且停酪酒度荒年:釋北魏正始四年禁河南畜牝馬

Prohibiting Kumiss to Overcome the Famine year:An Explanation to the Ban on Mare breeding within Henan Region Issued by the Northern Wei Dynasty in 507 A.D.

北魏正始四年禁河南畜牝馬一事,透露出北魏後期文化轉型中不被重視的一面。禁斷畜養牝馬是爲了節約糧食應對災荒,而河南地區之所以畜養大量牝馬,主要是爲了向洛陽的北族上層社會供應酪酒。酪酒是歐亞遊牧世界中廣受歡迎的高級飲品,也可視爲遊牧文化的符號之一。結合漢、唐、元時代的相關記載,本文對北魏洛陽周圍牝馬的數量以及畜養牝馬的穀物消耗進行了推斷,揭示出在農耕尤其是城市地區維持酪酒文化所需的高昂成本,在理解此次禁畜牝馬事件之餘,也對北朝文化轉型問題提出更多層次的思考。

In the forth year of Zhengshi(507 A.D.),the Northern Wei dynasty issued a ban on mare breeding within Henan region,which was an event revealing some ignored aspects of the cultural transtion of this steppe origined dynasty.Saving grains to overcome the famine starting from this year was the reason to fobit mare breeding in Henan region,and great amout of mares bred here were used to produce kumiss to meet the demands of the upper class in and around the capital city.Kumiss was very popular and distinguished drink all over the Eurasian nomadic world,which could be viewed as one of essential symbols of nomadic culture.By analyzing the records from Han dynasty to Yuan dynasty,this study attempts to reckon the amount of mares around the captial city Luoyang as well as the grain consumption on this industry,and to illustrate the high cost to maintain kumiss drinking custom in an agriculural even an urban region.In this way,the ban on mare breeding could be fully understood.Moreover,it reminds us to rethink the cultural transition of the Northern dynasties in more diverse aspects.