泾河龙王的定罪与量刑——从道法律条看《西游记》中的龙王犯罪故事

Conviction and Severity of Penalty on the Dragon King: The Criminal Story of the Jinghe River Dragon King in the Journey to the West from the Perspective of Legal Articles in Daoism

“魏徵梦斩泾河龙”虽然早见于《永乐大典》所引《西游记》,但龙王行雨犯罪的故事本身并未得到学者的重视。而关键的问题就是龙王所犯天条到底是什么。从宋明以来的道教文献及道法实践来看,所谓天条应即道教的《女青天律》。《女青天律》约定型于南宋,流行于元明时代,其中有明文规定了龙王行雨有违时间、雨量要予以处斩。不仅如此,小说中凡是涉及龙王犯罪及处刑的地方,在《女青天律》中大抵也都能找到明确的“司法解释”。就此而言,似可以说《西游记》小说的作者或者改写者不仅熟悉道教的仪式流程、坛场布置与文书用语,对道教的“天条”也极为熟悉。

The story that“Wei Zheng sentenced the Jinghe River Dragon King to death in his dream”first appeared in the Journey to the West cited in the Yongle Great Encyelopedia,but the story that the Dragon King committed a crime while he made rain had been ignored by scholars.However,the key question was which article of the heavenly law did the Dragon King violate.From the perspective of Daoist literature and Daoist legal practice since the Song and Ming Dy-nasties,the so-called heavenly law should be the Nvqing Tianlv(女青天律).The Nvqing Tianlv was formed around the time of the Southern Song Dynasty and popularized during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties.It stipulated that the Dragon King could be sentenced to death if he violated the regulation about the time and amount of rain he made.In addition to these,the narration concerning that the Dragon King was convicted and sentenced in the novel,could be found in the Nvqing Tianlv as a specific"judicial interpretation".Thereby,it is plausible to say that the author or rewriter of the novel the Journey to the West were familiar with the ritual processes,altar arrangements and text trms,as well as the heavenly law in Daoism.