大禹神话与地震自救——四川省绵竹市清平乡的神话、行动与宇宙观

Yu the Great and Self Rescue in Earthquake:Myth,Action and Cosmology in Qingping Village,Sichuan Province

大禹神话曾被认为是用以建构羌族族群身份的符号,但汶川地震引发了对这一理论的质疑。四川省绵竹县清平乡曾是汶川地震中的极重灾区,震中与震后的若干年中,灾区一些民众的自救行动在一定程度上变到大禹神话所代表的地方性民俗传统的影响。从此意义上讲,大禹神话既是关于地震的知识与记忆,也是社会行动的指南索引。但神话并不通过社会结构、世系系谱与身份范畴来维系历史并发挥作用,这与杜梅齐尔所说的印欧社会或萨林斯所说的夏威夷神话根本不同。事实上,清平乡的山川均有其传说、祖先神灵多样而流动,大禹只是众多神灵楷模中的一位,更不是某一类人的祖先模板,其神话旨在为地震情境下人类的行动提供典范与依据,即所谓"聪明正直者为神"。大禹神话与其他神话一起,将清平描摹为群山深处、大河峡谷的小宇宙,这与当地地理环境与生计方式有关,也与早期道教在此处兴起以及洞天福地的观念有关。这种宇宙观很难用中心-边缘或者"化外之地"的模式去解释,更与印欧神话中常见的宇宙观有很大差异。

The myth of Yu the Great was once considered as a symbol to construct the identity of the Qiang ethnic group,but the earthquake in 2008 raised doubts about this theory.Mythological narration directly influences social action,which makes us consider Salins and Yvonne Verdier’s mythological theories.Qingping village,situated in Mianzhu County,Sichuan Province,was once the hardest damaged area in the earthquake.During the time and several years after the earthquake,the villagers took the myth of Yu as a guide to save themselves.To some extent,the myth is not only the knowledge and memory of the earthquake,but also guide index of social action.However,mythology in Qingping does not function through the social structure,genealogy or identity category,which is fundamentally different from the Indo European society described by Dumezil or the Hawaiian myth by Salins.In fact,the myths and legends of ancestors and gods in Qingping are diverse,Yu the Great is only one of the many gods;he is not the ancestral template of a certain kind of people but aims to provide a model for all human actions in the earthquake situation.Together with other myths,the myth of Yu depicts Qingping as a small universe in the depths of mountains and valleys.This kind of cosmology is related to the local geographical environment and the way of livelihood,as well as the rise of early Taoism here and the concept of"heaven,earth,and Paradise".It is very different from the model of center-periphery or"the land of the outside world";and quite different from the cosmology in Indo-European mythology.