从宗庙与王陵看商王的生死观

The View of Life and Death of Shang royal house Seen from Ancestral Temple and Royal Cemetery

本文分析了殷墟宗庙和王陵的形制,及两者在生死观中的关联,由此提炼出商王族生死观的吉光片羽:至迟在武丁以后,商王族形成一种观念,认为死去的先王深具神性,异于凡类,王墓把先王视为一个特殊的群体合葬于一起,意在揭示商王的'唯一神性'。一位商王死后,会被置于巨大而塞满随葬品的椁墓之中,深埋于地下,入葬意味着身份的强烈变换。大量生活用品和礼器作为随葬品,反映商人深信商王死后,会有另一种形式的存在──'灵魂'。墓主的灵魂透过龙、虎等灵兽的引导,上升到天上,成为祖灵。宗庙则是祖灵时刻与其子孙保持联系的场所,商王族可以在宗庙里祭祀祖灵,招引其降临。气势雄伟的宗庙被筑建于都城的中央,毗邻商王室的宫殿区,展现了宗庙作为商人宗教礼仪权威的中心地位。而商人将先王遗体深藏于模仿宗庙建筑的椁墓中,这透露出欲将先王灵魂从王陵引向宗庙的讯息。结合与历代先王合葬和合祀的现象来思考,可以认为商人有意制约先王的'个体性',而将其引向'群体性'的世系之中。从某种意义上说,商王死后,其灵魂从形体中解放出来,渗入到世系之中。

This article explores the form of ancestral temple and royal cemetery in Yin ruins(殷墟),and by analyzing the connection of the two,we try to catch glimpses of the view of life and death of Shang royal house.The era ofWuDing(武丁)witnesses the emergence of a new idea that the dead kings are divine and thus different from other ordinary people.They were buried as a special group,so as to demonstrate their unique holiness.After his death,the king’s coffin is usually crammed with funerary objects and is buried deep under the earth,which marks a dramatic shift in identity.The funerary objects include various things for daily use and ritual vessels,which indicates Shang people’s belief in the existence of the soul of their royal kings.Guided by the mythical animals such as dragon or tiger,the soul of the dead ascends to the heaven,and becomes the ancestral spirit.The ancestral temple is a spot that connects the ancestor and their offspring,where the royal family offer sacrifice and pray for their ancestors’spirit to come.The magnificent ancestral temple is located right in the centre of the capital,and is close to the royal palace,which hints the centrality of religious worship in the life of Shang people.The resemblance of the cemetery to the ancestral temple suggests the intention to guide the royal spirit to the temple.If we take into consideration the fact that the dead kings of Shang are buried and worshipped collectively,we are justified to conjecture that the Shang people deliberately restrict the individuality of the dead king,and incorporate them into a successive clan.