以文明为渡，无问国界——观《空海传》对话主创谈遣唐使之路（五）
Civilization as the Ferry, Borders Set Aside — A Conversation with the Creators of The Legend of Kukai on the Path of the Tang-Bound Envoys (V)
李神琦（REX LEE）
人体工程学研究员｜美国纽约百老汇制作人
毕业于伦敦政治经济学院金融与社会学专业
曾任纽约苏富比拍卖公司管理部
中国人体工程学研究院北美考察团，在美国洛杉矶好莱坞观览中国原创纪录片《空海传》后，与影片导演刘悦、制作人刘畅展开深度交流，现场抛出了一个至关重要、却长期被现代认知误解的历史命题：历史上大唐的遣唐使之路，对不对？
After watching the original Chinese documentary The Legend of Kukai in Hollywood, the North American Study Delegation of the China Academy of Human Body Engineering engaged in a deep exchange with the film's director Liu Yue and producer Liu Chang. On the spot, a question of great importance — and one long misread by modern minds — was raised: Was the path of the Tang-bound envoys, historically speaking, right or wrong?
这句看似简单的疑问，实则暗藏着现代人对历史的道德投射与认知偏差。当下的我们，总习惯用现代社会的国家主权民族主义文明优越感等概念，去评判千年前的国际关系与文明往来，却刻意忽略了一个核心历史事实：1200年前的世界，并无现代意义上的国家主权边界与民族对立概念，唯有跨越山海、不分彼此的文明流动。
This apparently simple question in fact conceals the moral projection and cognitive bias of modern minds onto history. We habitually use concepts such as 'national sovereignty,' 'nationalism,' and 'civilizational superiority' to judge the international relations and civilizational exchanges of a thousand years ago, while deliberately ignoring a core historical fact: the world of 1,200 years ago had no modern sense of sovereign borders or national antagonism, only a flow of civilization across seas and mountains that did not divide 'us' from 'them.'
针对这一问题，我们可以给出笃定且清晰的答案：遣唐使之路，不仅对，而且是人类文明史上，极其光辉、极具价值、值得万世敬仰的伟大壮举。 它绝非后世曲解的殖民扩张、文化渗透，而是古代世界最纯粹、最伟大的和平文明交流工程，是东亚文明乃至人类文明共生共荣的典范。
To this question we can give a firm and clear answer. The path of the Tang-bound envoys was not only 'right' — it was one of the most luminous, most valuable, and most enduringly admirable achievements in the whole history of human civilization. Far from being the 'colonial expansion' or 'cultural infiltration' that later ages would distort it into, it was the purest and greatest project of peaceful civilizational exchange the ancient world produced — a model of shared life and shared flourishing for East Asian civilization, and for human civilization as a whole.
一、何为遣唐使：赌上性命的文明朝圣者
I. Who Were the Tang-Bound Envoys: Civilizational Pilgrims Who Staked Their Lives
遣唐使，是日本于公元630年（唐贞观四年）至894年（唐乾宁元年），先后派出的19次有官方记录的外交与文化使团，他们跨越茫茫东海，奔赴大唐都城长安与洛阳，只为求取文明智慧。
The Tang-bound envoys (kentōshi) were 19 officially recorded diplomatic and cultural missions that Japan dispatched between 630 AD (the fourth year of Tang Zhenguan) and 894 AD (the first year of Qianning), crossing the vast East China Sea to reach the Tang capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang — all for the sake of gaining civilizational wisdom.
每一次遣唐使出行，规模都极为浩大，使团人数维持在500至600人，涵盖外交官员、饱学之士、修行僧侣、书画匠人、医者、翻译、能工巧匠以及专业留学生，囊括了当时日本社会各领域的精英人才。其航程从难波（今大阪）启程，经九州、对马、壹岐等地，横渡凶险莫测的东海，抵达扬州或明州（今宁波），再沿大运河一路北上，最终抵达长安。
Each mission was enormous in scale, with 500 to 600 members — diplomatic officials, learned scholars, practitioner-monks, painters and calligraphers, physicians, interpreters, master craftsmen, and specialist students — drawing from the elite across every field of Japanese society. Their voyages set out from Naniwa (today's Osaka), passed Kyushu, Tsushima, and Iki, crossed the perilous and unpredictable East China Sea, landed at Yangzhou or Mingzhou (today's Ningbo), and then followed the Grand Canal northward until at last they reached Chang'an.
