老人自死习俗:“鲧复生禹”神话与历史背后的真相

Elders' Lone Death Custom:Truth regarding“Gun Died and Was Reborn as Yu”Mystery

依据爱德华·泰勒的"万物有灵观"、弗雷泽的原始巫术思维原理、范热内普的"过渡礼仪"等人类学经典理论,剖析"鲧复生禹"神话,鲧-禹部落(家族)具有雨师职能。去掉神话历史化、历史道德化的迷雾,鲧的被杀背后真相是自死。"永遏在羽山,夫何三年不施"是老人自死之后的"三年之丧"的仪式。仪式中鲧向禹转移的"神灵"形象、仪式的空间特性都体现了源自祖先颛顼的部落传统。"鲧复生禹"神话具有老人自死习俗与成人礼仪双重意象。以禹为核心,颛顼-鲧-禹部落在三代史的开端具有特殊地位与重要性,老人自死是那个时代的敬老、孝道的重大仪式。

Based on Edward Taylor's animalism,Frazer's theory regarding the primitive magical thoughts and Gennep's classic theories on anthropology in his book Les Rites De Passage,analyze the famous mystery—'Gun died and was reborn as Yu.'It turns out the Gun-Yu family plays a role as the rainmaker in the tribe.The real reason behind Gun's death is that he chose the way of lone death.The poem 'why not release Gun after imprisoning him for 3years in Yu Mountain'suggests the custom that after the parents' death,the offspring has to be in mourn for 3years.Both the'God image'Gun transfers to Yu and the spatial features of the ritual indicate the custom has been passed from the tribe whose ancestor is Zhuan Xu.There are traces of coming-of-age ceremony and the elders' lone death custom in the 'Gun died and was reborn as Yu'mystery.With Yu as the core,the Zhuan Xu-Gun-Yu tribe plays a special and important part at the beginning of the Three Dynasties.The elders' lone death custom is regarded as a way that people shows their respect to the elders.