中國中古先代帝王祭祀的形成、演變與意涵──以其人選與地點為主軸的探討

On the Grounds and Implications of the Worship of Past Emperors in Medieval China

「先代帝王祭祀」是當權王朝對於本朝以前、過去各個朝代及其皇帝的祭祀。此一祭祀始於北魏孝文帝，終於清末，擁有超過一千五百年的歷史。筆者的研究採取長時段的觀點，並以祭祀地點作為劃分歷史階段的準則，進而在本文中論證，從北魏孝文帝太和十六年到唐玄宗天寶年間，計約兩百五十年，應劃分為「在象徵王朝的代表性地點」舉行祭祀的階段。此一階段又分為前後兩期，這兩期對於象徵王朝的代表性地點的看法不同，前期為「定都之地」，後者為「肇跡之處」。定都之地指的是王朝的首都，肇跡之處則是王朝在建立政權基礎的過程中，貢獻最大的君主有實際作為的地方。選擇肇跡之處作為象徵王朝的代表性地點，正反映了一種實際主義的王權觀，即重視開國祖先的具體貢獻，而非天命、德運與登基即位的儀式或程序。本文對此一祭祀的人選與地點進行詳細的分析之後，發現無論是在北魏孝文帝之時，或在隋與唐代前期，這項禮制都不是單純出於憑空的創造，而是鑲嵌在其歷史與時代的多重背景與源流當中。當我們逐一進行檢討，就會發現各種複雜的因素所扮演的角色，以及制度背後的各種考量。即制度的規範背後，有一套政治觀念在其中。

In imperial China, emperors in power worshiped their counterparts from previous dynasties along with the worship to the Heaven, royal ancestors, and Confucius. The worship of past emperors (xiandai diwang jisi) constituted one of the most important cults in the imperial courts. According to traditional Chinese political theory, the founding emperor of every dynasty was able to found the dynasty through military conquest due to the mandate of Heaven. The succeeding emperors in the dynasty offered worships to the Heaven and their royal ancestors who had founded the dynasty, as the worship pertained to the legitimacy of their sovereignty. On the other hand, the bygone dynasties not only had lost their mandates of Heaven, but their emperors also had no blood ties with the dynasty now in power. It is intriguing that this kind of worship was long practiced in China: according to recent studies, it can be dated back to the time of the Northern Wei and was institutionalized during the Tang and Song dynasties. Ming and Qing emperors continued to practice the worship of past emperors until its abolition in 1912. What were the purposes and concepts behind the worship of different dynasties? How did this ritual come into being? In this article, I argue that the development of the worship of past emperors could be divided into several stages according to their different sites of worships. The first one began at the time of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei and ended during the regime of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. Emperor Xiaowen worshiped emperors from previous dynasties at their respective capitals while Emperor Xuanzong held this ceremony at the “nation-founding site” of the respective dynasty. These two kinds of sites were representative of the dynasties in the past. Therefore, the first stage could be called the “symbolic sites representative of dynasties.” This paper not only analyses the choices of the different worship sites of the Northern Wei and Tang, but also scrutinizes the purposes and concepts behind the worship, particularly the meaning of the “nation-founding site.” In fact, the “nation-founding site” was associated with the founding emperor of the dynasty. The choice of this kind of sites reflected the emphasis on the real deeds and achievements of the emperors, rather than the supernatural mandate of Heaven. Analyzing these topics will certainly allow us to have more insights on the kingship in imperial China.