说“禅”及其反映的王朝更替观

Shan and a Traditional Chinese Viewpoint on the Superseding of Dynasties through Abdication

“禅”字何以有“禅让”之义？有一种观点认为来源于除地而祭的“FDAC”，可称为禅祭说。该说又有三种表达方式。一是东汉班固、东晋袁宏等的“揖让受终，则有封禅之事”说；二是东汉郑玄的“置之空FDAC以出其君，更立其次贤者”说；三是唐人杨FDAD“除地为FDAC，告天而传位”的折中说。不过，目前所知，禅让之义出现以前，除地而FDAC似可用于祭祖和婚仪；“封禅”晚出；“告天传位”更为晚出。禅祭作为禅让之义的源头证据不足。清儒朱骏声指出，“禅”可作“嬗”、“蝉”和“传”的假借字。循着这条路径，可以证明，“禅”字与声字通假。东汉以来，许多学者认为“禅”古代作“嬗”、“擅”、“FDAE”等字；其中的“嬗”为“蝉”之假字，“蝉”的名词动化，有“变蜕”和“相连”、“断绝”和“继续”的含义。“传”字本义为传车，引申为辗转传承，与“禅”（“蝉”）字义有相合处，而且音近可通假，先秦文献中，凡可使用“禅”（“嬗”等）字表达禅让意义的地方，多用“传”字，此后，“传”、“禅”（“嬗”）等字互换通用。这说明，“禅”字的禅让之义，可能最初来自“蝉”，而非“FDAC”；它的主要内容，亦非禅祭和传位的结合，而是“断绝”和“继续”的辩证统一，这是中国古代的一种王朝更替观。

In the Warring States period in China the Chinese character shan began to be used to indicate the superseding of dynasties through abdication and gradually became the most popular expression during the period of the South-and-North Dynasties(420—589), the Sui(589—618) and the Tang Dynasty(618—907). Why did the ancient Chinese choose this character? Some scholars between the Eastern Han(25—220) and the Tang Dynasty inferred that the reason might be that the character shan was rooted in another character used to signify the special sacrificial ceremony undertaken during abdications which had the same pronunciation as shan. They could not, however, provide any solid historical evidence to prove the theory. Other scholars between the Sung(960—1279) and the Qing Dynasty(1644—1911) suggested that shan was just a substitute word derived both from chan , meaning cicadas, and chuan , meaning postal cards. My research has led me to hold that the second theory is correct and can be verified both by philology and textual commentaries on Chinese classics. Various studies show that chan was used in ancient China as a verb which meant to slough off and chuan deliver letters. They had a dualistic meaning of interruption and connection,which was shared by shan .The ancient Chinese used shan to indicate the superseding of dynasties through abdications because they believed that it had a dialectical meaning of interruption and connection. In their viewpoint, they thought that the superseding of dynasties through abdications were actually granting and receiving thrones between the old royal houses to the new ones in accordance with the mandate of Heaven. So we can say that the essence of shan is quite different from that of abdication whose Latin root ab just means off and away . As we all know, more than half the changes of dynasties after the Qin Dynasty(221-206BC) in ancient China were brought about through abdications, and Chinese culture was not cut down and ruined along with them. It cannot be denied that shan played an important role in maintaining the continuity of the Chinese dynasties. This is the reason why it ranks among the most outstanding terms in the political philosophy of ancient China.