中国古代人“名”的使用及其意义——尊卑、统属与责任

The Use of Personal“Names”in Ancient China and Its Meanings: Social Status, Domination-Subordination and Responsibilities

称名与不称名,在西周春秋以来的日常交往中体现和确认交往双方地位的尊卑高下。春秋以后则出现了通过“策名委质”将隶属关系固定化的做法,用以建立稳定的统属关系。后代出现的百官“名籍”与战国时产生的普遍户籍制度均有类似的作用与意义。基于此,百姓又以“名”为媒介建立了与不同性质的“物”的责任关系:“物勒工名”体现了工匠、监造官吏对器物质量的责任关系;“名田宅”体现了“农”对系于其名下的田地负有的向官府交纳赋税、服役的责任;官文书上的署名包含了有关官吏所承担的性质不同的责任;从而搭建起帝国中君—臣(民)—物的基本关系构架。分析人“名”如何使用,有助于从内在脉络认识中国古代国家的形态。

In the Western Zhou and the Spring and Autumn periods, whether to use personal names in daily communication or not indicated the social status of the two parties. After the Spring and Autumn period, the subordinates were registered with their masters by name. This consolidated the master-subordinate relationship and served to establish stable domination-subordination relations. The later registration system for officials and the universal household registration that emerged in the Warring States period were similar to that convention in function and meaning. Based on this, different responsibilities were related to objects by means of“naming”: craftsmen and the supervising officials were supposed to inscribe their names on things they made, as a guarantee of quality; farmers' names were attached to their land as a standard for their responsibilities with regard to taxes and services; officials' signatures on documents signified their differing responsibilities. In such a way were built up the basic relations of monarch-subjects-objects in a great empire. An insight into the use of naming facilitates an understanding of the state modality of ancient China from the perspective of its intrinsic logic.