozen Buddhist QQ The idea of suiyuan fangsheng emphasizes the positive groups in Nanjing, whose member numbers range from effects of fangsheng practice in the necessary emotional single digits to several thousands. New-generation jushi and spiritual cultivation of a Buddhist, but it has never in Nanjing now do all kinds of things through these online implied that fangsheng can be used as an independent platforms, such as sharing religious information and method of Buddhist cultivation. In other words, jushi ideas, selling cultural products relating to Buddhism, Buddhism is similar to temple Buddhism in regarding raising funds for projects that fit their cause, and fangsheng as an auxiliary device for enhancing the effects disseminating calls to action.22 Most important, it has of the more authentic methods of Buddhist cultivation. already become a modern tradition for them to initiate, Contrarily, “fangsheng fever” is an enthusiasm for the fund, and organize fangsheng activities through QQ and act of fangsheng itself. This makes its fans appear to other online platforms. In fact, most of the jushi groups on view fangsheng as an independent method instead of these platforms include the term fangsheng in their name an auxiliary device for spiritual cultivation despite the and/or their statement of purpose, clearly reflecting the fact that they have extremely diverse opinions about widely alleged significance of fangsheng as a signboard its functions and status in their religious and secular that can attract potential members. pursuits. Consequently, most of the fangsheng activities that Second, new-style fangsheng is undoubtedly a have spread the “fever” do not follow the orthodox, communal activity, which is far removed from the traditional rules about time/occasion, place, and liturgy. individualistic character of authentic suiyuan fangsheng. Now every jushi community centering on one online Jushi organizers dutifully post an announcement about the platform or a few interconnected ones has its own schedule, fangsheng activity several days in advance on a communal which still takes the traditional Buddhist festival calendar message board, and many community members always as its major reference but is not decided by it. In fact, the answer the call in one way or another. If the activity frequency of fangsheng has increased sharply since the coincides with neither a traditionally important Buddhist fever began in the mid-2000s. In recent years, most of the festival nor a public holiday, most members do not attend. jushi communities have tended to organize fangsheng once Instead, they transfer some money via internet to the bank a month or once a week. Since 2009, at least two popular or Alipay account designated for donations. To secure their trust and to cultivate a sense of communal belonging

22 Young jushi communities widely use online payment services among the donors, the organizers always publish a such as Alipay and internet banking facilities to collect donations. detailed balance sheet, which is normally named “Report For more about Alipay, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alipay. of the Animal Release Activity on [the date],” on the 150 Der-Ruey Yang community message board soon after the activity. Long- hymns, repentance verses, sutras23—and the use of some distant participants can then search the report for their simple gestures for handling ritual paraphernalia, such as names, the exact amount of money each donor has given, rosary beads, dharma wheels, or the “great compassion and the number of each species of animal (counted both water.”24 Second, since normally only jushi—not nuns or in monetary value and in weight or number) that has monks—conduct new-style fangsheng, every attendant of been bought from the marketplace and released into the the liturgy bears equal responsibility for its success, just as eco-preserve. It is also a rule that the report must contain everyone has an equal right to perform it. This egalitarian some photos of the final scenes of the release so the long- context engenders certain incentives for (or pressure distant participants can virtually witness the merit they on) all the attendants and makes them more serious have helped to produce. about learning the necessary ritual skills. Therefore, it is Finally, new-style fangsheng tends to emphasize possible that younger jushi favor fangsheng because of its liturgy, while suiyuan fangsheng tends to downplay it. pedagogical efficiency. One of the key reasons for this is simply the virtual jushi However, the pedagogical explanation is at best community’s need for a bond that can make it appear insufficient. First of all, there are simply too many ways as a proper community in real life. When face-to-face for novice Buddhists to acquire similar ritual skills in interaction among real people has to replace virtual today’s China. They can easily get a free copy of all the communication on online platforms, liturgy, with its ritual texts used in the fangsheng liturgy from some putative sacred and impersonal nature, seems to be the Buddhist temple. Otherwise, they can buy an anthology best medium for turning a group of strangers into a real of ritual texts such as Daily Chants of Chan Buddhism 禅 community. Moreover, quite a few unusually devoted 门日诵 from an online bookstore or just download it from younger jushi in Nanjing show a strong inclination toward the internet. Then they can learn how to recite those ritualism, and as expected, they tend to assume the texts by imitating the exemplar practices of Buddhist central roles in many jushi communities. They also tend to morning and evening services, which are easily found on agree with the traditional view on the necessity of liturgy, free DVDs distributed at temples and in audio and video although they do not like the centrality of clergy or the clips freely available on the internet. Those who do not authority of the ecclesiastic hierarchy. Apart from all the like to learn and exercise the skills at home alone can go theological reasons for doing it, fangsheng for this group to the Saturday or Sunday schools at a Buddhist temple. of jushi is above all one of the best theaters where they Hence, fangsheng is neither the cheapest nor the easiest can illustrate and test the proficiency of their ritual skills. way to learn ritual skills in Nanjing. Second, although Thus, performing liturgy is the most important if not the a certain percentage of younger jushi are keen on ritual only reason for them to participate in fangsheng activity. learning, most are just quiet and passive followers during the liturgy episode. These followers would say that liturgy is important or even necessary when pressed, but it is Why Fangsheng? hard to tell whether they have the interest to learn ritual skills. Finally, in almost every fangsheng activity there are The previous section briefly describes how younger lay a large number of donors who do not even witness the Buddhist practitioners in Nanjing have created a vibrant liturgy in person. They might well regard liturgy and ritual online jushi Buddhism and how this is intertwined with skills as important, but because they do not participate the “fangsheng fever” of recent decades. Now let us examine why fangsheng has become the favorite Buddhist practice among younger jushi—so much so that they can 23 The current fangsheng liturgy commonly includes the names of a use it as a sort of signboard to attract potential fellows. few Buddhas and such ritual texts as 六字真言 (Six-syllable mantra, The first possible explanation is that fangsheng is i.e., “Om mani padme hum”), 懺悔偈 (Verse of repentance), 三皈依 an ideal module of action for learning and exercising 偈 (Verse of paying homage to the Three Treasures), 四弘誓願 (Four 心經 往生 ritual skills. The skills required to successfully conduct grand vows), (Heart sutra, i.e., Prajñāpāramitā hṛdaya), 咒 (Pure Land rebirth dhāraṇī), 大悲咒 (Great compassion mantra, fangsheng are not difficult to learn. Its spatial-kinematic i.e., Nīlakaṇṭha dhāraṇī), and 普賢行願品 (Samantabhadra medita- scheme and liturgical structure are quite straightforward. tion sutra). Each sect also has its own special text. For example, the The only task that might be a bit challenging is performing followers of Pure Land include 十回向品 (Ten dedications of merit) in the liturgy, which requires the memorization and their liturgy, while the followers of Tibetan Buddhism include 十萬名 recitation of a series of often used ritual texts—mantras, 懺 (Repentance appealing to one hundred thousand sacred names). 24 It is named 大悲水 because it has been sanctified by 大悲咒 (Great compassion mantra, i.e., Nīlakaṇṭha dhāraṇī). Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 151 we do not know if they have learned the necessary skills, chance to live in the Pure Land forever. Having reviewed much less if they have donated because fangsheng has these diverse discourses, we can be sure of nothing but the taught them something. Therefore, we cannot ascribe the fact that the decisive factor in the popularity of fangsheng recent “fangsheng fever” to the efficiency of fangsheng in is definitely not an economic calculation but rather cultivating ritual skills. something that makes the calculation favoring fangsheng Another possible explanation is that fangsheng sound persuasive. is widely reckoned as the most economic and reliable So what is the decisive factor? Ganying 感應, a among all the viable means for the laity, especially young characteristic Chinese religious term, might be the most people who are not yet able to shun secular responsibility, proximate answer. Its first character, gan 感, means to earn merit. The best advantage of this explanation is “sense or feel,” while its second character, ying 應, means that it perfectly accords with the thousands of testimonies “answer, response, agree, promise, etc.,” so the term can by fangsheng practitioners themselves, which are be roughly translated as “sense/feel the response.” Ganying offered in abundance both on the internet and in live is frequently used in religious contexts, although it also communications. Indeed, those testimonies seem to prove appears in nonreligious conversation. When it is used as a that the jushi of twenty-first-century Nanjing still firmly verb in a sentence like “A ganying dao the light of Buddha,” believe the ancient theory that fangsheng can earn the it simply means “sense/feel something,” so this can be necessary merits to compensate for evil deeds committed translated as “senses/feels the light of Buddha.” When used during innumerable past lives. Moreover, this explanation as an adjective, it means “responsive” or “efficacious.” For reflects the tone of economic or quantitative calculation example, “The Guanyin Bodhisattva in this temple is very that saturates the language these young urban Buddhist ganying” means that the Guanyin Bodhisattva in this temple laity use to explain why they choose fangsheng to earn is very responsive or efficacious. However, what concerns merit. According to some jushi, it is the most economic us most here is the noun form of the term, which means option in terms of time, mental and physical labor, and at once the extraordinary sentience that can sense/feel social relationships compared with other popular means the subtle responses of others and the unusual experience of earning merit, such as practicing vegetarianism, acquired through the activation of this sentience. For nianfo, reciting sutras, or doing volunteer charity work. example, “She is unusually good at ganying” means that Moreover, thanks to the fast development of information she has outstanding sentience of the subtle responses of technology and especially online banking systems, all others, especially nonhuman and superhuman beings, sorts of costs for participating in fangsheng have been whereas “She got a very strong ganying” means that she reduced. Therefore, for young jushi who are still struggling acquired some unusually vivid or emotional experience to launch their career and family in a big city, fangsheng with her unusual sentience. To be brief, ganying in its noun seems to be the most realistic choice they can afford. They form refers to exceptional sentience and the exceptional can at least donate some money—no matter how meager experience acquired through it. the amount might be—to offset their bad karma, even The importance of ganying to the popularity though work and family totally occupy them. of fangsheng in contemporary Nanjing cannot be However, the economic rationality thesis is probably exaggerated. It is definitely the most frequently mentioned not as sound as it may seem. Most important, it should be reason when practitioners of fangsheng explain their acknowledged that all the cost-benefit/merit calculations choice or try to persuade fellow Buddhists to follow their are post hoc self-rationalizations given by practitioners to example. Both in cyberspace and in real life, fangsheng outsiders. There is no way to determine whether the cost enthusiasts have long put forward stereotypical rhetoric of vegetarianism or nianfo is always higher than that of in similar accounts such as “I got an enormously strong fangsheng. It is not at all an exaggeration to say that we ganying the first time I attended fangsheng. What is can easily find thousands of testimonies by enthusiasts of even greater is that, as I continued to practice fangsheng vegetarianism or nianfo on Buddhist websites frequently after the first experience, I found the ganying I got from visited by Nanjing jushi. Those written by vegetarians each fangsheng activity became stronger and stronger.” firmly assert that vegetarianism is a supereconomic deal Moreover, many writers admit in their testimonies that because it cuts your food costs while earning you a huge they finally converted to fangsheng because it is the only amount of merit. Similarly, the promoters of nianfo argue practice that can bring them some sort of ganying, unlike that its cost-benefit ratio is unimaginably high because it other means, such as nianfo or reciting mantras and costs you only some odd scraps of time, which you would sutras, which they tried for a long time but which gave have wasted for nothing, but the benefit you get is the them nothing in the end. 152 Der-Ruey Yang

