Why are the pilgrims given empty scriptures in the final chapters of Journey to the West? Prevailing interpretations read it as a transparent joke. This article instead proposes that the final chapters of the novel should be read as an extended allegorical commentary on the Heart Sūtra. The metaphysics of the empty scriptures and the materiality of the fragmented scriptures deliberately correspond to the Heart Sūtra’s duality of emptiness and form, a duality that is ultimately dissolved in the Buddhist paradox of expressing nonduality through linguistic means. Xiyou ji, and in fact Buddhism at large, suggests that all texts—whether they be scriptures or literary fiction—are necessary yet insufficient vehicles in the pursuit of ultimate truth. Texts are only instrumental; the proverbial raft that must be discarded once the river to enlightenment has been crossed.

本文將《西遊記》的結局作為《般若心經》的託寓來解讀,分析小說如何以無字天書的的形而上學的內涵來闡述心經中色與空之間虛妄的雙對性。《西遊記》指出,在追尋絕對真義的過程中,文本只不過是一個工具而已。这一道理无异于佛法的基本教義。

The Confucian “scene of instruction” is the most influential model of discipleship for the Warring States through the Han period. It portrays the collective identity of master and disciples (dizi) as derived from the production, recitation, and transmission of texts. However, examination of how pre-Qin texts depict discipleship as a social phenomenon suggests that learning to read and write was not a universal aspiration of dizi. Moreover, attention to emplotment, motifs, wording, and tone in historical narratives about the master-disciple relationship shows increasing similarities over time to the patron-retainer relationship, including the potential for aggression and expectations of material returns. Discipleship, however, apparently created a permanent mutual obligation not shared by retainership. Further research is needed to understand the broad range of social roles expected of dizi in early Chinese texts.

在許多學者的心目中,孔子與其弟子的集體認同源自他們對文本的創作、複述和傳遞,然而學會閱讀和寫作並非一般弟子的普遍志向。有關孔子和弟子間的關係的歷史記載所採用的編撰風格體現出這一關係越發相似於養士者與食客間的關係。

Chen Dong, a student at the Imperial University in Kaifeng, was executed in 1127 because he criticized Song policy to relocate to the south rather than continue military resistance against the Jurchen invasions. The historical process that transformed an executed criminal into one of the seminal moral voices of Song history reveals the tension between literati governance and autocratic governance throughout the dynasty. Thirty-eight colophons, dating 1222–1259, which were written on a holograph memorial from the day of Chen’s execution, demonstrate how literati resistance to the administrations of Shi Miyuan and his nephew Shi Songzhi, especially among adherents of the “learning of the Way” movement, enhanced the historical stature of Chen Dong and presented him as a voice of “public opinion” against the autocratic power of higher authority.

太學生陳東以其批判南宋朝廷偏安及放棄抗金之政策而於建炎元年被處極刑。本文分析陳東奏稿的三十八通題跋,說明士人 (尤其是道學者) 將其言論標榜為對抗獨裁勢力的公議,使其名聲從死犯轉為道德跫音之先驅。此一過程顯示了士人統治與專制統治之間的張力。