劉伯溫與“八月十五殺韃子”故事考溯

本文探討中國家喻戶曉的元朝末年漢人密謀以月餅傳訊「八月十五殺韃子」，在中秋節夕起義推翻蒙古統治的民間傳說故事的來歷、史源，及其與政治和民俗發展的關係。這些民間傳說反映元末江淮漢人不堪蒙古虐政，揭竿反抗的集體記憶，內容始初沒有點出誰策劃以月餅傳訊，後來才歸功於明朝開國功臣劉伯溫。這位被民間神化為神算軍師、遺下〈燒餅歌〉預言書的明太祖謀臣，便成為這個膾炙人口的故事的主角。這些故事不見於元代或明清的史籍雜著，而是在清末透過口碑傳述，由文藝家增添枝葉記錄下來。有關故事亦見於蒙古族的傳說，並有蒙文鈔本傳佈，顯示漢蒙兩族民間文化的交流。這些「八月十五殺韃子」的故事不是信史，因為元末農民是在彌勒白蓮教的煽動下起事，地方豪雄蠭起爭霸，經過十多年的鏖戰，元朝才傾覆。不過，現今各類型故事所講述的蒙古虐政，如「十家漢人養一韃」、「十家合用一把刀」、「姑娘出嫁，甲主先取得初夜權」、「二十戶漢人編成一閭，派蒙古人當閭長」等，都反映一些歷史現象，並不全是虛構。故事的雛形見於清光緒年間首次刊行的元初徐大焯《燼餘錄》，反映蘇州吳縣在蒙古兵進入後所受到的殘虐待遇。編造故事者大致以此為文本，摘採《元史》及蒙古族相傳元朝虐政的記載，加以改造和小說化，並很可能在八卦教的宣傳下，套用其閏八月十五為紅陽末劫、彌勒降生、變天之日的謠言，增飾內容。最後，把神化了的劉伯溫當作策劃月餅傳訊的主謀，合成完整的「八月十五殺韃子」的傳奇故事。至於何人編撰和傳播這些故事？很可能是反清排滿的秘密會黨分子，或同路的革命志士，利用漢人起義推翻蒙古統治的集體記憶，太平天國以「韃子」為滿洲人的蔑稱，加上劉伯溫〈燒餅歌〉識言預測滿清滅亡的傳說，以蒙古影射滿清，作為配合鼓吹「驅除韃虜、恢復中華」的漢民族革命的宣傳。在清末的排滿浪潮，和民國成立後大漢族主義的情緒推動下，這些故事變為家傳戶誦的中秋節日的民間傳說，到現代仍然流傳不衰。不過，經過不同時代政治意理和詞彙的洗禮，今天編寫故事者已不再使用民族階級鬥爭的理念，和「殺韃子」這個蔑稱少數民族的詞彙，抹掉了一些不合時宜的歷史痕跡。

關鍵字

劉伯溫；劉基；八月十五日；中秋節；月餅；殺韃子；蒙古人；元朝

並列摘要

This paper examines the origin and sources of a series of one of the most popular folk stories in modem and contemporary China, ”Killing the Tartars on Mid-Autumn Day,” and assesses its affinity with political and folkloric development. These stories reflect the collective memory of the misery of the Chinese peasants in the Huai and Yangzi River region under the repressive Mongol rule. They describe how the peasants, tipped off by a message found hidden in the stuffing of a moon cake on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, rose up in rebellion, slaughtered the Mongols and toppled the Yuan dynasty. ”Tartars” was a derogatory ethnic appellation for the Mongols. Later versions of these stories attributed the ingenious moon cake plot to Liu Bowen, the great minister of the Ming dynasty founder who was later mythologized as a sagacious strategist and clairvoyant prognosticator, author of the renowned prophecy book Shaobingge. None of the standard histories carry any reference to these sensational stories, and various versions of the saga were transmitted through oral narration and later recorded by folklorists with additional trappings. Similar versions appeared in a Mongol legend, with both oral and written forms, attesting to the reciprocal influence of Han and Mongol folk culture. This popular folklore was fictitious; in fact, Chinese peasants rose against the Mongols under the propaganda of the White-Lotus Maitreya society, and the Yuan dynasty did not end until after more than a decade of infighting among contentious Chinese warlords culminating in the founding of the Ming dynasty. Nevertheless, there was a modicum of truth in the stories' descriptions of various Mongol repressive measures against the Chinese, such as ”ten Han families forced to host a Tartar at home,” ”ten families sharing a single kitchen chopper,” ”Mongol headman claiming the first night of a virgin set to marry,” ”twenty Han families grouped into a household headed by a Northern official,” and so forth. Though presented in exaggerated fiction, such events can be traced to Yuan historical records. A crude form of the stories appeared in the early Yuan work Jinyulu ascribed to Xu Dazhuo and first printed in the late Qing. It relates how a certain Chinese female in Wu County in Suzhou was molested on her wedding night by the Mongol headman; she killed the headman and committed suicide together with her husband, thus precipitating the villagers of several provinces to rise up against the Mongol chief. Probably inspired by this bizarre source, the anonymous author (s) or promoters of the ”killing the Tartars” stories extracted random information from the official Yuan history and Mongol folklore about Mongol officials' callous treatment of the Han Chinese, as well as the alleged eschatological revelation on the intercalary fifteenth day of the eighth (lunar) month proclaimed by the seditious Eight Trigrams Society to buttress the fictional allure of the stories. Finally, they co-opted Liu Bowen to be the mastermind of the moon cake plot that sparked the rebellion to complete the folkloric saga. Who were the author(s) or promoters of these stories? It is highly probable they were either members of anti-Manchu secret societies or revolutionary alliances or their sympathizers at the end of the Qing dynasty. In creating these stories they deftly exploited the collective memory of the Han Chinese rebellion against the Mongols and to topple the Yuan dynasty, the mid-Qing propaganda of the Taiping rebels defaming the Manchus as monstrous Tartars, and the popular lore of Liu Bowen prophesizing the demise of the Qing dynasty. They attacked the Mongols as a stand-in for the Manchus, seeking to propagate the ”expel the Tartars, restore Chinese rule” manifesto of the Han nationalist revolution. Spurred by anti-Manchu and Han Chinese superiority fervor, these stories emerged as the most celebrated folklore of the Mid-Autumn Festival in the early Republican period, and their popularity has survived to this day. However, the drastic political and ideological transformations in China since the 1950s have greatly affected the content and diction of new versions of these stories. The lingering anti-Manchu sentiment and Han ethno-centrism have vanished, and the inter-nationality class struggle ideology and the derogatory ethnic reference to ”killing the Tartars” have also gradually disappeared, erasing some of the old tracks of history.