唐人小說所記載之巫覡及其求雨研究

Shamans and Their Praying for Rain in Tang's Stories

盧秀滿(Hsiu-Man Lu)

《中國學術年刊》 32_2期 (2010/09) Pp. 71-101

https://doi.org/10.6238/SIS.201009_(32-2).0003

摘要

本文透過整理與分析唐人小說中有關巫覡之記載，來探究巫覡在唐代社會所擔負之職能及其在求雨職場上之今昔。
首先，分項說明唐代的巫覡，在當時所從事的主要職能包含：占卜、治鬼魅除災、溝通人神、醫療、參與喪葬活動及求雨等，從中探討唐人對其依賴之情形，藉此釐清巫覡在唐代社會之存在價值與效用。其次，聚焦於巫覡參與求雨活動之記載，來考察唐代巫覡在求雨職能上的效能與轉變。最後則指出，唐代巫覡在求雨舞台上逐漸失勢之原因，一為其角色被取代性高，顯示了其背後統治階級急欲凝聚人心的政治意涵，以及需與其餘宗教競爭之社會現實；另一方面，其本身在求雨職能上一再失敗的窘境，則暴露了只能以祈禱來求雨之巫術的侷限性。

關鍵字

唐人小說 ； 巫覡 ； 職能 ； 求雨

並列摘要

This study, ”Shamans and Their Praying for Rain in Tang's Stories”, cites stories of shamans from the stories of Tang Dynasty. By analyzing and arranging the stories, we investigate the present and the past of shamans, the so-called Shamans, who occupied the position of praying the rain, or their other functions.
First of all, the study lists and describes the categories of Shamans, for example: divinations, exorcism, disaster relief, psychic connecting, medications, cursing, in charge of funerals…etc. We could infer in any case from those resources that Shamans' role was strongly demaned by Tang's people, proved the Shamans' value and its efficacy over political preference in Tang society.
Secondly, we focus on stories which recorded the activities of praying for rain in Tang's stories to inspect the effects and the conversions of Tang Shaman in the stage of praying for rain.
Successively, we may conclude that the weakening of Tang Shamans was subject to its high replaceability, heaps of competitors, and low success ratio in this matter. These three reasons show strongly that praying for rain was fully affected by political factors; the leading power was easily turned down and was rejected step by step by governing classes with deliberate political considerations. Moreover, it was Tang's Confucianists' standing and the benign competition of burgeoning religions as Daoism and Buddhism that caused Shamans' rain-praying activities which followed the basic concepts of Confucianists withered and eventually lost its authority. In other words, the predicament that the ceremonies of praying for rain were frequently failed revealed a metaphor in Tang's social context, that is, the sorcery of praying for rain is still too narrow to use.

並列關鍵字

Tang stories ； Shamans ； occupation ； praying for rain