李提摩太对大乘佛教的回应:从后殖民对东方学的批判着眼

虽然李提摩太对大乘佛教的诠释受到他自己的基督教信仰影响,甚至是受到传教使命驱使,但他的进路迥然不同于具殖民色彩的东方学,并且在动机和态度上颇为符合大乘佛教的精神。他在翻译佛典的过程中,没有强调东西方宗教观念之间的差异,反而突出它们的相通之处,希望以此作为基督教与佛教建立合作或友谊的共同基础,而不是使佛教徒皈依基督教。基于他的著述,可以发现他实际上实践了一种后殖民的批评,与殖民势力是对抗的。他的终极目的是全人类的解放,但进路与心态截然不同于那种解救东方人的殖民主义式思维,因为他从来不曾假设西方文明更为高等。就萨义德对东方学或东方主义的批判来说,李提摩太对大乘佛教的响应可以说是一个例外,甚至是反例。

Timothy Richard's Response to Mahayana Buddhism :From the Perspective of the Postcolonial Critique of Orientalism

Though Timothy Richard is a Christian missionary to China,his response to Mahayana Buddhism aims at neither the conversion of the Chinese Buddhists to Christianity nor the justification of Western colonialism. On the contrary,he aims at building up the friendship and cooperation between Christians and Buddhists in the fight against militarism and the establishment of world peace and justice. Unlike many of his contemporaries,Richard regarded Mahayana Buddhism as a higher Buddhism rather than a distortion of...