《格萨尔》史诗中的神性基质与文化嬗变:论格萨尔天神降世母题

Constitutional Mythologies and Entangled Cultures in the Tibeto-Mongolian Gesar Epic:The Motif of Gesar’s Celestial Descent

《格萨尔》史诗是一部闻名世界的战神史诗,至今仍以极具萨满色彩的口述传统广为流传。以史诗中天神降世母题为研究对象,在对此母题研究的基础上就可以明确史诗的“神性基质”,也可以对史诗这一母题中可能的古代文化核心进行重构。在格萨尔对其天神之父再现这一部分内容中,天神父亲形象的多样性反映了从天神和山神的传统一直延伸到佛教文化,乃至丝绸之路各宗教文化对于史诗的影响。

The Gesar/Geser epic cycle is a warrior epic known throughout the Tibetan and Mongolian-speaking regions of Asia and is still largely sustained through a shamanistically tinted oral tradition.This article focuses on the epic motif of the hero’s divine descent and constructs both a“constitutional mythology”for the epic based on this motif and a reconstruction of the probable archaic core of the epic motif.It also focuses in particular on the representations of the hero’s sky-god father.The variability in the representation of this figure reflects the cross-cutting religious influences on this Silk Road epic.These range from archaic“native”Inner Asian traditions concerning sky and mountain gods,to Buddhism(and its debt to Indian Vedic religion)and even Silk Road Manichaeism.