Fangsheng practitioners may have some kind Discussion and Conclusion of strange inner feeling, but is there any externally discernible evidence that can prove to themselves and If the most decisive factor in the favoring of fangsheng to others that they have experienced ganying? And by young jushi in today’s Nanjing is its high propensity what exactly are they referring to when they use this to conjure ganying, then the next question is why so term? The answers to these questions can be terribly many jushi reckon fangsheng as having this propensity, obscure. However, it is helpful to classify indicators the highest of those among all the popular Buddhist of ganying in two ranges. The first consists of tangible practices. Of course, we have no way to tell whether evidence, such as recovery from illness, escape from a fangsheng is really the best means of invoking ganying. near disaster, good health, increased income, success in Nevertheless, we can confirm that it is indeed the most an exam or a career, the discovery of an ideal partner, sensational Buddhist practice, strongly stimulating a happy marriage, successful pregnancy and childbirth, practitioners’ sensory organs (especially the eyes) by improvement in interpersonal relationships, or coming involving them in a live drama featuring the ultimate into a big fortune. The rationale that connects these tension between life and death. How does fangsheng tangible benefits with ganying is rather materialistic: achieve this effect? It is primarily, I argue, an inherent the Buddha or some other higher spiritual being rewards result of the practice’s millennium-old spatial-kinematic the merit that one has earned by practicing fangsheng schema, which straddles the butcher’s shop/marketplace with good luck. In other words, the good luck that befalls and the sanctuary/park. the practitioners of fangsheng proves that fangsheng To a large extent, the entire process of fangsheng that is efficacious and that the Buddha (or heaven or the starts from the butcher’s shop/marketplace and ends up in gods) is responsive to good deeds. That is why stories the sanctuary/park is a visual and physical representation of good luck are regarded as evidence of ganying. This of a pilgrimage from hell to heaven—one of the eternal explanation seems to rely on a sort of vulgar materialistic themes of religious myths all over the world. This theme economics of merit-fortune exchange, which is arguably appears in various forms in a huge array of Buddhist far from the ordinary conception of ganying that is sutras, hagiographies, and stories. Undoubtedly, the implicated in a set of rather complicated theological and hagiography of Sakyamuni—which narrates how young metapsychological theories. Prince Siddhartha decided to renounce secular life and The second range is much closer to the ordinary became an ascetic after he witnessed the inescapable conception of the term. It consists of positive changes suffering of human lives and how he finally found to the temperament, mental capability, or personality the correct path toward enlightenment and achieved of the practitioners of fangsheng. The often mentioned Buddhahood under a bodhi tree—is the most sacred and phenomena in this range include “becoming primordial of all. Therefore, it is not at all difficult to see happier,” “becoming more merciful,” “becoming the similarities between the hagiography of the Buddha more considerate,” “becoming more peaceful,” and and the typical experience of a fangsheng activity. First, “becoming smarter while studying Buddhist books.” the animal releaser witnesses in the butcher’s shop/ These positive changes in emotive/cognitive condition marketplace the scene of a large number of animals being are interpreted as the result of the good karma incurred imprisoned, slaughtered, and cooked. Meanwhile, the through fangsheng. More accurately, people who activate smell of blood chokes the releaser, whose ears are also their innate compassion and Buddhahood potential by overwhelmed by the desperate cry of those animals. The practicing fangsheng trigger gratitude and happiness in experience is indeed not far different from visiting a living the minds of the animals being released. This gratitude hell, such as a Nazi concentration camp or the Nanjing that and happiness reflect back on to the releaser as good was being raped by Japanese soldiers in 1937, albeit in a karma, which offsets the bad karma he or she has smaller size. Expectably, for many young people who have accumulated through generations of lives. As good karma never visited the marketplace or cooked before (more and gradually purges bad karma, the practitioner’s innate more common for younger Chinese urbanites), this kind of potential of Buddhahood is more and more manifest and experience is unforgettably traumatic. They are shocked, so his or her mental state also improves. In this context, horrified, and sad, just like Prince Siddhartha when he left ganying refers at once to the exceptional sentience that the palace and witnessed the suffering of birth, old age, enables mental communication between humans and illness, and death. During my fieldwork, my informants animals and the unusual experience of this sentience gave me such testimony innumerable times: “Before I and its miraculous effects on the mind. visited a butcher for the first time, the fish or meat that Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 153 had already been cooked and served at the dining table experience of being rescued from suffering, while was nothing but a dish to me. It would be the last thought the other mainly concerns the metaphorical linkage to come to me that this is the dead body of some living between the release of animals and the purging of bad animal. Now I cannot help but think of the bloody scenes karma accumulated by the releaser. In the first form, I saw and the cries I heard in the marketplace whenever practitioners see the mirror image of the ignorance and I see those meat dishes.” Consequently, these young sufferings of their past selves in those of the animals. people constantly recall how the trip to “a living hell” Hence, by witnessing those animals being liberated and has impelled them to practice fangsheng and become “reborn,” they feel that they are also being released from a devoted Buddhist or even a vegetarian, just as Prince the tyranny of their ignorance and suffering and given the Siddhartha decided to renounce the world and pursue the chance to be born again. In the latter form, the releasers path toward enlightenment. see the animals as symbolizing the victims of the evil In sharp contrast to the horrifying scenes in the deeds they have committed and the bloody marketplace marketplace, the peaceful and fecund park full of birds’ as the mirror image of their crime scenes. Therefore, the twitter and the fragrance of flowers appears to be the joyful ending dance of rebirth of those animals symbolizes incarnation in this world of Ahmitabha’s Pure Land or the the purging of the bad karma accumulated by the releaser World of Extreme Happiness in the West. We can easily as perpetrator and the rehabilitation of the victims. In imagine how acute the sense of release would feel if short, the former identification relies on a psychological one were to travel from a marketplace to a park in a few projection of victimization, and the latter is a result of hours’ time, which is exactly what fangsheng prescribes. guilt. However, whatever the motivation, both seem However, it should be acknowledged that the feeling of to use the animals being released as the means for the release automatically engendered by the spatial change releasers to achieve their own rebirth—a manifestation is but a prelude. The accumulated intense emotion, a of egocentrism that contradicts the ideal of compassion. mixture of horror, sympathy, guilt, anxiety, and so on, Therefore, devout practitioners, especially adherents of does not reach its threshold of catharsis until the moment Pure Land Buddhism, go so far as to deliberately reverse when the heroes of the entire drama—the animals—are the normal conception of fangsheng by ascribing the role set free. Almost all the testimonies about fangsheng reach of benefactor to the released and the role of beneficiary their climax when describing the magical experience of to the releaser. They claim that these “fish bodhisattvas,” the manifestation of ganying at this moment, which lasts “bird bodhisattvas,” and “snake bodhisattvas” are only a few minutes at most. These narratives generously various merciful beings who came to suffer in this world anthropomorphize the animals as “having lost their for the purpose of granting the releasers a chance to spirits,” “[been] terrified,” and “[felt] anxious” as they purge their evil karma so they can achieve enlightenment. “smell[ed] the scent of death.” Then, when they were set Thus, the releasers negate their own subjectivity and free, they “were suspicious” and “dare[d] not leave the project it onto the released. 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放生：在市场和公园间上演的佛法#

