Buddhas with Double Faces (III) 双面佛像（下）

文／燕卜荪 译／彭发胜 By William Empson

Buddhas with Double Faces (III) 双面佛像（下）

文／燕卜荪1译／彭发胜 By William Empson

We might hesitate to say what the experiences or the inherent nature of a Buddha may be. But a statue of him to be worshipped has two very different functions; it has to convey his detachment from the world after achieving peace, and yet this figure is expected to help the worshipper. The formula I propose for the Buddha head,in the Far East, up to the tenth century or so, is that the calm is on the left and the power to help the worshipper on the right. This has enough realism to be satisfying, because it puts the more active or outgoing part in the usual place.

要说出佛的经历或佛性到底是什么，我们难免会犹豫。但是，我们知道，供人崇拜的佛像确实有两种大不相同的功能：一方面要表示佛获得自在后出离世间，另一方面佛还要救度皈依者。我所指出的佛像面部的特征，在远东一直到公元10世纪左右，其左脸神态安详，右脸则满含救度皈依者的力量。这种佛像符合现实，令人满意，因为它将更积极活跃的表情展现于通常的位置。

[2] The trick may well have been invented at Yun-kang, where it is used very regularly. Large numbers of the heads have been hacked off (very wickedly) for private sale, and there are plenty of them on view, nearly always with their expression of ironical and forceful politeness. But if you make a picture with the left side of the head twice over it has hardly any of this expression. The eye and the mouth are level and the face is calm and still. On the right the eye and mouth slant, and this gives the sardonic quality; in fact,if you take it twice over the thing approaches the standard European face of the Devil. One finds this trick with eye and mouth even on small statues of the period, where the face is a mere sketch of two or three lines, and this is what makes me believe it was done on a theory. In the good heads it might be enough to say that the artist had deep intuitive understanding, but when the trick is used carelessly it must have become a ‘rule’. Of course I don’t say it is invariable; where you get a sheer wall in the caves of thousands of tiny statues they don’t do it.

[2]这种手法在云冈得到普遍运用，也许就是在那里发明的。为了私售牟利，当地许多佛首被砍掉了（可恶至极！），不过保留下来陈列的也有不少，表情看起来总是亦庄亦谐。但是，如果你将左脸对称并置在一张图上，几乎就看不出这种表情。这时，眼睛和嘴是平直的，面容是平静而沉寂的。佛像右脸的眼角和嘴角上斜，具有一种讥讽的意味；可是，如果你将右脸对称并置，则仿佛是欧洲魔鬼的标准相貌。同一时期，小型佛像的面部即使只用两三条线描绘，眼睛和嘴的处理也有这种特点。因此，我认为这种做法是有理论根据的。对于工艺精良的造像，这种做法足以显示出艺术家自然流露的深邃悟性；可是如果这种做法是无心而为之的，则它必然已经成为概莫能外的“规则”。当然，我不是说这种做法是一成不变的。如果你看到的是岩壁上数千座微型佛龛，则无法进行这种处理。

[3]这种佛像处理方法似乎广为流传，并持续了一段时期，在以真人为原型的佛像全脸处理中也融入了这种手法。1935年伦敦中国艺术展上的真人大小的陶制罗汉像就是一个很好的例子，其右眼下眼睑的中部倾斜，让人觉得比左眼更倾斜一些。在我看来，这尊佛像的右脸呈现出高傲和痛苦，目光中含有一种狡黠的意味；左脸则有一种聪明睿智、不屈不挠的宁静神态。当然，这座佛像也许是如实的描绘，但它照样遵守规则。它可能出自宋代，而非唐代，因此可能是后期佛像的一种。

[3] The convention seems to spread,and last for some time, but it is absorbed into a more fully modeled treatment of the whole face. The life-size pottery Lohan (saint) which was in the London Chinese Exhibition of 1935 is a good example; it is only on the right that the middle of the lower lid slants,and this gives you an impression that the whole eye is more slanted than the one on the left. The right of the face,it seems to me, has pride and suffering and looks out with a certain cunning;the left has a stubborn and intelligent placidity. Of course it may be a realistic portrait, but it follows the rule. It is now thought to be probably Sung (960—1180)rather than T’ang (808—907) which would make it a late example.

[4] I want to take two of the supreme early statues of Japan; both are seventh or early eighth century. For the Horiuji Kwannon (an image of the Bodhisattva of Mercy) I could not get a quite frontal view to cut up, but it is clear that mouth,eye and eyebrow are a bit steeper on the right. The good humour and maternity of the face, rueful but amiable, belong to the left; on the right is the divinity, a birdlike unchanging wakefulness. It is quite a different contrast from the previous ones but still fits the psychological theory. Of course what you make of the face depends on the whole statue,the long sweep of the flamelike draperies, stretching as far as earth, and the jerk of the extended arm, exhausted but still offering. The Chuguji Maitreya is the coming Buddha, not yet born, but waiting in the heavens. The calm left is a normal Buddha face; from the right you can extract various sorts of child according to the lighting. It is a wonderfully subtle and tender work.

[4]我想谈谈日本的两座早期佛像，它们都出自7世纪到8世纪初。一座是奈良法隆寺的观音像，我没有获得可以将其左右两边脸等分的正面像；但是很明显，其右脸的嘴、眼睛和眉毛相比之下更倾斜一点。那种轻松慈悯、哀而不伤的神情属于左脸；右脸则表现出佛的神圣性，含有一种鸟儿一般从不松懈的机灵警觉。这种特征与云冈佛像不同，不过仍然符合心理学的理论。当然，对于面容的理解取决于整座塑像，你看那火焰一般的衣褶一直拖到地面，手臂舒展前伸，虽然露出疲惫之态，但仍然在施舍度人。奈良中宫寺供奉着弥勒菩萨，他是在天宫候补、尚未降生的未来佛。平静的左脸是佛正常的面容；而其右脸根据灯光的不同，可以示现儿童的各种相貌。这座佛像面含慈悲，表情特别细腻。

[5] The Yumedono Kwannon (another Bodhisattva of Mercy) is perhaps the most beautiful of these early Japanese statues, and I had best end with it,not to appear crazy over the split-face theory; because the face seemed to me completely symmetrical on the two occasions that I saw it. It was used often,and that is a main source of the wonderful variety which the Far Eastern artists obtained within the strict formula of the Buddha facial type.

[5]法隆寺梦殿的观音像也许是日本早期最美观的佛教造像，我的介绍最好以此收尾，以免显得我过分痴迷于面部切分理论。因为我曾拜访过两次，看到这座菩萨像的面部完全对称。这座塑像常被提及，它说明远东艺术家在造佛像时不但严格遵守成规，又能别出心裁、翻新样式。

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。

10 Fascinating Extinct Animals (VI)

6. Great Auk大海雀

The great auk was a flightless coastal bird that bred on rocky islands around the North Atlantic, including in Canada,Greenland, Iceland, the British Isles and Scandinavia.

They were slaughtered in huge numbers until the late 18th century, according to the British Natural History Museum. Although hunting declined, the rare birds became a prized specimen for collectors and they were driven to extinction by the mid-1850s.

In this photo, Dan Gordon, Keeper of Biology at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, holds a stuffed juvenile Great Auk at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle.