祖先亲属与陌生人:《太平广记》鬼魂故事的类型学研究

Ancestors and Relatives vs.Strangers:A Typological Study of Ghost Stories in Records of the Taiping Era

《太平广记》中的鬼魂类型可以划分为祖先亲属的灵魂和不知姓名的陌生鬼魂两类。民众对两类鬼魂施以不同的情感、态度和民俗仪式:作为“熟人”的祖先亲属的鬼魂是民众熟悉的人,往往通过各种仪式表达尊敬和怀念之情;而那些不知来源的陌生鬼魂就是要远离并驱赶的陌生人,是有序的幽冥社会秩序的“逃逸者”。对“陌生”鬼魂的驱逐源于当时熟人社会的逻辑和幽冥世界与人间世界一致性的观点。早期先民对于鬼魂的信仰和想象实则是中国传统社会结构和文化传统的一个投影。

Ghosts in Records of the Taiping Era can be categorized into two types:the souls of ancestors and dead relatives,and those of the unknown.The two types of ghosts were treated with different emotions,attitudes and folk rituals.People showed their respect and remembrance to the acquainted ghosts of their ancestors and dead relatives by performing various rituals,while they deemed the ghosts of unknown origins as the exiled from the orderly underworld and should be kept a distance from and driven away.The expulsion of unknown ghosts stems from the acquaintance society logic at that time and the idea that the underworld is in consistence with the earthly world.The beliefs in and imaginations about ghosts held by people then are in fact a projection of the traditional Chinese social structure and culture.