杨德睿（南京大学）

摘要：本文旨在以当前南京佛教界极为流行的“放生“为 了佛教的影响力。 例，探讨佛教在都市情境下成功传播的“供给面”因素， 以上列举的五个要素都可以算作近二十年来佛教迅 也就是佛教在传习方式的设计上可能有哪些传播效果较 猛发展的关键之处。在中国，对于无论哪一种组织而 佳的特质。本文首先说明“放生”这一历史悠久的佛教 言，政府的态度是其发展的决定性因素。但有一个问题 传习法门的经典形态是如何在五世纪末到十一世纪初之 绕不过去：佛教是如何稳固其信徒群体，并得以开展各 间建构完成的，接着简要描绘了放生在今日南京的几种 种行动的？如果是从微观层面上观察佛教如何吸引、度 呈现出形态，尤其是最活跃的居士佛教群体所组织的放 化和维持其信徒并寻找答案的话，那么就带来一个问 生活动，然后，本文开始讨论放生何以成为此地佛教徒 题，在这方面有着类似结构的道教为何没有获得急遽发 最热衷的修行法门，通过分析民族志细节，笔者申论： 展呢？更重要的是，许多没有获得官方支持，甚至备受 相对于佛教其它的传习法门，放生的最殊胜处在于它是 打压的宗教派别——如数量众多的地下基督教派和新近 一种富有强烈情绪感染力的仪式戏剧。换言之，它象征 出现的全能神教——也在日渐势大。所以，一种宗教或 着一次从地狱（市场）到天堂（公园）的朝圣之旅，而 宗教派别要想在中国取得明显发展，政府的支持抑或是 众多参与者们在参与并目睹动物被放生之际，将牠们脱 公众的某种文化热潮并非不可或缺。而从具体的传习方 离苦难与死亡获得救赎的遭遇投射到了自己身上。 式入手方能抓住要害。 但目前学术界对中国佛教具体传习方式的研究尚不 关键词：宗教传播、都市宗教、佛教、放生、 多见。这方面的寥寥著作之中，Gareth Fisher（2011）关 于“善书”的研究极为精彩，揭示了“善书”的制作和流 通在重振居士佛教方面是如何发挥作用的。利用丰富的民 本文为教育部人文社会科学基金项目“宗教的传习与接受——认知 族志资料，Fisher以生动的笔触描绘了佛教机构如何通过 人类学与心理学的探索”的研究成果。 印制和流通佛门通俗读物来发展潜在的信众，将之引入佛 门，并帮助他们聚拢为由佛门居士构成的团体。唯有从类 前言 似Fisher的著作中，我们才能获得一些真正有用的信息， 窥探佛教是如何成为当下中国最流行的宗教。然而，印制 佛教在当今中国传播的势头之猛是有目共睹的。Ji (2012– 与流通善书仅仅是光大珈蓝的一种途径——而且它的重要 13)的研究可说是针对佛教几十年来的迅猛发展最为全面 性早已不复往昔。许多新兴的方式则尚未引起学者们足够 的。研究发现，中国佛教徒人数在1997年时尚不足7000 的注意和重视。河北柏林禅寺针对大学生群体组织的“生 万，2005年时达到了1亿，2010年时已达到了2.3亿（约 活禅”夏令营就是一例。自1993年开营后，该夏令营在中 占中国总人口的18.2%）。同时，汉传佛教的神职人员 国佛教界的地位日益隆重，在过去的二十年中，数以万计 从1997年的7万人增加到了2006年的10万人。其中，1997 的受过高等教育的年轻人因之而皈依佛门。1受此感召， 年到2010年间，共计有66,538人开始在汉传大乘佛寺任 全国范围内涌现出一大批佛修活动，例如“禅七”（为期 职。而佛寺的总数也从1997年的1万3000座，增加到了 七天的禅修活动）和“佛七”（净土宗为期七天的营修 2006年的1万5千座。相比之下，中国“五大宗教”中似 活动），但关于此类传习方式的正式研究仍然十分亟缺。 乎只有基督教尚可与之比拟，其他宗教俱望尘莫及。 为回应以上陈述，本文将着重讨论当下中国佛教 因此，“佛教究竟何以能够在当下中国发展得特别 徒，尤其是居住在城市的佛教徒中，传播最广的宗教仪 成功？”成为一个值得探讨的问题。根据该领域学者的 式——放生。2这篇文章的民族志研究地点位于江苏省 研究（Yang and Wei 2005; Ji 2011; Ji 2012–13），大致可 南京市，时间为2012年至2014年。南京市是中国最大的 以归纳为五个要素：（1）官方佛教在政治意识形态上持 十座城市之一，市区面积4700平方公里，居住人口超过 保守态度，与当局保持一致；（2）考虑到佛教对台湾、 800万。显然，仅调查这一座城市就概论全国的情况是不 香港、澳门以及其他海外华人群体的影响力，中央政府 可能的。然而对本地居民的这种佛门仪式的研究亦可作 开始扶持佛教的发展；（3）省级及以下政府的扶植，希 为研究其他城市时的参考。 望利用佛教景点振兴当地的旅游业和经济发展；（4）传 统文化热在大众中的再度风行，而佛教是其中不可忽缺 的组成部分；（5）佛教团体的努力经营，他们和学术界 1 Yang and Wei 2005 对此夏令营有一段简述。可惜的是缺少更多的 关系融洽并直接资助一系列的学术研究，这些大大改善 细节，夏令营是如何组织的以及何以如此成功。 2 Fan 2005 详细地报道了近数十年放生在深圳盛行的情况。 156 Der-Ruey Yang

