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1、ISTHEREREALLY“ESOTERIC”BUDDHISM?RICHARDD.MCBRIDE,IIInhisseminalbookTheOrderofThings,MichelFoucaultmakesanimportantobservationonamethodologicalproblemassociatedwithclas-sification:Historianswanttowritehistoriesofbiologyintheeighteenthcentury;buttheydonotr
2、ealizethatbiologydidnotexistthen,andthatthepatternofknowledgethathasbeenfamiliartousforahundredandfiftyyearsisnotvalidforapreviousperiod.Andthat,ifbiologywasunknown,therewasaverysimplereasonforit:thatlifeitselfdidnotexist.Allthatexistedwaslivingbeings,wh
3、ichwereviewedthroughagridofknowledgeconstitutedbynaturalhistory.1IncontemporaryWesternscholarship,theconceptof“EsotericBud-dhism”hasbecomepartofathree-foldgridofknowledgedeployedtodescribethehistoryofBuddhism.Forinstance,TheEncyclopediaofReli-gionpresent
4、sthreegeneralessaystitled:“Hinayana,”“Mahayana,”and“EsotericBuddhism.”2Inthiscasetheclassification“EsotericBuddhism”isclearlyaeuphemismandreplacementtermfor“BuddhistTantrism”or“TantricBuddhism,”aproblematicclassificationrepeatedlyshownbyscholarsinrecenty
5、earstobelargelyaproductofnineteenth-centuryWesternOrientalistimagination.3Forthisreason,perhaps,manyscholarsnowfavorthecategoryof“EsotericBuddhism.”Italsomaybebecause1MichelFoucault,TheOrderofThings:AnArcheologyoftheHumanSciences[Atrans-lationofLesmotset
6、leschoses](NewYork:PantheonBooks,1970;rpt.NewYork:Van-tageBooks,1994),127-128.2SeethebookBuddhismandAsianHistory,ed.JosephM.KitagawaandMarkD.Cummings(NewYork:Macmillan,1989),195-256,whichiscomprisedofselectionsfromTheEncyclopediaofReligion,MirceaEliade,e
7、ditorinchief,15vols.(NewYork:Macmil-lan,1987).3See,forinstance,HughB.Urban,“TheExtremeOrient:TheConstructionof‘Tantrism’asaCategoryintheOrientalistImagination,”Religion29(1999):123-146;andDonaldS.Lopez,Jr.,ElaborationsonEmptiness:UsesoftheHeartSutra(Prin
8、ceton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1996),78-104.JournaloftheInternationalAssociationofBuddhistStudiesVolume27•Number2•2004330RICHARDD.MCBRIDE,IItheclassificationsuggestsarelationshipwiththeSanskritwordguhya(secret,esoteric)and