在航海技术极度落后的千年前，东海航路危机四伏，每3次航行便有1次遭遇船毁人亡的劫难，整个遣唐使行程的平均死亡率超过30%。他们绝非游山玩水的旅行团，更不是逐利而行的商队，而是抱着为国求法、为民族求智的赤诚之心，赌上性命、跨越生死的文明朝圣者。
A thousand years ago, when seafaring technology was rudimentary, the East China Sea route was perilous. Roughly one in every three voyages ended in the destruction of ships and loss of life, and the average mortality rate across the entire kentōshi enterprise exceeded 30 percent. These were not sightseers nor profit-seeking merchants. They were civilizational pilgrims, staking their lives across the line between life and death with an earnest heart that sought the Dharma for their country and wisdom for their people.
二、遣唐使之路的四大正当性：何以称其为文明壮举
II. Four Grounds for the Legitimacy of the Tang-Bound Mission: Why It Deserves to Be Called a Civilizational Feat
遣唐使之路之所以是毋庸置疑的文明正道，核心在于其与生俱来的四大正当性，历经千年岁月，依旧经得起历史与道义的双重检验。
The path of the Tang-bound envoys is undeniably a civilizational right road. Its core rests on four innate grounds of legitimacy that, after a thousand years, still stand up to both historical and moral scrutiny.
它是纯粹和平的文明求学，无半分侵略与掠夺。日本派遣使团，从未携带一兵一卒，从未侵占大唐一寸土地，从未索要一分一毫贡品，全程以谦卑姿态，主动请求唐朝接纳派遣；而大唐以开放包容的大国气度，敞开国门接纳使团，为其安排食宿、提供便利，甚至给予留学生入朝就学、入朝为官的优待。他们从大唐带走的，是书籍经典、佛教经文、历法制度、乐器医术、建筑图纸、汉字文化与制度范本，全程是自愿、平等、和平的文明学习，是人类历史上极为罕见的非暴力文明输入，是跨越生死的求知之路，与武力掠夺、强权压迫毫无关联。
It was a purely peaceful mission of civilizational learning, with no element of invasion or plunder. Japan's envoys never brought a single soldier, never seized an inch of Tang territory, and never demanded a coin of tribute. Throughout they approached Tang China with humility, actively requesting acceptance of their missions. Tang China, with the open and inclusive bearing of a great power, threw open its gates and welcomed them, arranging food and lodging, providing facilities, and even offering students the privilege of enrolling in state schools and serving at court. What they took back from Tang China was books and classics, Buddhist scriptures, calendars and institutions, musical instruments and medical knowledge, architectural drawings, the culture of Chinese characters and institutional models. Throughout, it was voluntary, equal, and peaceful civilizational learning — an extraordinarily rare case of non-violent civilizational inflow in human history, a search for knowledge across the line of life and death, and wholly unrelated to armed plunder or the oppression of power.
它推动了整个东亚文明的共生共荣，构建起东亚文明共同体。日本通过遣唐使，引入唐代律令制度，完善自身《大宝律令》，实现国家治理体系的革新；以汉字为根基，创制平假名、片假名，形成专属文字体系；引入佛教密宗、天台宗，完善本土宗教体系；吸纳唐诗、书法、绘画艺术，奠定东亚审美根基；效仿长安城市规划，打造平城京、平安京，确立都城建设范式。
It drove the shared life and flourishing of the whole of East Asian civilization and built an East Asian civilizational community. Through the envoys, Japan brought in the Tang legal code, improved its own Taihō Code, and renewed its system of state governance. It took Chinese characters as a foundation and created hiragana and katakana, forming its own distinctive script. It introduced esoteric and Tendai Buddhism, rounding out its native religious system. It absorbed Tang poetry, calligraphy, and painting, laying the basis of East Asian aesthetics. It modeled its capital planning on Chang'an to build Heijō-kyō and Heian-kyō, establishing the paradigm of capital-city construction.
