从悬置到加速:近代上海城市殡葬中的用时制度及其伦理意涵

From Suspension to Acceleration:The Temporal System of Urban Funerals in Modern Shanghai and Its Ethical Implications

对近代上海城市发展过程中丧葬用时变迁的梳理,分析地方丧葬向城市殡仪转变的社会成因,以及这一由科学和“进步”理念所带来的变化对现代上海殡葬体系的影响。从近代至今,上海城市丧葬实践的时间系统始终处于加速状态。自开埠以来,现代性的社会结构在上海逐渐形成,人口处于增长与流动之中,社会高度分化,社会组织各擅其事。基于汉人社会的丧葬传统,客死他乡而无力返葬的人,得到了会馆的照料,遗体依然被社会标记,保留生前的个体特殊性与社会文化属性。会馆为死去的人建立特有的社会空间,在客居者漫长的待葬过程中,地方性的文化体系得以重申,发挥着凝聚与整合的道德力量。随着近代西方公共卫生学在日常实践中的介入和社会医疗化程度的加深,关于“死去的人”的理解开始发生显著变化。在都市化进程中,人的生命被视作线性的时间过程,死亡被客观化为生物性的变化,通过技术的干预加以规范。这一在进化论和生物医学双重冲击下发生的观念变化,型塑了现当代城市丧葬实践:在人死后,死亡作为“科学”事实被快速确立,并被纳入到加速的组织流程与控制流程中。人们在快速和精细分割的丧礼过程中,如何排遣恐惧、痛苦、忧虑等面对死亡所产生的复杂情感,将成为一个需要长期观察和讨论的问题。

Based on a succinct review of the temporal changes in funeral customs in the developmental process of modern Shanghai,this article presents an analysis of the social causes of the transformation from local funeral practices to urban funeral services,as well as the impact of this change brought about by ideas of science and“progress”on the current funeral system in Shanghai.In the modern era,the temporal system of funeral practices in Shanghai has consistently been in an accelerated state.Since the opening of Shanghai port,a modern social structure has gradually formed,with a growing and mobile population,high social differentiation,and various specialized social organizations.In accordance with the funeral traditions of Han Chinese society,those who died far away from home and were unable to be buried in their native-place were taken care of by guilds,with their bodies still marked by society,preserving their individual characteristics and social and cultural attributes.The guild established a unique social space for the deceased,and in the long waiting process for burial,the local cultural system was reiterated,exerting a moral force of cohesion and integration.The intervention of the Western public health and the increased degree of medicalization led to a fundamental change in the public understanding about the“deceased”.In the process of urbanization,human lifecourse is viewed as a linear process,and death is objectified as a biological change and regulated through technological intervention.Theories of evolutionism and biomedical science thus resulted in such a change in perception which has shaped current urban funeral practices:after a person's death,the“scientific”fact of death is quickly established and incorporated into an accelerated process of organization and control.The way in which people coped with the complex emotions generated by death,such as fear,pain,and anxiety,in the fast and finely segmented funeral process,remains an issue for further observation and discussion.