唐代女巫善弹琵琶考论

Witch Is Adept at Playing the Pipa during Tang Dynasty

巫术是古代社会中普遍存在的一种文化现象,它是通过超自然的神秘仪式与神灵沟通,进而借助鬼神力量来控制或影响人们的社会生活与行为习惯的活动。《国语·楚语》云:'古者民神不杂。民之精爽不携贰者,而又能齐肃衷正,其智能上下比义,其圣能光远宣朗,其明能光照之,其聪能听彻之,如是则明神降之,在男曰觋,在女曰巫。'

Witchcraft is a common cultural phenomenon in ancient society.It is used in curing,praying,cursing,conjuring and so on.Witchcraft communicates with the spirit through supernatural powers annd mystical rites.Then it could control or influence the activities of people’s daily life and social behaviors with the power of ghosts.There are some murals depicting withcraft,witches and wizards in Mogao Caves.The paper made a list of those murals from the Dunhuang caves and take a brief description of those figures.We can see witches often practice witchcraft with the pipa(sometimes called the Chinese lute)in Tang Dynasty from these images.As is said by钱锺书,almost every witch could play the pipa in Tang Dynasty.On the basis of finishing literature and collating information,we konw that music and dance act as the medium of human and divine transportation,which is the key to the realization of witchcraft.So the music and dance become an essential part of withcraft ritual.In Tang Dynasty,the pipa usually appeared in the ritual as one of the most popular and principal musical instruments.This paper verified the type of withcraft with the pipa.The witch used the pipa in different kinds of witchcraft like pleasing gods,divanation and conjuring with specific procedures.The pipa is indispensable as an intermediary of connecting with gods in witchcraft.What’s more,the paper intended to find out that why pipa was widely used in witchcraft during the Tang Dynasty.The first reason is the pipa reached a height of popularity during the Tang Dynasty.Besides that,the combination of sorcery and the pipa in Tang Dynasty has a broad historical background.It is not only an external representation of prosperity of Sogdian culture in the society of Tang Dynasty but also a special product of Sino-Western civilization exchanges.