而大唐的制度文化、文字体系、佛教文明、艺术美学，也借此辐射至整个东亚，汉字文化圈逐步成型，中国佛教的影响力不断扩大，都城规划、礼乐制度成为东亚各国效仿的模板。这不是单向的中国文化输出，而是东亚各国以文明为纽带，共同构建起文化相通、理念相融的东亚文明共同体，大唐是文明的灯塔，日本是虔诚的学习者，双方以开放与谦卑，成就了彼此的文明进步。
At the same time, Tang China's institutions and culture, script, Buddhist civilization, and aesthetic sensibilities radiated outward through the same channels to the whole of East Asia. A Chinese-character cultural sphere gradually took shape; the influence of Chinese Buddhism continued to expand; capital planning and ritual-and-music systems became templates for East Asian countries to emulate. This was not a one-way 'Chinese cultural export'; it was the joint construction, by countries of East Asia, of a civilizational community woven together by culture and idea. Tang China was the lighthouse of civilization, Japan was its devout student, and both — through openness and humility — achieved each other's civilizational progress.
它完美践行了以德服人的中华文明核心精神。大唐之所以愿意敞开国门、倾囊相授，源于中华文明天下大同、怀柔远人的核心理念，唐太宗曾言夷狄亦人耳，其情与中夏不殊，这份包容，是不分族群、不分国界的文明共情。唐朝从未强迫日本归顺、强迫其接受中原文化，反而为日本留学生提供免费食宿、官学教育，甚至开放科举考试，日本留学生阿倍仲麻吕便考中进士，在唐朝身居高位。
It perfectly embodied the Chinese civilizational core of 'winning others through virtue.' Tang China's willingness to open its gates and share all it had flowed from the core ideas of Chinese civilization: 'the great harmony of all under heaven' and 'bringing distant peoples close through gentleness.' Emperor Taizong of Tang once said, 'The peoples of the frontier are also human; their feelings are no different from those of the Central Lands.' This inclusiveness is a civilizational empathy that respects no ethnic or national divide. The Tang never forced Japan to submit or to accept Central Plain culture; instead it provided Japanese students with free board and lodging and state-school education, and even opened its civil-service examinations. The Japanese student Abe no Nakamaro passed the jinshi examination and rose to high office under the Tang.
更令人动容的是，大唐高僧鉴真，为赴日传法，六次东渡，历经艰险、双目失明，始终初心不改，这份文明传递，是单向的、无私的慈悲与坚守，与近代西方殖民者传教+征服的掠夺式扩张，有着本质区别。大唐的天下观，从来不是武力统治、强权压制，而是愿以文明智慧，与天下众生共明大道、共赴美好。
Still more moving: the eminent Tang monk Jianzhen (Ganjin), in order to transmit the Dharma to Japan, attempted the eastward voyage six times, endured great dangers, and went blind in the course of his journeys — and yet never changed his original vow. This transmission of civilization was a one-way, selfless act of compassion and perseverance, essentially different from the 'preach-and-conquer' predatory expansion of modern Western colonialism. The Tang view of the world was never one of armed rule or the oppression of power; it was the willingness to let civilizational wisdom illumine the great Way with all beings under heaven and journey together toward the good.
它从根源上塑造了现代日本的文明基因，是日本文明的觉醒之路。可以说，没有遣唐使，就没有后世成熟完整的日本文明。若无遣唐使引入汉字，日本难以形成独立的文字体系，始终只能依托汉字表意；若无佛教文化传入，日本宗教体系将残缺不全，更不会诞生真言宗、天台宗等本土佛教流派；若无唐代律令制度，日本无法建立中央集权国家，或许长期停留在部落联盟阶段；若无唐风建筑、书画、礼乐等艺术传入，日本传统艺术将失去根基，文化发展苍白无力；若无唐代教育体系引入，日本知识将长期被贵族垄断，社会文明难以实现跨越式发展。
At the deepest level, it shaped the civilizational genes of modern Japan and was its awakening road. One may say: without the Tang-bound envoys, there would be no mature and complete Japanese civilization in later ages. Without them bringing in Chinese characters, Japan could not have formed an independent script and would have remained dependent on Chinese characters for meaning alone. Without the transmission of Buddhist culture, Japan's religious system would be incomplete, and there would have been no Shingon or Tendai schools. Without the Tang legal code, Japan could not have built a centralized state and might have remained in a tribal-confederation stage. Without the transmission of Tang-style architecture, painting, calligraphy, and ritual music, Japanese traditional art would lack a foundation and cultural development would be pale and weak. Without the introduction of the Tang educational system, knowledge in Japan would have been monopolized by the aristocracy for ages longer, and society could not have made its great leap forward.