一、放生法门的历史建构 将佛教的观念元素，如四大色身、六道轮回、因果业 报，特别是大乘佛教的众生平等、慈悲、救度、菩萨道 与放生类似的做法在中国源远流长，诸如在特定的时 等观念与汉文化对孝道的推崇结合起来的产物，而且其 间、特定的地区禁止渔猎，还有刻意使用“漏洞”较大 思路推演的结构也具有强烈的汉文化色彩——以“我” 的方式来进行渔猎等等3，是华夏古帝王倡导节用、展示 为立足点向外推展到“父母”、“一切男女”、“六道 其“仁民爱物”的胸怀的常见手法，自战国以降便屡见 众生”、“地、水、火、风”，這种思维路数与其说是 史册，到了成书时间不晚于东汉初的《列子》，其〈说 佛教的，不如说是儒家思想的“推己及人”、“亲亲而 符〉一章中更藉赵简子之口提到赵国的“正旦放生”之 仁民，仁民而爱物”等观念的一种佛教化的新包装。因 制4，所以中国一直有相当多的放生者并不诉诸佛教， 此，《梵网经》可以被理解为汉族佛教徒想藉由把汉文 而是以儒教或道教为其放生行动的理论依据5，但是，把 化固有的伦理道德观与佛教的神学概念粘合为一体来行 放生塑造成一套有神学理论、有仪轨、有规制的修行法 销佛教的一次尝试，后来的历史证明這套藉儒入佛的宣 门，并坚定不懈地将之推广到全中国各地方各阶层的民 教战略极为成功，在《梵网经》问世之后不过数十年， 众当中去，无疑应归功于佛教。 就出现了皈依佛教的梁武帝从西元527年起以政治力推行 佛教对放生法门的建构是从提出一套独特的理论开 戒杀茹素的运动，随后，僧人当中也出现了敢于以恐怖 始的，在南北朝的宋、齐两代之交（西元五世纪末）， 的自残手段来赎生放生的名人，如以“自燃双臂”来化 汉族僧人创作的《梵网经》6为汉传佛教的放生理论确立 缘赎生放生的比丘慧集、以“自割髀肉”来赎生放生的 了基本框架7，其核心概念精粹地呈现在下面这段不断为 隋代比丘普安等等8，这些挑战传统习俗秩序的、耸人听 后世所引用的经文中： 闻的“行为艺术”或许足以证明《梵网经》的放生论已 经被相当一些僧人认定为传播佛教的旗帜。 若佛子以慈心故，行放生业，一切男子是我父，一切女人是我 理论确立之后，接下来是提出一些具体可行的操作 母，我生生无不从之受生。是故六道众生皆是我父母，而杀而 方案。像梁武帝那样以国家的力量强制全民戒杀茹素， 食者即杀我父母，亦杀我故身。一切地水，是我先身；一切火 风，是我本体，故常行放生，生生受生。若见世人杀畜牲时， 肯定不可能成功，所以从隋代开始出现了一些对传统习 应方便救护，解其苦难，常教化讲说菩萨戒，救度众生……上 俗秩序冲击较小、比较稳健可行的做法，原则就是不去 及人伦，下沾蝼蚁，但能救死，无不放生” 挑战整个“面”，而把注意力聚焦于两个“点”，一个 是市场，另一个是公园。 这段经文所表达的观念显然不是纯粹佛教的，而是 要推行戒杀，锁定市场这个屠宰集中之地下手是最经 济的办法，若不能全面禁屠，至少能规定市场在一定时间

3 例如《群书治要》、《六韬·虎韬篇》引神农之禁，指出对“春 之内禁屠。因此，隋文帝于开皇三年（583 年）立敕，规 夏之所生，不伤不害”；《逸周书·大聚解》提到“禹之禁”：“ 定“长月断杀”之制：“其京城及诸州官立寺之所，每年 春三月，山林不登斧，……夏三月,川泽不入网罟”，此外《礼记》 正月、五月、九月，恒起八日至十五日，当寺行道；其行 中的《曲礼》、《檀弓》、《王制》、《月令》、《玉藻》等篇也 道之日，远近民庶，凡是有生之类，悉不得杀。”9 此一 有类似的记载。还有《国语·鲁语》：“宣公夏滥于泗渊，里革断 做法后来在全国很多地方相沿成俗，直至今日，在台湾、 其罟而弃之”。至春秋战国时期，孔子曰“钓而不网，弋而不射 宿”，孟子曰“数罟不入洿池”、“斧斤以时入山林”，战国末期 香港和南洋的华人社会里依然普遍有在佛菩萨诞辰日市场 至秦成书的《吕氏春秋》亦说汤收其三面而网开一面，“汉南之国 全面禁屠的风俗。其次，市场也是将要被屠宰的动物集中 闻之曰：‘汤之德及禽兽矣。’四十国归之。”以上文献整理转引 之处，所以到市场去赎买动物来放生是最经济有效的办 自冯军（2010）。 法，笔者没有找到“到市场上购买动物来放生”这套行动 4 《列子·说符》：邯郸之民，以正月之旦献鸠于简子，简子大 模式缘起于何时的材料，但我推测应该与隋文帝敕建长月 悦，厚赏之。客问其故，简子曰：“正旦放生，示有恩也。” 断杀之制差不多同时，因为既然能想到去市场推行禁屠， 5 关于宋、明、清时期士大夫如何从事放生并且建构儒家式的放生 理论，见J. H. Smith（1999）和赵杏根（2012）的放生文研究。 自然也能想到去市场买动物来放生。 至于道教的放生理论建构与实践，目前似乎还没有见到学术性的研 其次，要推行放生，就需要有让动物不受猎捕威胁 究，但从明清时代传承至今且流传甚广的道教放生科仪文本，至少 的自由生存空间，而且这一空间最好能方便放生者接 足以说明有很多道教徒也从事放生活动。 近，至少让放生者不必花费太大的时间精力甚至冒生命 该经全名为《梵网经卢舍那佛说菩萨心地戒品第十》，又常被简 6 危险，以鼓励广泛的参与，同时，这种空间最好能让被 称为《梵网菩萨戒经》，号称是鸠摩罗什所译，但如今学界咸认其 为汉族僧人所作。关于《梵网经》之真伪起源的考证，以及其内容 放生的动物不能很容易地跑出来，进入有被猎捕之虞的 所反映的汉文化程度之深，参见汤用彤（2010）和夏德美（2014）。 地域，所以，要造出这种空间或许最经济的办法就是在 7 在《梵网经》出现之前，很可能是在西元426年前后，北凉的昙 人们容易到达的地带里设立一个边界清晰的水域，这就 无谶翻译的《金光明经》卷四〈流水长者子品〉里就载有流水长者 是隋代的天台智者大师发明的 “放生池”，之后，唐肃 子（据说是释迦牟尼的前世）行菩萨道救助被困的鱼类一事，但是 该经并没有对这则故事做理论性的延伸阐释，尽管这部经后来成为 设立放生池的经典依据，但这则故事仅只是佛陀的众多事迹之一， 8 见《高僧传》卷八〈慧集传〉和《续高僧传》卷廿七〈释普安 若非经过后来《梵网经》把放生理念和孝道等汉文化传统观念撮合 传〉 起来而取得成功，这则故事应该不会对后世产生那么具体的影响。 9 见《历代三宝记》卷12，转引自汤用彤（2008）页2下注5 Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 157

