先秦两汉“女乐”考

On the Female Singers and Dancers in Pre-Qin and Han Dynasty

女乐是中国古代贵族阶层娱乐生活中的一项重要内容。它在先秦时期是指宫廷中的舞伎,而到汉代,不仅指掖庭材人,而且还用于称呼祭祀天地活动中歌唱的童男童女。女乐的拥有者从先秦到秦汉也发生了很大变化。最初由宫廷所有,到西汉后期出现了私家畜女乐的现象,东汉以后私家畜女乐则更为普遍,并且有时还被称之为女倡。这表明私家女乐自东汉以后开始向倡伎转变。

The performances of the female singers and dancers were important amusement of the ancient upper class in China. Before the Qin Dynasty, the “nvyue”(female singer and dancer) meant the dancing girls in the royal court. In the Han Dynasty, it meant both female official in the royal court and the virgin singers in offering sacrifices to the gods of the heaven and the earth. From pre-Qin Dynasty to the Qin and Han dynasties, the ownership of the female singers and dancers changed. Originally, they were owned by royal court, and in the later period of the western Han Dynasty, the ordinary people kept female singers and dancers. After eastern Han Dynasty, more ordinary people could keep female singers and dancers. And at that time, they were called 'nvchang'(ditto), which means that the private female singers and dancers began to change into prostitutes from the eastern Han Dynasty.