明清契约文书中的吉祥语

On the Auspicious Words in Contract Documents in Ming and Qing Dynasties

明清契约文书的末尾空白处经常附有吉祥语。这些契约类型多样,包括农业领域的土地买卖租赁契约、商业领域的合伙经营契约、处理家庭关系的分关文书等;而文末的吉祥语的文字样式多样,既有单字也有合字,有时还配有图案,呈现出艺术化的表现形式。从语义而言,它们主要表达诚信、喜庆、发财致富、祈求和睦等意义,故而具有满足缔约者心理需求、协调人际关系的交际功用。除此之外,此类吉祥语是明清契约格式的构成部分,它们或填补契约正文后的余白部分,或书写于两份契约的骑缝处,对契约防伪具有一定的功用。

Auspicious words were often appended in the blank space at the end of contract documents in Ming and Qing dynasties.These auspicious words were of various types,involving leases for sale and purchase of land in the agricultural sector,partnership contracts in the commercial sector and sub-contracts dealing with family relationships,while the writing styles of auspicious words at the end of the text were varied,including both single characters and compound characters,and sometimes even patterns,which presented artistic forms of expression.Semantically speaking,these auspicious words in contract documents mainly expressed the meaning of honesty,celebration,wealth and harmony,which had the communicative function of meeting the psychological needs of the contracting party and coordinating interpersonal relations.In addition,as a part of the contract in Ming and Qing dynasties,these auspicious words either filled in the remainder of a contract text,or were written in the seams between two contracts,which had a certain function in identifying the authenticity of contracts.