神魂、屍骸與塚墓──唐代兩京的死亡場景與喪葬文化

Abstract

死亡在唐代日常生活中扮演了重要的角色，本文以唐代兩京（長安與洛陽）的官員、士人及其家屬為中心，具體考察人們從病重、臨終、死亡，一直到下葬的完整過程，藉由一幕幕的死亡場景，呈現唐代兩京的喪葬文化。 尤其著重在具體的儀式與物質層面，以法令、禮典等理想型的規範作為基本架構，參照有關喪葬禮儀和死亡的各種記載，以靈魂與屍骸為中心，探索唐代兩京人們面對死亡的心態，以及處理死亡的具體作法，從物質文化的角度，討論制度、行為和器物，發掘背後的思想觀念，將分散在史料中有如碎片的死亡訊息，拼湊出一幅較為完整清晰的唐代兩京日常死亡圖像。 首先，有關「面對死亡」方面，探討圍繞在死亡的日常生活中，面對死亡時的基本心態，人們對於靈魂、形體與死亡的想像、判定死亡的具體方式、臨終時的死亡場景、遺言與遺書等方面，從中考掘出唐人的死亡觀念和對於死後世界的想像，瞭解死亡在唐代社會上所扮演的角色和影響。 其次，討論兩京地區「處理死亡」與「展示死亡」的具體作法，聚焦在從喪（包裝屍體與祭祀靈魂）到葬（送葬和下葬）的過程，以「日常生活史」的微觀研究方式，重建日常喪葬實況，不僅關注純粹的禮儀和法令上的規範，也重視實際發生的歷史細節，具體重現有關死亡的儀式、習俗和器物。 最後，以作為死者靈魂居所的葬地、墓葬為中心，討論城市與葬地的關係、墳墓和墓園的基本樣貌、以及「事死如事生」的隨葬品。藉由考古發掘出來的墓葬資料，結合歷史文獻提供的文字訊息，還原其特定的形式和功能，重新建構彷彿人間的死後世界，以及比照生前的日常生活。 綜上所論，唐代整個喪葬過程的儀式，幾乎都圍繞著靈魂與屍骸之上。喪葬儀式不只是為了死者，也是為了生者，生與死之間關係密切。 傳統的死亡觀念與喪葬習俗具有很強的延續性，以唐代而言，源自先秦兩漢以來的經典傳統和民間信仰，融入魏晉南北朝具有貴族色彩喪禮，加上深受佛教、道教影響的死後世界觀，諸如繁複細密的喪葬禮儀、官僚化的死後世界、天堂與地獄的想像、僧人與道士在喪葬過程所扮演重要的角色、風水信仰對於墓葬的重大影響等，都是唐代喪葬文化的重要元素，也成為宋代以後中國喪葬文化的基本形態。

Death plays an important role in people’s everyday life during the Tang dynasty. This dissertation is concerned with the sociocultural aspects of death in Chang’an and Luoyang during the Tang by examining the spectacles of death from the perspectives of public officers, scholar officials and their family members, with particular reference to the funerary traditions. Specifically, this study investigates people’s attitudes toward death and ways of coping with death through the documentation of funeral rites and ceremonies within the framework of legislation and funeral ritual. This study reconstructs a comprehensive picture of the funeral customs, particularly in terms of souls and corpses in Chang’an and Luoyang during the Tang and discusses death attitudes and their relationships with legislation and the behavior of communities from the perspective of material culture. To understand the role of death in the Tang society, we recreate people’s conceptualization and imagination of death by examining death attitudes. Drawing from the micro-level analysis of the history of everyday life, we concentrate on the reconstruction of funerary and death-worship practices. We also address the issues of the relationship between the burial ground and the city, design of tombs and cemetery and funerary goods in practices. In summary, funerary and death-worship practices are focused on the beliefs of souls and corpses, as manifested in sophisticated funeral rites and ceremonies, a collective imagination of the otherworld, the influence of Buddhism and Taoism on funerary customs and the belief of scared spaces of death as determined by Fengshui (geomancy). These practices are derived from funerary traditions following the Sung dynasty, which in turn contributes to the typical funerary traditions in Chinese culture. This study advances our understanding of the sociocultural aspects of death in Chang’an and Luoyang during the Tang.