蓄蛊之地:一项文化歧视符号的迁转流移

Land of Sorcery: The Shift of a Symbol of Cultural Discrimination

“蓄蛊”是一种巫术,传说有蓄养者聚集百虫施加法术借以害人谋财,其实这纯粹是无根据的传说。但是由于其内容与南方的环境、地方病和地域文化相契合,所以自隋唐以来,逐渐被看作是南方某些地域特有之恶习。随着南方的逐步开发,传说中的“蓄蛊之地”范围随着主流文化圈前进的步伐而南移,江南一带逐渐不在其内,而是推移至两广、福建及西南一带,直至今日尚在某些地方留有残余。“蓄蛊”本身并不是一个简单的巫术问题,它体现了主流文化对非主流文化的地域歧视,其迁转流移反映了主流文化圈的拓展过程。而被指为“蓄蛊”地区的民众对强加于己的污名逐步内化吸收,则体现了弱势文化面对强势文化时的微妙心态。

“Xu gu”is a kind of sorcery. Tradition had it that the sorcerer would call together all kinds of insects and cast spells on them to harm people, although there is absolutely no basis for this tradition. However, as the content of this tradition coincided with the southern environment, local diseases and regional culture, from the Sui and Tang dynasties on it came to be regarded as an evil custom peculiar to some areas of southern China. With the southward spread of the Central Plain mainstream culture, the borders of the area that was once believed to be under the control of such sorcery was pushed southward, from the southern bank of the Yangtze River to Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and the southwestern provinces. Traces of this tradition remain in some places even today. The sorcery of“xu gu”is not a simple matter of sorcery. The shift in its area reflected the discrimination of mainstream culture against local cultures in its process of expansion. On the other hand, people in the areas labeled the land of sorcery gradually internalized the imposed stigma, showing the subtle mentality of a weak civilization confronting a strong one.