从引火到纺织:宋明以来“火草”观念的变化

From Igniting to Weaving:Changes in the Concept of the Term Huocao

宋明以来,许多植物被冠以“火草”之名,它们有引火和纺织两种用途。伴随着国家治理活动、植物科学命名工作、新引火技术的出现等因素影响,“火草”用于引火的观念被淡化,用于纺织的观念被强化,呈现从引火到纺织观念的转变。这种转变是不同力量对纺织火草赋义的结果:明代云南官员用汉名“火草”,19世纪法国植物学家用拉丁名让它具名;清代和当下的国家治理活动用“火草”让它闻名,强调了西南少数民族火草纺织技术的历史;当代中国植物学家解决了俗名“火草”植物的同名异物问题;西南少数民族在保持本民族名的同时接纳了汉名“火草”。宋明以来“火草”观念的变化体现了植物命名的科学传统、地方传统和历史传统的碰撞与调整,是纺织火草、火草纺织技术和使用人群被外界认识的历史。目前纺织火草的中文名存在不同观点,但在科学化浪潮和传统文化复兴的背景下,“火草”这个名称无形中扮演了普通名的角色,成为学名和民族名的桥梁,被更多人接受和传播。

Since the Song and Ming Dynasties,many plants have been named huocao(火草,lit.“fire grass”),and they have two purposes:fire and weaving.With the influence of factors such as national governance activities,plant scientific naming work,and the emergence of new ignition technologies,the concept of huocao used for ignition has been diluted,and the concept of use in textiles has been strengthened,showing a change from the concept of ignition to textile.This transformation is the result of different forces assigning meaning to the textile huocao:Yunnan officials in the Ming Dynasty used the Chinese name huocao,French botanists in the 19th century used the Latin name Gerbera delavayi to name it;Qing Dynasty and current state governance activities use huocao,making it famous,emphasizing the history of huocao textile technology of the ethnic minorities in the southwest;contemporary Chinese botanists solved the problem of homonyms for the common name huocao;Southwest minorities have adopted Chinese names while maintaining their own names for huocao.The change in the concept of huocao since the Song and Ming Dynasties reflects the collision and adjustment of the scientific tradition,local tradition and historical tradition of plant naming.At present,there are different views on the Chinese name of textile huocao,but against the background of the wave of scientificization and the revival of traditional culture,the name huocao plays the role of a common name behind the scenes,becoming a bridge between scientific names and ethnic names,and is accepted and disseminated widely by more people.