从丧礼之“踊”看儒家礼仪的身心修炼

Confucian Ritual Practice as Spiritual and Bodily Exercise According to“Yong”(“踊”,Jumping in Bereavement)in Funerals

学界以往对儒家礼仪的研究,偏重于政治社会性的意义,但礼仪实践同时具有个人身心修炼的维度。在儒家礼仪中,丧礼承载了儒家“慎终追远”的理念而得到了特别的重视,其中的踊礼又最能体现丧礼“哀死亡”的性质,因而在礼仪的身心修炼中具有代表性。“踊”作为一种身体动作,是哀情的直接表达,踊礼则在丧礼开展的特定时段施行,将哀情调节到“无过无不及”的范围内,并具有发明孝子“本心”的意味。较为特殊的“奠时之踊”更能营造宗教氛围,进一步实现了哀情的道德性升华。踊礼与丧礼作为儒家礼仪的一部分,贯穿着儒家的基本观念,而其严格性与复杂性更能体现充满考验的“修炼”性质。丧礼中展现的儒家身体因被赋予了父母“遗体”的伦理性意涵,能够挺立为价值主体,因而不同于西方“修身”传统中身体的工具性意义,这一点构成了儒家礼仪修炼之为“身心修炼”而非“精神修炼”的本质性特征。

Previous studies on Confucian ritual practice have paid much attention to their social and political aspects.Confucian ancient rituals should also be observed from the perspective of spiritual and bodily exercise.“Yong”,as a Confucian ritual practice in funerals which embodies the concept of“let ancestors be followed when long gone with due sacrifices”,is representative in the spiritual and bodily exercise of ancient rites because it can best reflect the implication of“mourning the death”.As a kind of bodily exercise,“yong”is originally a direct expression of bereavement.Furthermore,“yong”is carried out in specific periods of time during the funeral,which adjusts bereavement to the scope of“no more and no less”,and it has the meaning of initiating the“original conscience”of filial son.The practice of“yong”in the ceremony of“dian”(“奠”,offering sacrifices to the dead)has special significance,which creates a religious atmosphere and further realizes the moral sublimation of bereavement.As a part of Confucian ritual practice,“yong”and funerals are permeated by the basic concepts of Confucianism,and their strictness and complexity can better reflect the meaning of“exercise”as means of tests.The Confucian body displayed in the funeral is endowed with the ethical meaning of the“remains”of parents and can stand upright as value subject.Therefore,it is different from the instrumental significance of the body in Western tradition of self-cultivation.Such differences constitute the essential features of Confucian ritual practice as“spiritual and bodily exercise”rather than“spiritual exercise”alone.