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

文／燕卜蓀 譯／彭發勝 By William Empson

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

文／燕卜蓀1譯／彭發勝 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.

要說出佛的經歷或佛性到底是什么，我們難免會猶豫。但是，我們知道，供人崇拜的佛像確實有兩種大不相同的功能：一方面要表示佛獲得自在后出離世間，另一方面佛還要救度皈依者。我所指出的佛像面部的特征，在遠東一直到公元10世紀左右，其左臉神態安詳，右臉則滿含救度皈依者的力量。這種佛像符合現實，令人滿意，因為它將更積極活躍的表情展現于通常的位置。

[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]這種手法在云岡得到普遍運用，也許就是在那里發明的。為了私售牟利，當地許多佛首被砍掉了（可惡至極！），不過保留下來陳列的也有不少，表情看起來總是亦莊亦諧。但是，如果你將左臉對稱并置在一張圖上，幾乎就看不出這種表情。這時，眼睛和嘴是平直的，面容是平靜而沉寂的。佛像右臉的眼角和嘴角上斜，具有一種譏諷的意味；可是，如果你將右臉對稱并置，則仿佛是歐洲魔鬼的標準相貌。同一時期，小型佛像的面部即使只用兩三條線描繪，眼睛和嘴的處理也有這種特點。因此，我認為這種做法是有理論根據的。對于工藝精良的造像，這種做法足以顯示出藝術家自然流露的深邃悟性；可是如果這種做法是無心而為之的，則它必然已經成為概莫能外的“規則”。當然，我不是說這種做法是一成不變的。如果你看到的是巖壁上數千座微型佛龕，則無法進行這種處理。

[3]這種佛像處理方法似乎廣為流傳，并持續了一段時期，在以真人為原型的佛像全臉處理中也融入了這種手法。1935年倫敦中國藝術展上的真人大小的陶制羅漢像就是一個很好的例子，其右眼下眼瞼的中部傾斜，讓人覺得比左眼更傾斜一些。在我看來，這尊佛像的右臉呈現出高傲和痛苦，目光中含有一種狡黠的意味；左臉則有一種聰明睿智、不屈不撓的寧靜神態。當然，這座佛像也許是如實的描繪，但它照樣遵守規則。它可能出自宋代，而非唐代，因此可能是后期佛像的一種。

[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]我想談談日本的兩座早期佛像，它們都出自7世紀到8世紀初。一座是奈良法隆寺的觀音像，我沒有獲得可以將其左右兩邊臉等分的正面像；但是很明顯，其右臉的嘴、眼睛和眉毛相比之下更傾斜一點。那種輕松慈憫、哀而不傷的神情屬于左臉；右臉則表現出佛的神圣性，含有一種鳥兒一般從不松懈的機靈警覺。這種特征與云岡佛像不同，不過仍然符合心理學的理論。當然，對于面容的理解取決于整座塑像，你看那火焰一般的衣褶一直拖到地面，手臂舒展前伸，雖然露出疲憊之態，但仍然在施舍度人。奈良中宮寺供奉著彌勒菩薩，他是在天宮候補、尚未降生的未來佛。平靜的左臉是佛正常的面容；而其右臉根據燈光的不同，可以示現兒童的各種相貌。這座佛像面含慈悲，表情特別細膩。

[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]法隆寺夢殿的觀音像也許是日本早期最美觀的佛教造像，我的介紹最好以此收尾，以免顯得我過分癡迷于面部切分理論。因為我曾拜訪過兩次，看到這座菩薩像的面部完全對稱。這座塑像常被提及，它說明遠東藝術家在造佛像時不但嚴格遵守成規，又能別出心裁、翻新樣式。

1（1906—1984），英國著名文論家，詩人。在劍橋大學讀書期間寫出《朦朧的七種類型》，一舉成名。曾在日本教授英國文學。1937年來到中國，先后在北京大學和昆明西南聯大任教，講授英國文學，對于當時中國文學的現代主義運動影響深遠。1939年返英，在英國廣播公司任職。1947年重來北京大學任教，至1952年回國。此后在謝菲爾德大學任教，直至去世。燕卜蓀在遠東期間，對佛教造像藝術產生濃厚興趣，不斷收集資料并拍攝大量照片，回國后寫成書稿《佛的面容》（The Face of the Buddha），后因種種變故，書稿遺失，令他抱憾終生。2005年，此書手稿在大英圖書館奇跡般重現，經整理后于2016年由牛津大學出版。

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.