宗更于乾元二年（759）诏令天下立放生池81所，使这种 以上我们简略回顾了汉传佛教对放生法门的建构历 设施概念普及全国。也许从唐肃宗要求设立放生池起， 程，从南北朝宋、齐之交的《梵网经》到北宋的遵式和 放生池的具体形态就开始多样化，很多都不是寺院旁边 知礼传世的仪轨，历时五百余年，放生终被打造成有佛 的一个池塘，而是一块在都市内部或附近，原本就难以 学理论依据、有“从市场到公园”的简明操作程式、有 耕种居住的池沼和滩地，随着被皇帝指定为放生池，这 仪轨的一套完整的修行法门，而且是与都市居民的生活 些地方先是出现了公布诏令的碑、碑亭，随后渐次出现 形态相当贴合的一套法门。 了便利放生活动的亭、台、桥梁、码头等设施，还有官 员文士们写的放生诗、文的刻石…等等，结果发展成市 二、今日南京的放生 民休憩旅游的胜地，这当中最典型的就是宋代以后的杭 州西湖，这座史上最著名的放生池，很可能也是世界上 放生在南京是一项历史悠久的传统。在此建都的梁武帝 最早的开放性都市公园和城郊生态保护区。10 曾狂热地推行戒杀茹素运动，可以想见，彼时的都城南 总结上述，隋唐时代明确了一面把市场当做戒杀、 京可以说是佛教放生实践的发源地兼推广中心。此外， 救生的前线战场，一面建立起名为放生池之类的生态公 位于南京市中心的乌龙潭可能是全中国最老的放生遗 园做为实现放生的终点，这两个点确立后，放生行动的 址，它是上文提到的唐肃宗于乾元二年所颁布的诏令的 简易操作框架也就确立了。从宋代以后，随着市场经济 直接产物14，彼时南京称为江宁，当时江宁的地方官正是 和都市化的快速发展以及平民参与宗教的程度提高，都 深受后世景仰的模范士大夫颜真卿，就是他奉诏将乌龙 市居民的放生日益成为以市场和公园为两端的一套程式 潭设立为放生池的。可惜的是，与杭州的情况截然不同 化的行动——即“市场赎买，公园放生”。虽然从这种 15，八世纪以后南京民众的放生活动几乎找不到什么文献 程式化的趋势愈发彰著的明代起，就有不少抨击程式化 记载，不过，我们多多少少可以确定：在佛诞日（即农 操作、提倡“随缘放生”的呼声，但随着都市化和分工 历四月初八 浴佛节”）那天到佛寺去举行声势浩大的放 专业化程度日深，程式化根本无法避免，理由很简单： “ 生仪式，无疑已经在南京延续了上千年之久。 绝大多数居民只能在市场买到放生的动物，同时，避开 到了上世纪 年代末、 年代初的时候，半个世纪 人烟稠密的市区，而到真正的城外荒野中放生的话，考 80 90 的战乱与政局的动荡让南京的放生活动近乎匿迹，诸如 虑到交通运输的不便，以及放生动物的存活时间，就近 栖霞寺等大庙纷纷开始致力于重振这个传统。据几位资 的市区公园成了上佳之选。 深的佛门中人所言，直到 年以前，南京的放生在民 在操作框架整体趋于程式化的同时，其结尾环节， 2005 众中传播的速度都是缓慢而稳健的。在这之后，居士群 即把动物放掉这个动作，也开始被仪式化。北宋天台宗 体中年轻的那一部分对放生活动的热情开始急剧膨胀， 的遵式《金园集》中卷载有《放生慈济法门》11，其同门 一日胜过一日，甚至引起了许多持保守态度的佛门神职 的四明知礼大师亦有《放生文》传世12，这两套约略同时 人员和资深居士们的担忧。他们认为，“放生热”将佛 出现而且内容极为相近的放生仪轨奠定了汉传佛教放生 教流于表面，充斥着曲解甚至迷信，让刚入门的信众和 仪轨的结构13，其程序依《放生慈济法门》的整理可分为 公众对佛门产生了误解。 七个步奏： 那么，这股“放生热”到底是何面目？要回答这个 1、叙述今日举行放生仪式的因由； 问题，必须先对传统放生仪式和当下新式的放生仪式做 2、以《大圆满陀罗尼神咒秽迹真言》咒水后给动物洒 一番梳理和对比。 凈； 简言之，传统的放生仪式是在为盂兰盆会等重大佛 3、请佛赐给动物以智慧，使之能听懂佛理； 教节庆而举行的大法会期间做为相关活动而附带举行 4、代替动物宣誓皈依佛法僧三宝； 的。其基本的结构——理论基础、从市场到公园的空间 5、诵宝胜如来等诸佛号七遍以上； 转移和最终的放生仪轨——与前一章节所言一般无二。 6、对动物宣讲佛理中的“十二因缘”； 因此，南京本地的放生传统可以视为寺院佛教正统放生 7、带领动物们为自己累世所造恶业忏悔。 活动的标本。大致可以归纳为以下五个要素： 1. 时间：本地佛寺举办庙会的时候，放生活动会作为一 忏悔结束后，再补上几句简短的祝福，然后才把动物放 项大型庆典出现。这样的日子一般都是选在重要的佛 走。 教节日，如佛诞节、观音圣诞、盂兰盆会。通常还会 伴随有地方上重要的宗教庆祝活动，比如新庙落成、 纪念某位已逝的高僧。但如果如果没有庙会，是不可 10 参见顾希佳（2005）、陈明华（2010） 能举行面向公众的放生活动的。这也就意味着，每年 11 该集收录在《卍新纂续藏经》第 57 册、第0950卷，见http:// www2.fodian.net/BaoKu/FoJingWenInfo.aspx?ID=X0950#Top 12 见（宋）释宗晓（2010） 13 对明清以后的放生仪轨影响最大的是明·袾宏（莲池大师）所 14 参见检斋居士（2011） 编的放生仪轨，他在序言中宣称他的版本也不过就是根据四明知礼 15 关于杭州的放生传统，顾希佳2005; 陈明华2010; 赵杏根2012中 的版本稍加增删而已，足见知礼的版本所收到的推崇。 有简明扼要的概括。 158 Der-Ruey Yang

的放生活动只有寥寥几次。 了左近的公园、山麓或者河岸。 2. 地点：通常都是在寺庙里面举行，那些占地开阔并自 3. 仪轨：仪轨向来被视为整个放生活动最关键的部分。 带放生池的寺庙尤其如此。如果场地不够理想，则选 并且信徒们都默认必须由寺中僧尼主持。虔信者时常 在寺院邻近。有些实在不宜承办放生仪式的寺庙，会 强调：“只有真正的僧尼主持的放生才算功德。” 把整个过程分为两部分——仪轨和放走动物。这种情 况下，整套仪轨还是会进行，只是把发生的地点移到 以下三图展示的是南京今日的传统放生仪式。

2011年3月19日，观音诞辰，信众们在兜率寺旁举行放生仪式

2013年3月30日，观音菩萨圣诞，定林寺大殿内一场例行的放生仪式。 Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 159

