“買來的孩子”——東方人名學的一個類型

A Child That was Bought--An Anthroponymic Type in the Oriental Societies

古代中國人名中有一類以“買来的孩子”爲主题的人名,如“買得”“買子”“買奴”“買婢”,史籍中有記録是某人小字,但在涉及社會中下層的墓志與官私文書中卻多是作爲正式的大名來使用的,所涉及的社會階層也並不局限於下層,性别方面的分布也是男女均有。類似語義和構成形式的人名,在中亞近鄰民族(如古代波斯、粟特、突厥回鹘人等)中也有使用。這似乎顯示古代東方人名文化中的一個共性特征。本文彙集人名實例,分類排比,並比較同型名(如“佛得”“道得”等),試做推論。

A category of personal names with the meaning of“a bought child”,such as Maide(a bought one),Maizi(a bought boy),Mainu(a purchased servant/slave),and Maibi(a purchased maidservant),is frequently encountered in the records of Chinese antiquity.While the historic sources have occasional mention of such names as nickname,their occurrences in manuscript documents and epitaph inscriptions show a clear picture that they were regarded as official names.They were adopted by people from all social classes.And the gender distribution is also quite equal.It is to be noted that names with similar semantics an forms are also seen in non-Chinese ethnic groups in Central Asia.There are examples from the Persian,Sogdian,Turko-Uyghur onomasticon.This seems to show a common feature in the oriental naming culture.Collecting name examples of the basic type and under comparison with similar structure as Fode(got from Buddha)as well as Daode(Found on the Way),this essay aims to propose a first categorization and analysis.