空海、最澄、阿倍仲麻吕、吉备真备等遣唐使代表人物，从来不是所谓的文化背叛者，而是日本文明的奠基者、再造者，他们以一己之身，扛起了整个日本文明进步的使命。
Leading figures such as Kukai, Saichō, Abe no Nakamaro, and Kibi no Makibi were never 'cultural traitors,' as some would have it; they were founders and re-creators of Japanese civilization, who took on in their own persons the mission of the progress of an entire civilization.
三、破除时代偏见：澄清对遣唐使之路的常见误解
III. Breaking Through the Prejudices of Our Age: Clearing Up Common Misunderstandings of the Tang-Bound Mission
当下诸多对遣唐使之路的质疑，皆是脱离历史背景、以现代认知曲解古代史实的偏见，我们有必要逐一厘清真相，还原历史本貌。
Many current doubts about the Tang-bound mission are prejudices that strip away historical context and distort ancient fact through modern categories. We owe it to history to clarify each in turn and restore the original picture.
有人认为日本偷了中国文化，实则不然。日本对大唐文化，从来不是照搬照抄、窃取挪用，而是系统学习、本土化改造、创新性转化，从汉字到平假名、片假名，从唐密到日本真言宗，从唐风建筑到和风建筑，皆是立足本土文化、适配本土需求的再创造，是文明的传承与升华，而非偷窃。
Some say that 'Japan stole Chinese culture.' In truth, it did not. Japan's relationship to Tang culture was never one of wholesale copying or pilfering. It was one of systematic learning, local reshaping, and creative transformation — from Chinese characters to hiragana and katakana, from Tang esoteric Buddhism to Japanese Shingon, from Tang-style architecture to Japanese-style architecture. Each was a re-creation grounded in native culture and adapted to native needs, a transmission and elevation of civilization, not theft.
有人认为唐朝被日本利用，吃了亏，这更是片面之词。唐朝始终是主动开放、自愿接纳，文化的价值本就在于传播与传承，大唐非但没有吃亏，反而通过遣唐使，将文明影响力辐射至整个东亚，收获了天下归心的大国声誉，成就了盛唐的文明尊严。反观历史，真正的吃亏，从来不是开放交流，而是闭关锁国、固步自封，盛唐因开放而强盛，明清因封闭而衰落，便是最有力的证明。
Some say that 'the Tang was exploited by Japan and came out the loser.' This too is a one-sided view. The Tang was always actively open and voluntarily receptive; culture's value lies precisely in its transmission and continuation. The Tang was not the loser; through the envoys, its civilizational influence radiated throughout East Asia, earning it the reputation of the great power to which 'hearts under heaven turn,' and establishing the civilizational dignity of its peak. Looking back across history, the true 'loss' has never lain in open exchange but in closed-door isolation and stagnation. The high Tang grew strong through openness; the late Ming and Qing declined through closure — the evidence is as clear as can be.
还有人将其曲解为文化侵略，这完全混淆了概念。文化侵略的核心是武力压迫、强制灌输，而遣唐使之路，是日本主动求学、大唐开放接纳，全程双向尊重、自愿平等，无半分强制与压迫，与侵略毫无关联。
Still others distort it as 'cultural aggression' — a complete confusion of concepts. The essence of cultural aggression is armed oppression and forced indoctrination, whereas the path of the Tang-bound envoys was one of Japan's voluntary study and Tang China's open acceptance. Throughout, it was mutually respectful, voluntary, and equal, without the slightest coercion or pressure, and wholly unrelated to aggression.
