教化与象征:中国古代耕织图意义探释

Moralizatoin and Symbolization: An Interpretation of the Significance of Farming and Weaving Pictures in Ancient China

耕织图,就是有关"耕"与"织"的图像资料。从宋至清,我国至少问世了数十套系统化的耕织图像。对于这些耕织图,传统主流观点认为起到了传播先进农业生产技术的作用,但实际情况却并非如此。事实上,耕织图的主要作用在于宣扬"农为天下之大本"的重农理念并教化劝农,并往往以皇帝或中央政令的形式而被提倡、刊刻与推广。因此,《耕织图》的创作与推广是中国传统道德化行政的一种重要体现。其根本目的,在于宣扬、创造并维持一种各安其业、各担其责的和平安定的稳定社会秩序,具有深远的象征与社会治理意义。

Farming and weaving pictures are image data recording the activities of farming and weaving.In the period from Song to Qing,there were at least dozens of sets of systematic farming and weaving pictures came out in China.For those pictures,traditional dominant view considered that they played an important role in spreading advanced agricultural technologies,but it is not the case.Their function is mainly to advocate the idea that"agriculture is the foundation under Heaven"to promoting agriculture,which were often pushed to civil society in the form of imperial edict or central government decree.Therefore,the creation and popularization of farming and weaving pictures can be regarded as an important reflection of moralized administration in traditional Chinese society with the fundamental goal of advocating,creating,and maintaining a kind of peaceful and stable social order.In a word,this kind of picture bears profound significance of symbolization and social governance.