2013年3月30日，时值观音菩萨诞辰，一场放生仪式正在定林寺旁的放生池举行。

上述隆重的集体放生仪式是严格按照传统放生仪轨 放生。如此一来，前文中那些关于时间、地点、仪轨和 进行的。此外还有私家场合的放生活动，规模自然没有 主持者的要求便统统被略过了。历史上，随缘放生从未 这么大，但基本流程却是一般无二。两者只有两个不同 能撼动源远流长的寺院佛教的放生传统，但它为居士群 之处：发起者/参与者和时间/地点。私人场合的放生活 体举行放生仪式提供了更多弹性和自主性，而且较前者 动通常是安插在举行婚丧吊庆等红白喜事的时候，发起 可能更为虔诚。于是，整个居士佛教也因之注入了新的 者和参与者都只有信徒本人或者家人。其中较常见的是 活力，无需僧人或者有时候连仪轨都没有的放生仪式在 孝子到庙里请僧尼给先人超度追荐法事，此外晚辈在长 居士群体中变得愈发盛行。 辈生日时到庙里请僧尼做延生普佛、消災普佛等法事的 而当今的“放生热”显然是现代化的随缘放生。它 时候，也会加上放生仪式。除却种种不同的因由，私人 同样是由居士群体创造和推广而来的。一些资深居士认 场合的放生对场地、仪轨以及主持者的要求都和通常一 为，放生从江南的一些大城市，如无锡、苏州和杭州， 样。可见私人场合的放生仪式和公开场合一样，都是完 再度进入南京是在上世纪90年代末期，佛教在那里的气 全依附于寺院佛教的。 象要远胜南京。我的访谈者中一些人认为，台湾净土宗 显然，传统放生仪式在许多方面都有严格要求。一 的传法者们是这股回潮的肇始者，如净空、海清法师。 个虔诚的俗家信众在一年中参加的放生屈指可数，可能 但彼时传统意味浓厚的放生活动完全承袭于寺院佛教。 终期一生办不了几场正式的放生仪式。保守的佛教徒认 新世纪伊始，形势发生了急剧的变化。一大批70年代 为，放生仪式的种种限制是必须的，因为它只是佛子在 末、80年代出生于城市的年轻人开始信奉佛教，而且人 追寻佛法和大彻大悟的过程中提供助力的附属品，而且 数增长迅速，他们受教育程度较高且擅长电脑的使用， 重要性远不如斋戒、计数念佛、称诵阿弥陀佛和研习佛 有些人尚在大学念书，有些刚开始工作。这些满怀热情 经。16但是有些虔信的居士们却不满寺院佛教的权威，希 与活力的年轻信徒们发现，寺院佛教那一套肃穆平缓的 望避开他们视为形式主义的东西，他们认为传统放生仪 东西不能满足他们的需求。于是新兴的居士群体开始积 式的诸多限制毫无意义，甚至是装神弄鬼。因此到了十 极地开拓网络平台。他们在当地的社交网站上开设聊天 六世纪，一些居士和有心改革的僧人开始宣传“随缘放 室和贴吧，例如西祠胡同。00年代中期，随着智能手机 生”。具体来说，“随缘放生”不再对放生活动有预先 和其他手持智能设备逐渐普及，QQ以及新近的微信等移 的安排，而是鼓励信徒只要见到杀生行为就予以阻止并 动网络通讯迅速在居士群体之间得到广泛使用。现在， 南京的佛教QQ群近百数，其成员规模从几人到几千人 16 关于现在南京净土宗当中那些年长以及立场保守的修行者们如 不等。这些在线平台被南京的新生代居士群体多方面利 何修行的内容，请参考谢燕清2009。 用，比如分享宗教讯息、售卖佛教周边的文化产品、筹 160 Der-Ruey Yang

措项目资金以及发布活动通知。17而且绝大部分居士团体 同仪式应当由寺院僧人或者官方神职人员掌控。对于这 在组建网上平台的时候，都会在名字或者声明中加上“ 些居士群体而言，放生仪式还是他们操练演示佛法技能 放生”字样，可见放生有着引人入佛的巨大作用。 与知识的最佳平台。因此，主持仪轨可说是参加放生活 由此导致的，是传播这股热潮的放生活动大多脱离 动的极为重要的原因。 了正统上关于时间/场合、地点和仪式的规定。现在，有 自己单独一个或者几个网上平台的居士群体都有他们自 三、放生法门何以殊胜？ 己的时间表，以传统的佛教节日为主要参考依据，但也 不局限于此。自从 年代中期的放生热潮开始，放生活 00 前文简述了南京的年轻居士们如何搭建网络平台并且近 动的频率便开始大幅上升。近年来，绝大多数居士群体 十多年来这些网络平台如何与“放生热”紧紧勾连在一 会每月或者每周就组织一次放生。从 年至今，至少 2009 起。接下来讨论的是，放生何以在诸多佛教法门中受到 有两个知名的居士团体坚持每天发生！ 大部分年轻居士 年轻居士的格外青睐，以致放生成了广为使用的佛门接 团体会选择广阔的城郊公园、生态保护区或者像长江这 引路径？ 样的大面积水域作为放生地点，而非池塘或者某座寺庙 一种可能是放生是学习和操练佛学知识 技能的理想 旁边的放生池。多数情况下，放生仪轨也会认真进行。 / 选择。整个放生过程简单易学，从空间上的“市场到公 为数不少的年轻居士和走传统路子的人一样，十分看重 园”的转换和仪式的进程都很明了简洁。唯一需要多费 仪轨。但他们倾向于自己而非寺庙中以此为业的僧尼来 心神的地方就是背诵仪式中常用的套装文本18，以及制作 操作。他们口头上宣称这样是为了更方便，可以降低花 和运用念珠、转经轮、大悲水等据信有法力的物件。而 费，但深层的原因却是居士群体的自主性得到增强，成 且和表现出阶序关系的寺院佛教传统式放生不同，居士 员之间在灵性上没有阶序差别。 佛教的放生强调平等，参加者至少在名义上都被赋予了 说完这些共同之处，再来梳理一番当下的“放生 同等的责任和权利，人人都是主持人。这就对所有到场 热”和传统佛门居的“随缘放生”之间的关键性差异。 参与者构成了一种压力，激发他们去学习佛教的知识和 首先，一个将两者区分开的重大差别是它们对放生之重 技能。因此，年轻居士对放生广泛推崇的关键是其促进 要性的认识。随缘放生认为放生对修佛之人灵性上的修 学习的功效。 行有正面作用，但从不认为放生可以作为一门独立的修 但事实上，用促进学习的功效来解释放生热最多也 行法门。换言之，随缘放生在这方面和寺院佛教是一致 不过是个不充分的解释。首先，很多别的学佛法门可以 的，即放生只是依附于其他更为重要的佛门修行之法的 做到这一点。放生仪轨里运用到的汉传佛教仪式文本， 辅助性工具。与之相反，“放生热”的关注点完全集中 几乎全都能在《禅门日诵》或各种早晚功课经之类通行 在放生本身。尽管对它在信仰和俗世层面的功效和地位 的汉传佛教科仪本里找到。这方面的书籍和影像资料网 抱有极大的分歧，放生仪式的拥趸已将其视为一门独立 络上到处可见，而且寺庙还会免费分发赠送。只需照此 的修行法门，可与其他正统的修行法门并肩而立。 常做早晚课，肯定能熟练地背诵那些文本。无意于在家 其次，新式放生仪式是一项众人参与的集体活动， 自学的人还可以选择周末去寺庙。因此，放生在南京并 而随缘放生则多属私人行为。负责活动组织的居士会提 非最简单低廉的学佛法门。其次，虽然一部分年轻居士 前几天发布放生仪式的公告，其他成员对此的回应也不 对于学习佛法十分投入，但事实上绝大部分人在参加放 尽相同。如果活动安排不和佛教节日或者法定假日重 生仪式过程中只是在旁观看。这些人或许会说仪式不可 合，基本没人会来参加，但是他们会通过支付宝或网银 或缺，但如果让他们钻研佛法，很难说是否真的会做 从网上捐献善款。放生团体的组织者都会很快速、清楚 到。最后，其实很多为放生仪式捐献善款的人并没有到 地在网上的空间里公布“ 年 月 日放生情况汇报”， X X X 场。仪式和佛法在他们看来也很重要，但因为没有到场 内容依惯例有善款收支清单、购买物命（即动物）种类 所以我们也无从判断他们是否习得了基础的修行法门， 数量清单和或许最吸引人注意的放生现场照片，让善信 至于放生真的教会了他们什么就更无从谈起了。综上所 能虚拟地“看见”自己的善款花在了哪里。 述，从放生仪式中学习修行法门并不是“放生热”的成 此外，新式放生活动十分注重仪轨，而随缘放生则 因。 比较淡然。其中一个关键的原因，基于网络虚拟空间建 另一种可能的解释是“放生是在家众所能实践的几 立起来的团体需要增强自身的真实感。具有神圣感和集 种积累功德的法门当中最经济、最可信的一种”，尤其 体感的放生仪式，将团体成员的互动交流从网络虚拟空 是对于那些还担负着各种世俗责任的年轻信众而言，尤 间带到了面对面的现世之中，原本彼此陌生的成员们由 为如此。这一解释最大的优点是它完全符合众多报告人 此变得更像一个真正的群体。而且，不少极为虔诚的年 轻居士将仪式视为维系居士群体的核心。他们也非常认 可传统放生仪式中对仪轨的重要性的强调，只是并不认 18 如六字大明咒、忏悔偈、三皈依偈、四弘誓愿、心经、往生 咒、大悲咒、阿弥陀佛等诸佛如来名号、普贤行愿品等，除以上大 17 年轻居士群体在手机捐款时，大多使用支付宝这样的在线支付 体上各教派通用的，还有些特属某一教派的，如净土宗的《十回向 工具和网银。 品》、密宗的《十万名忏》等 Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 161