四、遣唐使之路：映照当下世界的文明启示
IV. The Path of the Tang-Bound Envoys: A Civilizational Lesson for Today's World
千年前的遣唐使之路，在当下文明冲突、科技封锁、文化对立、全球脱钩的时代背景下，更显珍贵，也为我们提供了最深刻的文明启示。
A thousand years later, against today's backdrop of civilizational clashes, technological blockades, cultural antagonism, and global decoupling, the path of the Tang-bound envoys looks more precious than ever, and it offers us the most profound of civilizational lessons.
当下世界，部分国家推行技术封锁、文化污名化、文明对立，鼓吹文明冲突论，而千年前的遣唐使之路早已告诉我们：真正的国家强大，从来不是封锁他人、遏制他人发展，而是以自身文明与实力，吸引他人主动前来学习；真正的伟大文明，从来不是靠武力征服、强权压制，而是靠智慧与慈悲感召四方；真正的民族自信，从来不是惧怕他人学习、刻意封闭自我，而是坦然接纳他人求学，坚信文明的光芒不会因传递而减弱，反而会因共享而愈发璀璨。
Today some countries pursue technological blockades, cultural stigmatization, and civilizational antagonism, loudly promoting the 'clash of civilizations.' The Tang-bound envoys already told us, a thousand years ago, that true national strength never comes from blockading others or suppressing their development, but from using one's own civilization and capability to draw others to come and learn. True civilizational greatness never rests on armed conquest or the oppression of power, but on wisdom and compassion that summon the four directions. True national confidence never fears others' learning or deliberately closes the self off, but calmly welcomes others as students, trusting that the light of civilization does not dim with transmission — rather, it shines all the more through sharing.
结语：遣唐使之路，人类文明的黄金范式
Conclusion: The Path of the Tang-Bound Envoys — a Golden Paradigm for Human Civilization
回望遣唐使之路，它早已不是对不对的简单判断，而是拷问当下我们，是否还配拥有千年前大唐的开放气度、日本的谦卑初心的深刻命题。
Looking back on the path of the Tang-bound envoys, it has long ceased to be a simple matter of 'right or wrong.' It is a deep question asked of us today: Are we still worthy of the Tang's openness of a thousand years ago, and of Japan's first heart of humility?
千年前，大唐以包容开放，敞开文明大门；日本以谦卑赤诚，跨越生死求学。两个国家，两种文明，没有枪炮硝烟、没有不平等条约、没有殖民掠夺，仅凭对智慧的追求、对文明的向往，共同完成了改变东亚千年文明走向的伟大壮举。
A thousand years ago, the Tang opened its civilizational gates with inclusion and openness; Japan sought learning across the line of life and death with humility and sincerity. Two countries, two civilizations — no gunpowder or smoke, no unequal treaties, no colonial plunder. On the strength of nothing more than the pursuit of wisdom and a yearning for civilization, together they accomplished a great feat that changed the course of a millennium of East Asian civilization.
空海渡海，怀揣《大日经》，只为传承佛法智慧；鉴真东渡，手持《戒律疏》，只为传递文明慈悲。他们不带刀剑、不携私利，只带智慧与真诚，这才是人类文明交流该有的模样。
Kukai crossed the sea carrying the Mahāvairocana Sūtra, solely to transmit the wisdom of the Dharma; Jianzhen crossed eastward carrying commentaries on the monastic precepts, solely to transmit the compassion of civilization. They brought no blades and no private interest, only wisdom and sincerity. This is what human civilizational exchange ought to look like.
一个国家的伟大，从不在于征服多少土地、拥有多少财富，而在于以自身文明之光，照亮多少异乡人的心灵，照亮多少文明前行的道路。遣唐使之路，既照亮了日本文明的觉醒之路，也彰显了中华文明的包容与伟大，更成为人类文明交流互鉴的永恒典范。
A country's greatness has never lain in the amount of land it has conquered or the wealth it has amassed, but in how many hearts of strangers it has illumined, and how many civilizational roads its own light has brightened. The path of the Tang-bound envoys illumined the awakening road of Japanese civilization, displayed the inclusiveness and greatness of Chinese civilization, and became an eternal paradigm of civilizational exchange and mutual learning for humankind.
