桓谭《新论》中狗怪故事的深层意蕴

The Deep Meaning of Stories about Dog Gremlins in New Theory by Huan Tan

桓谭《新论》中记载了两个狗怪故事:狗成为精怪,并以家中刚死去不久的人的身份和面貌出现,让世间人厌恶,最后被打死。狗具备灵性,曾充当很多部族的图腾,使人们相信狗会成精,以狗为图腾的部族与汉民族关系不错,使人们相信即使狗成精也不会伤害人类,因此故事中两只狗精没有给人带来多大灾难。但是汉代的谶纬迷信、人们的生存本能使人们对"精怪"的特殊本领有深层恐惧;汉代的生产力水平使得人们在面对自然界的猛兽时处于劣势,因此一直站在与"魑魅魍魉"等猛兽精怪对立的立场。人们的恐惧导致了狗怪被打死的厄运。

There are two stories about dog gremlins in New Theory by Huan Tan. In these stories dogs become gremlins and appear as people who just died soon before in the family. Other people hate them and beat them to death. Dog is smart, and is totem of many tribes, so people believed that dog could become gremlin. Tribes regarding dog as their totem got along well with the Han, so people believed that dog gremlins would not hurt people, so dog gremlins have not set too much trouble in stories.But people feared special skills of gremlins because of prophetic-mixed superstition and people＇s instinct, and people were vulnerable when facing the beast in nature because of the productivity level of Han Dynasty, so they stood in the position against beasts, monsters and gremlins. People＇s fear kills the dog gremlins.