釋迦牟尼佛生平四大重要事蹟，誕生、成道、說法與涅槃，是印度中亞佛教圖像中常見的題材。然而在中國早期佛教藝術中，佛傳多選擇性地以祥瑞的誕生為主題，較少描繪涅槃圖像。北魏涅槃圖像多搭配佛說法的主題，但在石窟中並不常見，以敦煌石窟為例，約在北周時期才出現涅槃圖像。然而，北朝時期涅槃經論在佛教教義中影響深遠，涅槃思想經常出現在造像記中，如何解釋此現象？其次，本文將思考北朝佛教圖像的組合結構問題。涅槃圖脫離佛傳，與彌勒像、佛說法圖共同出現，成為法身觀佛法永住的圖像之一。後來又多與思惟菩薩、禪坐像結合，或與《法華經》圖像並列，值得深入探討。

The four major events in Śākyamuni’s life—his birth, attaining enlightenment, preaching of the dharma, and nirvana (death), also called the “four aspects of the Buddha’s life” (sixiang chengdao 四相成道), are frequent subjects in Indian and Central Asian Buddhist images. However, in China during the Northern Wei dynasty, depictions of Buddha’s life more often took as their main subjects his birth, with all its auspicious signs; the relative absence of nirvana images is obvious. Although most of the nirvana images in cave art are paired with preaching images, they still rarely appear. For example, in the Dunhuang caves the earliest nirvana image dates back only to the Northern Zhou dynasty, even though the discourse on the Buddha’s attainment of nirvana as described in the sutras was having a deep, lasting effect on Buddhist doctrine throughout the Northern Dynasties period, and the relevant ideas frequently appear in the inscriptions on these images. How can we explain this phenomenon? Next, this article will consider the structural issues of Buddhist images. The nirvana images became separate from the Buddha’s biography and appear together with images of Maitreya and tales of Buddha’s life. Later on, they are more frequently connected with images of the contemplating bodhisattva and of meditation, sometimes in combination with Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna, the two Buddhas of The Lotus Sutra (Fahua jing 法華經)—a phenomenon that is worth investigating in greater depth.

涅槃; 釋迦; 北朝; 彌勒; 法華經

nirvana; Śākyamuni; Northern Dynasties; Maitreya; Lotus Sutra