春秋时期祭祖范围研究

A Study of the Scope of Ancestor Worship in the Spring and Autumn Period

祭祀祖先的范围,即仪典中祭祀哪些祖先,不但是祖先崇拜的基本问题,并且还折射出生者与祖先之间的关系,以及人们对家族、血缘的认知等等。春秋时期是社会变动较为剧烈的时期,在这一变化的时代,祭祀对象发生若干变化,祖先崇拜也展现出新的特点。总体而言,春秋时人重视近祖,也注重远祖,在选择所祭对象时,春秋时人以满足现实需求为目的,祭祀祖先有其灵活的一面而并无统一的标准。可堪注意的是,春秋时人擅于追溯远祖,春秋金文中出现了对祝融、成汤等远祖的追记,而不再如西周时人一般只将祖先追踪至文王武王时代。此外,春秋时人对于英雄祖先十分崇拜,并将这一风尚提升至礼的高度予以阐述。春秋时人追忆远祖,对儒家"慎终追远"的观念有深刻的影响;春秋时人崇拜英雄祖先,对于这一时期人们创造出共同的英雄祖先有直接的影响。

What type of ancestors that the descendants should perform sacrifice?In other words,when the descendants offered sacrifices,did they present the offerings to all the ancestors or they chose specific ancestors according to the rules?Did they really have rules?These questions are the basic ones for doing research on ancestor worship.It reflects not only the relationship between descendants and ancestors,but also the recognition to blood relationship and family.Based on the bronze inscriptions and the received texts,it can be seen that people in the Spring and Autumn Period were pretty practical and flexible regarding to what type of ancestors they should present sacrifices,and there were no unchangeable rules.People performed sacrifices to the ancestors of recently past,but also to the ancestors of distant past.The most significant thing is that they strongly worshipped the ancestors who attained great achievements or had great contributions,therefore,they created hero ancestors,and gradually the latter were considered the ancestors of different group of people,thus formed the consciousness of the common ancestors,which is the important step for integration in the history of early China.