英文摘要 |
According to Zuo Tradition, after the death of Zheng Zi-Jia, the people of Zheng “destroy Zi-Jia’s coffin and expel his clansmen” as a punishment for his crime of murdering the king. This paper aims to examine the symbols of degradation in funeral ceremony in the Spring and Autumn period, such as “destroying a coffin” and “limu sancun.” Influenced by Du Yu’s studies, scholars over the past few years have believed that “destroying a coffin,” means thinning a coffin. However, according to an archaeological excavation, thinning a coffin could hardly fulfill the intention of degradation, since the specification of an ancient coffin involves not only the thickness of wood but also the different sizes of coffins. The author suggests that the actual practice of destroying a coffin is “splitting a coffin and exposing the body.” As for “limu sancun” in “Death of Zheng Zi-Jia,” collected in the Shanghai Museum bamboo slips, it is not the act of coffin splitting itself, but the act done after the splitting of the coffin. To put it more clearly, the people of Zheng humiliate Zi-Jia and lower his funeral standard by placing his body in a small “3-inch chestnut coffin.” “Daring not exit from the Ding Gate” means that Zheng Zi-Jia is not allowed to be buried outside the Main Gate of West city, and no longer recognized as a nobility. “Being buried under the base of the city” also directly points out that Zi-Jia is regarded as a commoner. All of the above are practices to show degradation in the Spring and Autumn Period. |