中国“老人自死习俗”相关历史记忆重释

Re-interpretation and Relevant Historical Memory to Chinese Custom of “the Elders Waiting for Death”

中国早期文献记载了在历史上存在过的"老人自死习俗"的各种形式,但已失去了解释性。一些老人自死习俗在汉代之后的文献中始终被置于道德批判的视角下,另一些经过象征性仪式与文化解释的改变而得以在官方与民间同时延续下来;在民间历史中则不同程度保留着有关习俗与解释性传说;无论在古代文献还是民间叙事中,这些事项之间的相互联系与统一性早已被割裂、打碎,甚至遗忘;借助经典人类学理论,针对文献记载和现实遗存,理清其演变的规律,还原其共同的文化本质,建立起内在的统一的解释,可导致对历史文献和现实认知两个层面的民族记忆的重新认识和改写。

It is written in the Chinese early literatures that the custom of the elders waiting for death has existed in different forms, but there is no proper explanation for it anymore. After the Han Destiny, some kinds of customs have been consistently criticized from the moral perspective, other forms has survived due to some changes about the cultural explanation and symbolic rite. In folk history, some kinds of customs and their relevant myths have been researved in different degrees. No matter in ancient literature or folk anecdotes, the unity and connection among those customs have been broken or even forgotten. With the help of the classic anthropological theory, as for documentary records and cultural remains, we may study the pattern of their development, revert their shared culture essence, and get certain explanations that are internally unified. In this way, both from the point of realistic cognition and of historical literature, we may rediscover and rewrite the national memory.