“生死异路,各有城郭”——读骆驼城出土的一件冥婚文书

The Living and the Dead Live in Different Worlds and Each Belongs to His or Her Own Castle:A Study of a Ghost Marriage Document Unearthed in Luotuocheng

1998年5月甘肃省高台县博物馆在清理骆驼城98—6号古墓时获得一批珍贵文物,其中一件书写在木牍上的文书尤为重要,该文书为研究中国古代的冥婚现象及其背后的宗教观念提供了新的线索。其"男祥"、"女祥",即见于宋人康与之《昨梦录》中的"男祥鬼"和"女祥鬼"。从各种迹象推测,这件文书可能是由专业人士所撰,或许就是《昨梦录》所谓"鬼媒人"的手笔。术士制作这件文书时虽然也含有祝愿或约束耿、孙二氏婚后生活的用意,但其更为直接的目的是强调生死异路,切断耿、孙两个死人与生者之间的联系。这种强调生死异路、切断生死联系的意图,正是东汉以来多数墓葬文书的共同主题。与其他墓券一样,这件墓券也反映了自汉代以来一直流行未绝的传统信仰。中国古代与冥婚相关的死后观念源于本土信仰,唐代冥婚现象的盛行不必从受到佛教地狱观念影响的角度进行解释。

In May 1998,when Gaotai County Museum,Gansu,was sorting out objects unearthed from the ancient tomb Luotuocheng no.98-6,it found a batch of valuable cultural relics.Among them,a document written on wooden slips is particularly important in that it provides new clues for the study of ghost marriage in ancient China and its religious background.The words 男祥(nánxiang,literally 'bridegroom'),and女祥(nǚxiang,literally 'bride') can be found in Dreams of Yesterday(昨梦录,Zúomènglù),a work written by Kang Yuzhi of the Song Dynasty,where they are referred to as男祥鬼(nánxiang ghost bridegroom) and 女祥鬼(nǚxiang ghost bride).From various indications,we can conclude that this document was probably written by a professional in the field,perhaps by the so-called 'ghost matchmaker' mentioned in Dreams of Yesterday.The shaman's direct purpose in writing this document,apart from offering good wishes and constraints for married life for the couple,Geng and Sun,was to emphasize that the living and the dead belonged to different worlds and to cut off the connections of the deceased couple with the living.This is the common theme of most burial documents from the Eastern Han dynasty on.Like other documents found in tombs,this document also reflects traditional beliefs handed down since the Han Dynasty.Ancient Chinese ideas and beliefs about the afterlife that related to ghost marriage were indigenous,and the spread of ghost marriage in the Tang dynasty is not necessarily to be explained in terms of the influence of Buddhist ideas of hell.