文明的传承，从来不是靠封闭与封锁，而是靠传递与共享；文明的延续，从来不是靠对立与冲突，而是靠包容与共情。千年前的遣唐使之路，早已为我们留下了最珍贵的启示：以开放拥抱世界，以谦卑追寻真理，以文明联结彼此，方能让人类文明生生不息、薪火相传。
The transmission of civilization has never relied on closure or blockade; it relies on passing on and sharing. The continuation of civilization has never relied on confrontation or conflict; it relies on inclusion and empathy. The path of the Tang-bound envoys, a thousand years ago, has long since left us the most precious lesson: embrace the world with openness, seek truth with humility, and link one another through civilization. Only thus can human civilization keep being born anew, passing the torch from one generation to the next.
附：遣唐使文化深度研习推荐
Appendix: Recommendations for Deeper Study of the Tang-Envoy Culture
1. 书籍：《遣唐使：中日文化交流的黄金时代》（王勇），系统梳理遣唐使历史脉络与文化价值
1. Book: The Tang-Bound Envoys: The Golden Age of Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange by Wang Yong — a systematic treatment of the historical arc and cultural value of the envoys.
2. 纪录片：央视《中国通史》第38集《遣唐使》，直观还原千年前文明交流盛况
2. Documentary: Episode 38 of CCTV's General History of China, 'The Tang-Bound Envoys' — a direct reconstruction of the flourishing civilizational exchange of a thousand years ago.
3. 实地场馆：西安大唐西市博物馆、奈良唐招提寺，亲身感受遣唐使与鉴真东渡的历史印记
3. Sites to visit: the Xi'an Great Tang West Market Museum and Nara's Tōshōdai-ji — places where one can feel firsthand the historical imprint of the Tang-bound envoys and Jianzhen's eastward journey.
4. 文化艺术：日本雅乐《兰陵王入阵曲》、日本《万叶集》汉诗，体悟遣唐使文化的传承与回响
4. Cultural arts: the Japanese gagaku piece 'Ranryō-ō' (Prince Lanling Entering Battle) and the Chinese-language poems within the Man'yōshū — through which one may sense the transmission and resonance of the envoys' culture.
作者简介：
李神琦（Rex Lee）是一位华裔美国演员、获奖剧作家与百老汇制作人，常驻纽约市。他本科毕业于芝加哥大学，主修历史与政治学，并于伦敦政治经济学院（LSE）获得金融与社会学硕士学位。
李神琦拥有横跨艺术、金融与公共事务领域的广泛经验，曾于国际顶级艺术拍卖行苏富比（Sotheby’s）任职，并在华盛顿特区担任企业说客，代表多家跨国公司进行政策游说。
他的表演生涯始于入围全美极具声望的 Jerry Herman Awards，这一经历点燃了他对舞台艺术的热情。其后，李神琦成为当年唯一入选的华裔男演员，受邀加入英国国家剧院（National Theatre Company of Great Britain），并展开国际巡演。他也曾参演美国国家级广告、影展短片，以及伦敦 Off-West End 的专业剧场演出，并受保加利亚文化部邀请，赴索菲亚国家剧院登台演出，展现其多语文化的舞台魅力。
舞台之外，李神琦在学术领域同样表现出色。他曾在全美历史竞赛（National History Bowl）及美国地理奥林匹克（U.S. Geography Olympiad）中取得佳绩，并入选美国国家队。他对全球事务、文化历史与地缘政治的深厚理解，持续为其剧作与表演注入思想深度与跨文化的叙事视角。
作为百老汇制作人，李神琦致力于搭建中美戏剧之间的桥梁——将美国戏剧引入中国，也让中国作品登上纽约舞台。他坚信戏剧能够穿越语言与国界，成为文化交流的窗口与心灵的共鸣。他的作品关注移民经验、身份认同与文化错位，通过艺术不断重塑“归属”的意义，推动亚洲叙事在全球剧场中的传播与再想象。
内容说明：文中图片皆来源于网络，内容仅做公益性分享，版权归原作者所有，如有侵权请告知删除！
热门跟贴