摘要
前此學者已做過不少有關功德寺的研究，主要就其出現的時間、原因──尤其著重功德寺的經濟利益方面的討論。本文則從宗教、政治、社會層面，探討功德寺的作用，以及其對中國祖先崇拜和佛教界產生的影響。就宗教層面來說，功德寺的功能是寺僧為功德寺主的亡親長年禮懺超度，主要的佛事是懺悔儀式，關涉南北朝以降懺悔儀式的出現、懺儀內容的變化與薦亡的關係。雖然懺儀是造成功德寺出現的根本原因之一，但敕賜功德寺的出現卻也影響了宋代佛教界的一些層面，最明顯就是宋代佛教界興起改律寺為禪寺的風潮。
就政治層面而言，「敕賜功德寺」可以說是在唐代以降「禁創寺觀」政令和控制僧人數目的背景下，皇帝賜予大臣權貴的恩典。在社會層面上，中古時期寺院原係一公共的空間，既是士子習業的處所，也是官員、商旅寄宿的地方，兼是流寓者殯葬或權葬之地。官員的功德寺則是一個私人的空間，亦即將公眾性的寺院空間私有化。
就思想史的意義而言，敕賜功德寺中也有儒家榮顯祖先成分，宋代皇帝准許某些品官擁有功德寺以追薦祖先，亦即政府承認功德寺的作用，佛教薦亡儀式遂正式成為中國祖先崇拜中的重要成分。
Previous research on Tang-Song Buddhist funerary temples (gongde fensi 功德墳寺) has focused on the dates of their appearance and their economic facets. In contrast, this paper adopts the perspectives of religious history, political history, and the history of thought to explore the ways in which these sacred sites shaped both Chinese ancestor worship and the development of Buddhism in China. In terms of the history of Chinese religions, Buddhist funerary temples were closely linked to the growth of mortuary rituals, especially penitential rites (chanhui yishi 懺悔儀式) that first appeared during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period but flourished during the Tang-Song era. Politically, such temples offered emperors an opportunity to reward loyal officials by granting them the privilege of constructing sacred sites at which to worship their ancestors. However, while numerous Chinese temples functioned as public spaces, Buddhist funerary temples represented a form of private space reserved mainly for official families. Buddhist funerary temples also influenced representations of the Chinese cult of the dead. On the one hand, they constituted key sites for state-recognized ancestor worship. And, on the other hand, mortuary rituals performed at these temples were almost exclusively Buddhist, which allowed this originally foreign religion to enter the mainstream of Chinese ancestral worship.
關鍵詞
唐宋佛教 功德寺 懺悔儀式 祖先崇拜
Tang-Song Buddhism, funerary temples, penitential rites, ancestor worship