自己做的放生体验证言——读者可以轻易从亲身与她们 受，但能否找到什么可见的证据，能够让其他人也知道 对话或者从网上找到成百上千篇此类证言。确实，从这 所言非虚？放生爱好者所说的“感应”究竟是什么？可 些证言中可以看出21世纪的南京居士们仍然坚信古老的 以想见，这些问题的答案大多极其模糊，然而，把判断 理论，认为放生的功德可以赎抵自己累世所犯的恶业。 感应出现的指标分成两大类可能很有助于我们廓清问 这些精明计算的论调折射出城市中的年轻居士为何选择 题。首先，第一类是很实际的经验证据，比如病退灾 放生积累功德。一些居士明言，从时间、自身精力以 消、事顺业达、婚姻美满、遇逢贵人等等。这其中的逻 及社会关系来看，放生要比其他积累福德的方式（如吃 辑非常实际：佛祖或者其他神灵 因为放生者积攒了功德 素、念佛、持诵经咒或者做慈善）更为经济划算。加上 而赐他好运。换句话说，之所以认为放生会灵验、佛祖 信息技术尤其是在线支付系统的迅猛发展，参与放生的 或者其他神明会奖励善行，是因为放生者好运临身。这 各项成本都大幅下降。所以对于那些大城市中仍在为生 就是为何遭遇好事成为感应的见证。此番解释的内里就 计和家庭而辛苦经营的年轻人而言，放生的确是力所能 是一种庸俗的利益计算，认为功德可以转换为好运。然 及范围内最实际的选择。尽管整日忙于工作和家庭，他 而，这和佛教徒对感应一词通常赋予的涵义相去甚远， 们至少还可以通过捐钱——不论数目是多么微小——为 后者是镶嵌在一套相当复杂的神学和超心理学的理论之 自己祈福消灾。 中的。 但这番利益说却仍大有破绽。须知付出/回报（功 第二另一类的指标则比较贴合佛教徒对感应通常赋 德）两者之间的衡量计算是修行者自己的主观判定。我 予的涵义，亦即一般意义上的感应。它强调的则是放生 们根本无法从客观上判定吃素或是念佛是否真的比放生 带来的心境变化，比如性格转变、修养提升、变得慈 的成本高。在南京居士圈子中一些颇有名气的佛教网站 悲、学佛进步明显…等，之所以会在感知/认知上会有发 上，就有成百上千篇坚持吃素或是念佛的修士们的证 生变化，是因为放生带来的善报。进而言之，放生后的 言，这绝非妄语。这些素食者们言辞坚定得认为吃素是 动物心中生出了感恩和快乐，而这些感恩和快乐转换成 最经济的修行方式，因为在减少食物开销的同时还能积 的善报渐渐赎抵了自己累世所犯的恶业，于是自己本有 攒功德。同理，念佛法门的拥护者认为念佛才是回报率 的善心、佛性就会越来越凸显。这里，“感应”意指能 最高的修行方式，因为它仅需一些零散的时间就可以 让人类和动物进行精神沟通的感知能力，并且在这种感 了。不单不需要你损耗什么，还能让修行者有缘永驻净 知经验下能给人的心理状态带来奇迹般的转变。 土。审视这些彼此迥异的说法，我们可以明了的看出， 放生的流行绝不是因为它在付出与回报的比率上超越其 结论 他修行方式，而是另有原因。 那么，原因究竟落于何处呢？笔者认为关键还是 如果感应确为今日南京放生热潮的核心成因，那么接下 在“感应”上。“感”意为感觉、感受，“应”意为回 来就需要探寻为什么在众多佛教法门中，居士们都异口 应，因而“感应”的意思即为“感受到了回应”。这个 同声得推崇放生？当然，我们无从推定放生是否是获得 词在宗教语境中屡屡出现，在普通环境中也时常能看 感应的最佳法门，但可以肯定的是放生的感官刺激（主 到。当用为动词时，“某人感应到了佛祖”，词义就是 要是视觉上的）特别强烈，拥有绝大多数法门都不可能 简单的“感觉到了什么”。当用作形容词时，词义则 达到的戏剧性张力，何以如此？因为它千余年来一贯“ 为“灵验”，比如“庙里的观音菩萨非常感应”的意思 从市场到公园”的行动程式，保证了它的每次再现都会 就是“这座庙里供的观音菩萨十分灵验”。而笔者关注 是一场相当煽情的、极能激发宗教热情的神剧。 的是它的名词词义。当它用为名词时，可以理解为在唤 “从市场到公园”的放生，其实可以说是“从地狱 醒这种感知能力后能够感知他人的回应。例如，“她感 到天堂”这一人类亘古的宗教修行神话主题的再现。此 应能力特别强”的意思为“她能很好的感知别人的回 一主题在佛教卷帙浩繁的高僧传、往生传中以种种形态 应”。尤其是在谈及不属凡人的存在时，“她感应能力 再现了无数次，但其最原初而神圣的示现，无疑就是关 特别强”往往意味着她感知到了异于寻常的东西。简言 于释迦牟尼成佛经过的神话，而放生仿佛就是这套神话 之，作为名词的“感应”，意味着超乎寻常的感知能力 史的微缩模拟版。大量动物被囚禁、宰杀、烹煮，充斥 以及因之获得的感知体验。 着动物的哀嚎和血腥味的市场，无疑就是集中营、刑 “感应”在目前南京的放生热潮中有着举足轻重的 场、水火疠兵肆虐下的人间炼狱的模型，而众多从未下 影响作用。从网上和现实生活中搜集到的资料中可以发 过厨、上过市场的青年男女（这样的人在都市人口中越 现，许多热衷放生的佛友被问及为何独钟放生时，经常 来越多），生平第一次上市场就是为了放生而跟着有经 给出这样的答案：“我第一次参加放生仪式的时候，感 验的放生者或者家中长辈去的，这第一次的经验，常令 应就特别强烈。而且当我后来继续参加的时候，感应一 他们感到刻骨铭心的震撼、恐怖和悲伤，犹如还是悉达 次比一次强烈。”此外，不少人在证言中坦言，他们也 多太子的世尊离开皇宫出外游历而目睹生、老、病、死 曾尝试过长时间的念佛或者诵经，结果最后什么感觉都 之苦。世尊为此下决心出家追求解脱之道，同样的，放 没有，但唯独在放生过程中产生了感应。 生者们也经常在回忆其那场“地狱游记”如何令他们 参与放生的人或许真的获得了一些不同寻常的感 162 Der-Ruey Yang

