形式·功能·思维:《礼记》饮食禁忌的文化阐释

Form,Function and Thinking:A Cultural Interpretation of the Dietary Taboos in the Book of Rites

《礼记》所载禁止食用的物品、实施禁忌的行为以及遵守禁忌的时间,共同构成了中华文化大传统禁忌领域的部分要素。这些禁忌具有调节人与神灵关系的宗教功能、调控人与集体关系的社会功能以及协调人与自然关系的生态功能,反映了古代先民以物及人的类比思维、主客交融的互渗思维以及调和阴阳的二元思维,对于建构中华礼制文明和延续民间文化小传统具有深远影响。

The items prohibited for consumption,the behaviors subject to taboos,and the specific times for observing taboos,as recorded in the Book of Rites,collectively form some elements of traditional taboos in Chinese culture.These taboos serve the religious function of regulating the relationship between humans and deities,the social function of regulating the relationship between individual and the collective,and the ecological function of coordinating the relationship between human and nature.They reflect the ancient people’s analogical thinking between object and human,the mutual-penetrating thinking of subject-object integration,and the dualistic thinking of harmonizing yin and yang.These taboos have had a far-reaching influence on the construction of Chinese ritual civilization and the continuity of small traditions of folk culture.