一九五三年七月，星雲著作的《無聲息的歌唱》出版，此書昭示了日後星雲以文學的方式弘傳佛法的開端，亦是其「文學為佛法之翼，佛法為文學之核」理念及精神的展現。《無聲息的歌唱》乃星雲二十三歲時，在苗栗法雲寺守護山林、阻止盜獵時，在草棚草堆旁寫就。書中將佛教中的十八種佛門的法器，如︰大鐘、木魚等，以及兩種非法器即籤筒和紙箔，將其擬人化，以代物自言的方式，用散文的體裁呈現。各篇介紹了器物的形狀、來歷、材料、功用、類別等。各篇發揮想象力，對大部份佛教中的法器以平易近人的方式簡介，此書「可說是台灣佛教最早的現代文學作品」。此外，書中內容實反映了當時佛教界的諸多問題，除斥法器之濫用外，此書還寄托了星雲欲改革當時佛教陋習，中興佛教，讓更多人了解佛法、信仰佛教的心願。緣此，故本文除探討星雲的文學因緣、文學敘述手法等外，亦探討書中所顯現的臺灣佛教的問題，星雲改革佛教的呼籲。 Hsing Yun published the book Singing in Silence in July 1953, it manifested the Hsing Yun started to carry forward teaching of Buddhism by using literature as his medium. This also revealed his idea of “Literature is the wing of Buddhism while Buddhism is the core of literature.” Hsing Yun was only 23 years old while he wrote the book Singing in Silence. He was guarding the mountains and forests and preventing poaching at Fayun Temple in Miaoli at that time. The book anthropomorphizes eighteen Buddhist artifacts in Buddhism, such as big bells, wooden fish, etc., as well as two non- Buddhist artifacts, i.e., sticks and paper foils, and uses prose genres as a way for them to speaks for themselves. Each article introduced the shape, origin, material, function and category of the Buddhist artifacts. He used his imaginations to introduce most of the Buddhist artifacts in an approachable way, in this way, this book can be known as “the earliest modern literary work of Taiwanese Buddhism.” The book content reflected the Buddhists' problem of that time, such as abusing of dharma instruments. Hsing Yun pinned his hope to reform those bad practice in Buddhism and to promote Buddhism that more people could understand and believe in Buddhism in this book. Thus, this article not only investigates literary origins, the literary narratives of Hsing Yun, this article also discusses Taiwan Buddhism problem that had been revealed in the book and also Hsing Yun’s appealed of reforming Taiwan Buddhism.
