「祀瘟神」與「送瘟船」──中國古代瘟疫醮之緣起

「Sacrificing to the gods of the plague 」 and 「Expelling the ship of the plague」 —the origin of the ritual of the plague in ancient China

本文「祀瘟神」和「送瘟船」是北宋以降中國部分地區十分盛行的兩種祭送瘟神之形式，其核心理念乃基於普通民眾對瘟疫等惡性傳染疾病的恐懼和禳祀。本文通過對文獻資料的考證分析，大致梳理了這兩種習俗的歷史淵源、流傳地域和演變過程，及其對明清時期閩臺地區「王醮」科儀及「送王船」習俗的深遠影響。

「Sacrificing to the gods of the plague」(祀瘟神) and 「expelling the ship of the plague」(送瘟船) were the very popular rituals of sacrificing and expelling the gods of the plague in part areas of china since the Northern Song Dynasty(北宋) . The core concept of the rituals was based on people’s apprehension and sacrifice to contagious diseases such as plague. Through textual research and analysis of the documentation, this paper roughly combed the historical origin, spreading areas and transition of these two rituals and analyzed the profound impact that these two rituals had on the rituals of 「wangjiao」(王醮) and sending away 「wangchuan」(送王船) in mintai area during mingqing period.