也谈唐代太原“黄坑”葬俗的宗教属性

Comment Again on Religious Nature of Burial Custom "Huang Keng" in Taiyuan in the TANG Dynasty

唐代太原有过宗教徒“尸体送近郊以饲鸟兽”的葬俗,有两位学者认为是中亚袄教葬俗。袄教葬俗是:由办理丧事的专门人员前往收取尸体,放置到城外特建的处理丧事院落中,由院内所养家狗吃掉尸体上的肉,然后将骸骨埋葬,不用棺材。太原葬俗和这种情况不一样,应是佛教“野葬”葬俗,即僧人尸体由其弟子或同寺僧人放置于郊野、山谷,施舍给鸟兽(包括野狗)作食物,然后收遗骨起塔埋葬。这种佛教葬俗隋唐时期实行于长安、洛阳地区,太原佛教氛围浓厚,当不例外。

In the TANG Dynasty, the persons of religious faith practised a burial custom of 'sent the corpses to the outskirts to feed the birds and animals' in Taiyuan. There are two scholars who think the custom to be Ao Religin in central Asia. The burial custom of the religion goes like this: the undertakers went around to gather corpses to put in the funeral arrangement courtyard specially built in the outskirs for the dogs raised in it to eat up the fleshes of the corpses and then buried the skeletons without coffins. The burial custom in Taiyuan then was different from that mentioned above, which should be 'wild-field burial rites' of buddhism. The corpse of a dead monk would be taken to the wild fields or valleys to feed the birds and wild animals (including the wild dogs) , often by the disciples of the dead or his fellow monks and then buried the skeletons. This kind of burial custom of the Buddhism was practised in Chang'an and Luoyang areas in the the SUI and TANG Dynasties and there was no exception in Taiyuan where the Buddhist atmosphere was prevalent.