汉人祖先信仰“神”观念的变迁

Between the God and the Ghost: The Change of the Concept of “God” In the Belief of the Han’s Ancestors

在殷商甲骨文中,没有出现“神”字,表示人死亡之后存在的文字符号是“鬼”和“”。二者的区别在于后者是示化了的商王先祖,是被祭祀的对象,而前者是被驱逐和镇压的对象。周代出现了“神”的观念,这时的神不仅指“天神”,也指周王先祖。人们用祭祀的方式应对周王先祖,用驱逐和镇压的方式应对“鬼”。春秋战国魂魄观念形成后,祖先这种人死后的神圣存在也产生了相应的演变,成为“神—鬼”二元结构。与前代一样,人们用不同的方式来区别神与鬼,祭祀祖先而驱逐鬼。这种“祭即神”的观念在秦汉时期的民间被广泛接受。

In the oracle bone inscriptions of the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1046 BC), the word “god” did not appear, and the symbol indicating the existence of human beings after death was "ghost" and “gui”. The difference between the two is that the latter is the ancestor of the demonstrated kings of the Shang Dynasty, the object of sacrifice, while the former is the object of expulsion and repression. The concept of “god” appeared in the Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-256 BC), during which,“god” not only referred to the “God of Heaven”, but also the ancestors of the Kings of Zhou Dynasty. Sacrifice was adopted to memorize the ancestors of the kings of Zhou Dynasty, and expulsion and repression to deal with “ghosts”. After the formation of the concept of soul in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (770 BC-221 BC), the sacred existence of ancestors after death also changed correspondingly, becoming the dual structure of “god-ghost”. As in the previous generations, people used different coping styles to distinguish gods from ghosts, offering sacrifices to ancestors and expelling ghosts. This concept of “sacrifice is god” was widely accepted by the people in the Qin (221 BC-207 BC) and Han (202 BC-220) Dynasties.