双 面 佛 像（中）

文／燕卜荪译／彭发胜

双 面 佛 像（中）

文／燕卜荪1译／彭发胜

输入到中亚、东南亚和远东的佛像正是这种样式。在中国，多数现存最早的佛像来自于公元5世纪建成的云冈石窟，位于北京西北。石窟的崖壁上主要是一座巨大无比的佛像，样子单调而又极度冷漠，还有许多专注而虔诚的小佛像。但是，中国早期的佛像也有其特色，它们已然体现出一种亦庄亦谐、高雅不凡的气质。这些端庄矜持而又笑意融融的佛像看来正在亲切交谈，他们（如同中国古代诗人一样）摆脱了世间生活的俗气，但并没有脱离世间。我觉得，中国后来的佛像在保持宗教威严的同时，逐渐丧失了这种新鲜的神态。观音菩萨在中国改变了性别，成为女性，但通常只不过是一位衣着时髦的贵妇。为了公允起见，我还是要说，观音菩萨志得意满的长相仍然不失其伟大的道德力量。佛已经出离世间，看起来高高在上，但是他也在告诉你，你也可以成佛。菩萨出现于基督教兴起的时期，意思是舍己度人，为了所有人皆能离苦得乐，他宁可不入涅槃。

It was this convention which was exported to central Asia, South-east Asia and the Far East. In China most of the earliest surviving work is from the Yunkang caves, northwest of Peking, and was done during the fifth century. The cliff of the caves is dominated by a dull but extremely ruthless2ruthless无情的。colossal3colossal巨大的。Buddha, and many of the smaller statues are very devoted and concentrated. But the novelty about the fi rst Buddhas in China is that they have already a suggestion of ironical politeness and re fi ned superiority. Delicious conversation pieces are found in progress between these reserved but winking fi gures, withdrawn (like the classical Chinese poets) from the vulgarity of active life rather than from the world. The later Chinese work, I think, tends to lose this freshness even while keeping considerably religious power; and the Kwan-yin, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, who changes sex in China and becomes a woman, is often hardly more than a sort of fashion plate4fashion plate衣着时髦的人。of the court lady. It is only fair to add that even in its complacent forms the work has great moral strength; the Buddha has freed himself from the world and may well look superior to it, but he is telling you that you can do the same; and the idea of a Bodhisattva is in its way sacri fi cial (it was formed in the same age as Christianity) because a Bodhisattva has renounced the peace of nirvana till he has helped all mankind to get there fi rst.

[2]后来，佛教传入日本，与当地业已形成的高级文明相融合。当时在日本，学习阅读和书写的主要目的就是为了阅读佛经。在公元七八世纪，日本文明刚开始形成，见证了佛教经典的鼎盛时期。尽管日本的大多佛像是由外来的工匠制作的，但是形制独具特色，主要源头是经过高丽文化渗透的云冈造像传统。

[2] Buddhism gets to Japan somewhat later, and has got there to fit in with a high civilisation already formed; indeed the need to read Buddhist texts was the chief reason for learning to read and write at all. There is an extraordinary flowering5flowering（艺术、音乐、科学等新思潮的）繁荣时期。of Japanese Buddhist sculpture in the seventh and eighth centuries, one might say during the process of fi rst becoming civilised. Much of the work may have been done by imported foreign craftsmen, but in any case it is unique. The Yun-kang tradition, fi ltered through Korea, seems to be its chief source.

[3]在我看来，远东佛像除了吸收了印度和中亚的做法，其新鲜之处似乎主要在于面部左右两边的非对称处理，看起来更人性化。印度人本着禁欲的倾向，完全凸出了佛出离尘世的一面；他们并不希望佛看起来具有人的温情。但是，从云冈石窟可以清晰地看到，并且多半也是中国人秉性使然，中国人希望佛具有人性，而为了让一座佛像生气活泼，最简单的做法就是让其面部看起来左右不同。我怀疑，他们是取法于算命先生测字相面的学问；在中国的集市上，我们仍然能够看到这种行当，算命先生看人脸的左右两边要使用不同的规则。这门学问的现存典籍可以追溯到非常久远的古代，正因为如此，造佛像的工匠完全有理由返古开新，创造一种新的艺术形式（中国在佛教传入之前，几乎没有人形的塑像）。我以为，重要的是，几乎所有佛像的面部都同样左右不对称，好像造像的工匠们本着某种理论；并且，我也相信，他们的观念大致是不错的。

