拜:礼俗与中国民间信仰实践

Chinese Popular Religious Practice:Li,Su and Bai

礼与俗是中国民间信仰实践的核心。从生活实践与身体的角度,可以阐明礼俗实践所体现的中国民间信仰实践身心合一、信仰与仪式融合的特质。拜是礼俗实践具身化的体现。拜既指表达敬意的具体的身体动作,如鞠躬、下跪、叩头、上供等,又可概称人们总体的宗教倾向与宗教感。拜以身心合一的方式集中体现了民间信仰实践的惯习。人们从小在家庭生活中耳濡目染地学习与完成拜,在礼俗实践中想象与完成与阴间的互动交流。长期的礼俗实践最终将阴间、阳间宇宙观内化为身体的实践行为与存在状态。宗教内嵌于中国人的日常生活实践中,是信仰和仪式有机融合以栖居于世界的方式,而这个世界则由周期性互动交流的阴间与阳间共同构成。

Li and suare the core of Chinese popular religious practice.From the perspective of everyday life practice and embodiment,this paper endeavors to demonstrate the dispositions of Chinese popular religion,within which mind and body,belief and ritual,are fused seamlessly.Bai is embodied practices of li and su.Bai,refers to both concrete bodily movements that express respect and awe,such as bowing,kneeling,or holding up ritual offerings,and to people’s religious inclinations and dispositions.Exploring the concept of bai and Chinese worldview of the yin world and yang world,I depict Chinese popular religious practices as embodied habitus epitomized in the bodily practice of bai.Cultural and social practices in family life,especially death rituals and yearly festivals,cultivate and mold people from early childhood to performbai appropriately while,at the same time,learning to envisage and communicate with the yin world.Habitual practices routinely performed in families instill beliefs and ways of practicing religion and deeply ingrain visions of the yin world in the acting body and mind as a whole.The paper shows that the daily practices of religion are not a separate sphere,but rather belief and ritual integrated into a way of dwelling in a world envisaged as consisting of both the“yin”and the“yang”worlds that regularly communicate with each other.