六朝槟榔嚼食习俗的传播:从“异物”到“吴俗”

The spread of chewing the betel nut in the Six Dynasties: From “exotic products” into “Wu customs”

槟榔在汉代以前是一种南方异域边缘的"异物",其大规模内传实际上发生在吴晋之际。刘宋以后,关于槟榔嚼食的许多"异俗"逐渐成为南方本地的风习而在士人社会中流行。南北朝后期,嚼食槟榔成为了北朝人眼中南朝"吴俗"的典型特征,并为北方士人所模仿。以槟榔为代表的"异物"在与士人发生直接接触以后,代表其文化意义的"异俗"逐渐在书籍的传抄和文人的咏赏过程中得到积淀,附加在其上的文化价值也由此产生。

As a kind of exotic products, the betel nut had seldom been seen in the society before the Han Dynasty. This custom was spread to China during the times from Wu Dynasty to Jin Dynasty. Since the Liu-Song Dynasty, the habit of chewing betel nut had been prevailing over the whole Southern areas. In the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, chewing betel nut became a typical phenomenon of “Wu customs”, and was widely imitated among the northerners. The “exotic products” represented by the betel nut be recognized by the aristocracies as symbolic emblems of their stratification by the book transmission and the literati writing, hence obsessed with cultural value in the resulting significance.