[3] It seems to me that the chief novelty of this Far Eastern Buddhist sculpture, beyond what had already been done in India and central Asia, is the use of asymmetry to make the faces more human. The Indians with their tendency to ascetism6ascetism禁欲主义。had put the emphasis on the Buddha’s complete withdrawal from the world; they did not want him human. Whereas it is clear at Yun-kang, and anyway likely from the Chinese temperament that the Chinese did want him human; and the easiest way to make a statue lively is to make the two sides of the face different. I suspect too that they drew on a system used by fortunetellers to read your character and your prospects in your face; one can find booths at fairs in China still doing this, and using different rules for the two sides. The surviving texts on this branch of learning date back far enough, but it seems reasonable to think that the practice is old, and that a sculptor who was developing a new art form (China has hardly any pre-Buddhist human sculpture in the round) would take an interest in it. The point is important, I think, because the faces all seem to be asymmetrical in the same way, as if the artists were working on a theory; and what is more, I believe that their main idea was true.

[4]在过去的二十年间，心理学家们发展了一种人脸左右不对称的理论，为了说明此理论，他们“切分”人脸的照片；也就是在一张照片上将左脸冲印两次，在另一张照片上将右脸冲印两次。（为了从反面冲印，你需要的是胶片，而不是玻璃底版。）我在处理远东的佛像照片时，就尝试了这种方法，效果看起来非常好。不过，关于面相的理论仍然缺乏有力的支持，左右两边的差异也很难解释得没有漏洞。我们也许指望以面部神经和大脑之间的通路来解释面部的不对称，但是神经通路十分复杂，大部分神经通路从面部的一边交叉进入另一边，有些神经通路却不交叉。不过，我们似乎可以说，一个人的活跃体验往往更多表现在右脸上，而他的内在秉性或被动体验更多表现于其左脸，因为左脸肌肉不大会受到内在意志的强烈作用。我的观点是，右脸肌肉一贯对于意志做出快速反应，日积月累就会在脸上留下痕迹。丘吉尔先生的长相足以显示这种差异有时确实存在。不过，我们知道，波德莱尔的人生经历大不相同，而他左右脸的对比也正好相反。在丘吉尔先生的脸上，执政者位于右脸；其左脸（人或人像自身的左边，对于观者则是右边）则时而暴躁，时而浪漫，凝聚着阴郁的道德力量和充沛的想象力。 □

[4] During the last twenty years the psychologists have been developing a theory about asymmetry in the human face, and illustrating it by ‘split’ photographs; that is, the left taken twice over and the right taken twice on another picture. (You need a film, not a plate negative, because you have to print it backwards). I have tried this method on the Far Eastern Buddhas, and it seems to me to work very nicely. The theory about actual faces is still not on a solid footing; the contrasts between the sides are hard to interpret consistently, and the paths of the facial nerves to the brain, which one would expect to explain the contrasts, are complicated because though most of them cross over to the other side, some of them don’t. However, it seems to be true that the marks of a person’s active experience tend to be stronger on the right, so that the left shows more of his inherent endowment7endowment禀赋。or of the more passive experiences which have not involved willful use of facial muscles. All that is assumed here is that the muscles on the right generally respond more readily to the will and that the effects of old experiences pile up. The photograph of Mr. Churchill will be enough to show that there is sometimes a contrast of this sort, though it seems that in Baudelaire, who led a very different kind of life, the contrast was just the other way round. In Mr. Churchill the administrator is on the right, and on the left (by which of course I mean the left of the person or statue, which is on your right as you look) are the petulance8petulance坏脾气。, the romanticism, the gloomy moral strength and the range of imaginative power.

Buddhas with Double Faces (II)

ByWilliam Empson

1（1906—1984），英国著名文论家，诗人。在剑桥大学读书期间写出《朦胧的七种类型》，一举成名。曾在日本教授英国文学。1937年来到中国，先后在北京大学和昆明西南联大任教，讲授英国文学，对于当时中国文学的现代主义运动影响深远。1939年返英，在英国广播公司任职。1947年重来北京大学任教，至1952年回国。此后在谢菲尔德大学任教，直至去世。燕卜荪在远东期间，对佛教造像艺术产生浓厚兴趣，不断收集资料并拍摄大量照片，回国后写成书稿《佛的面容》（The Face of the Buddha），后因种种变故，书稿遗失，令他抱憾终生。2005年，此书手稿在大英图书馆奇迹般重现，经整理后于2016年由牛津大学出版。