从此发愿放生、吃素，更努力的修习佛教，因为“以往 上，说这些动物是受命来帮助放生者消弭罪业、赐予开 在餐桌上只看到切好煮好的鱼、肉，是‘荤菜’，根本 示之恩的“菩萨”，所以放生者其实不是施恩者而是蒙 不会去想到那是活生生的动物的尸体，更不知道那过程 恩者！这意味着被放生的动物不只是放生者重获新生的 有多么残酷！”。与之极端相反的，是看起来平静、安 媒介，更成为放生者的“超我”——即救度、启明那蒙 详、生机盎然、鸟语花香的公园，而且里面不难碰见佛 昧的自我的觉性——的化身。 教的象征——莲花，事实上，我们一般在想象“极乐净 土”、“清凉佛国”等佛教神话里的天堂美景，还有佛 参考书目 教描述开悟后的心境的“自在”一词的意蕴时，凭借的 往往就是我们对公园的景象和置身其中的感受的回忆。 在通常不超过半天，多半仅有一、二个小时的时间 一、中文古籍 内，从人间炼狱般的市场里走出来，进入到佛国净土般 的公园，这一反差巨大的经验本身已经很具张力了，但 陈戍国. 2004. 《禮記校注》. 长沙: 岳麓书社. 这还只是舞台背景，它的完整意涵最终要在这场戏的主 检斋居士. 2011. 《金陵烏龍潭放生池古蹟考》. 在“南京稀见文献 角——被放生的动物们——获得自由、新生的那一刻的 丛刊”中的《承恩寺缘起碑板录、律门祖庭汇志、扫叶楼集、 金陵乌龙潭放生池古迹考》 合集 南京：南京出版社 跃动中才被全盘托出，几乎所有的放生经验证言都津津 . . 孔丘. 1999. 《論語》. 刘琦注译. 长春: 吉林文史出版社. 乐道于那前后不过几十秒、最长也就一两分钟的情景， 列御寇. 1985. 《列子》. Annotated by Zhang Zhan. 北京：中华书局. 而且清一色都充斥着拟人化的描述，说动物们之前是如 吕不韦. 1986. 《呂氏春秋》. 张双棣译注. 长春：吉林文史出版 何的“垂头丧气”、“惊恐”、“焦虑”、“仿佛嗅到 社. 死亡的气息”等，而被放掉的那一刻又是如何“不敢相 孟轲. 2000. 《孟子译注》. 杨伯骏、杨逢斌. 长沙：岳麓书社. 信会重获自由似的不敢离开牢笼”、“逃命似的狂奔 魏征, 虞世南, 褚遂良、萧德言等. 1985. 《群書治要》，卷 6–10. 北 京：中华书局 出牢笼”、“快乐”、“向我们道谢”、“跟我们告 . 严可均编. 1999. 《全隋文》. 北京：商务印书馆 别”…等等，有些甚至还将这种拟人化的动机投影到其 朱右曾. 1937. 《逸周書集訓校釋》. 北京：商务印书馆. 他自然物上，如“阳光变得特别温暖灿烂”、“草木含 左丘明. 2010. 《國語》. 郑州：中州古籍出版社. 笑”、“山石点头”…等等，有不少放生者承认他们曾 不止一次被这结尾的高潮感动得热泪盈眶，特别是那些 佛教经典、古籍 在生涯经历了某种重大转折之后开始或重新接触佛教的 释道宣 隋國師智者天台山國清寺釋智顗傳 《續高僧傳》 人。 . 1934. “ ”. 卷 17. 在《大正藏》卷 50, 第2060篇. （电子版可见于 那些丰沛的拟人化修辞，在很大程度上是放生者对 http://read.goodweb.cn/esutra/read_sutra.asp?id=1607&wor 被放生的动物的认同的反映。这一认同最常从这两个着 d=%E7%BB%AD%E9%AB%98%E5%83%A7%E4%BC%A0）. 眼点上产生，一是“受难–解救”经历的平行性，二 《梵網經》. 在《大正藏》卷24，第 1484篇. （电子版可见于 是“罪咎–救赎”的比喻投射。前者是指放生者从动物 http://read.goodweb.cn/esutra/read_sutra.asp?id=2762&wor 们的蒙昧无知和因此遭受的劫难中，看到自己过去的蒙 d=%E6%A2%B5%E7%BD%91%E7%BB%8F） 《金光明經》 在《大正藏》 卷 第 篇 （电子版可见于 昧与遭逢的劫难，因此，看见动物们最终获得解放和新 . . 16, 0663 . http://read.goodweb.cn/esutra/read_sutra.asp?id=682&word 生，便感觉自己似乎又一次从过去的愚痴和苦难中解脱 =%E9%87%91%E5%85%89%E6%98%8E%E7%BB%8F ） 出来重获新生。后者是指放生者把遭罪的动物们视为自 释宗晓编. 2010. 《四明尊者教行錄》. 上海：上海古籍出版社 身过去所犯的一切过恶的受害者的象征，也就是把血腥 遵式. 1975–89. 《金園集》. 在《卐字续藏经》卷 57, 第 0950篇. 的市场和可怜的动物看成自身罪恶的镜影，于是，动物 （电子版可见于http://read.goodweb.cn/esutra/read_sutra. 们最后在公园里演出的那场“重生之舞”19，把放生者 asp?id=3988&word=%E9%87%91%E5%9B%AD%E9%9B%86 ） 被之前在市场里见到的悲惨景象挑激到临界点的罪咎 感，象烟花般瞬间升华、释放掉，那种如释重负的快 当代作品 感，经常被当事人认定是忏悔、赎罪、洗脱恶业后的感 觉。简言之，前者是偏向自居受害者的心理投射，后者 陈明华（2010）“士绅们的西湖放生梦：1927～1933年关于西湖放 是偏向自居加害者的心理投射,然而，不管是加害者还 生池的争端”，《开放时代》2010：4：46-57 是被害者，最终都藉着被放生的动物而看到了重获新生 范丽珠（2005）《当代中国人宗教信仰的变迁：深圳民间宗教信徒 的田野研究》，台北：韦伯文化 的自己。不仅如此，虔诚的放生者们（尤其是净土宗的 顾希佳（2005）“西湖风俗刍议：以香市、放生、祈梦为例”，《 信徒）甚至把一般理智倾向于认定的施与受关系颠倒过 杭州师范学院学报》2005：6：85-88 来，刻意把主体性从放生者转移到被放生的动物们身 刘淑芬. 2008. 中古的佛教与社会. 上海：上海古籍出版社 卢云峰、和园（2014）“善巧方便：当代佛教团体在中国城市的发 展”，《学海》2014：2：26-34 19 我将此一场景命名为“重生之舞”的灵感，实得自谢燕清 潘桂明（2000）《中国居士佛教史》，中国社会科学出版社 （2009）对临江市净土宗老居士们热衷参与的“亡者之舞”的精彩 描绘，我谨在此申谢。 Animal Release: The Dharma Being Staged between Marketplace and Park 163

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