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《詩》與古史－從新出土楚簡談玄鳥傳說與早期殷史
The Book of Odes and Ancient History: Some Remarks on the Dark Bird Legend and Early Yin History Based on Recently-unearthed Chu Bamboo Slip Writings
並列摘要
The present lecture, delivered by Professor Jao Tsung-i as the first of The Chinese University of Hong Kong 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lectures on March 1, 2003, summarizes Professor Jao's research on the xuanniao玄鳥 (dark bird) legend in ancient Chinese civilization and its bearing on early Yin殷 (Shang商) history. His main findings, based on a critical analysis of ancient historical documents and recently-published Chu楚 bamboo slip writings, are discussed under the following headings: 1. The xuanniao worship and symbolism. A constant companion of the sun, the bird was widely worshipped in conjunction with the sun worship in Shang civilization as evident from historical documents, classical literature and archaeological finds. It mirrors the ancient people's reverence for the sun as the fountain source of life in a predominantly agricultural society in north China. The bird also came to represent the Wind (風), regarded as the messenger of the High God (上帝), hence the four directions of the wind were symbolized by four birds in Shang motifs. This symbolism inspired the association of the bird with the ＂four seasons＂(四時) and five phases(五行) in ancient cosmology. Xuan is dark, the colour of the north, and hence that of the Shang. A reference to the niao (bird) ideograph serving as the emblem of the North in the pentagonal geographical divisions of the Xia夏 state of Yu禹 is found in a passage in the ＂Rongcheng shi＂ 容成氏 chapter of a Chu bamboo slip writings collection recently published by the Shanghai Museum. 2. The xuanniao story and Jiandi簡狄. As reported in the Odes and elaborated in Sima Qian's司馬遷 Shiji史記 Jiandi, the second consort of Emperor Ku(帝嚳) a grandson of the Yellow Emperor(黃帝), gave birth to Xie契, progenitor of the Shang people, by swallowing an egg laid by a dark bird descending from heaven, thus the genesis of the legend. The Odes reads: ＂Heaven commissioned the dark bird to descend and give birth to the Shang.＂ This ethnogenesis myth of the Shang people centred in the bird cult proliferated in various forms in ancient documents, bronze vessel inscriptions and Chu bamboo slip writings. It also inspired similar legends of association with the birth of Yu of Xia and of the ancestor of the Qin秦 state with great cultural significance. The references to Jiandi's whereabouts in the bamboo slip writings, moreover, are very helpful in verifying the geographical locations of the Shang enfeoffment in the south of Mount Hua(華山) in modern Shanxi, situated to the west of the north China plain. 3. The xuanniao story and the legend of the ＂rib-birth＂ (背脅出生).As references to the dark bird's egg-laying story are found in the ＂Zigao＂子羔chapter of the afore-cited Chu bamboo slip writings collection, which also mentions the famed ＂rib birth＂ story of Yu of Xia, i.e. Yu was born from slitting the back ribs of his mother, we can now confirm that these stories were already in vogue in Confucius's time not as late as the apocrypha(緯書) of the imperial era. The presence of the bird's egg-laying myth in the eastern land of ancient China, as well as the appearance of bird motifs in bronze vessels and the recent discovery of human-head/bird-body statues in two Shanxi tombs of the early Zhou and the Warring States period respectively, further attest to the popularity of the bird cult and bird worship across the east and west in north China. It is also significant that in the Mawangdui馬王堆 silk manuscript Xingde刑德 , a treatise on strategy, the dark bird appeared as a deity connected with prognosticating military movement. In short, the xuanniao legend and bird worship were widespread from east to west in north China in ancient times. They represented a salient aspect of Chinese civilization with distinguished ethnographic and nationality traits. The bird was deeply revered as a symbol of good omen and people's love of the bird had been luxuriantly manifested in various forms over the millennia. It remains a popular subject for scholarly investigations and discussion in the field of ancient history, Chinese and non-Chinese, religious studies, as well as comparative civilization.