「城隍」之外——外城隍廟研究

A Study on the City-God Temples Built Outside of the City Walls

傳統觀念認為，城隍神不論作為城市守護神還是冥官，都應建廟於城牆之內，因之，建於城外者，往往被視為奇異。但在實際的建置當中，城隍廟與城牆並沒有如此緊密的聯繫。建在帶牆城市中的城隍廟，僅是唐宋以來城隍廟建置諸側面中的一種。利用以方志為主的歷史文獻，從更大地域範圍進行考察，外城隍廟就會呈現出多元的變化過程或解釋。本文的研究在很大程度上展示了外廟在歷史時期的狀況。作為中國傳統城市形態主要構成要素的城隍廟，其分佈形態的歷史與傳統時期築城史雖然密不可分，沒有城，外廟無從談起；城池的變動，也是導致外廟出現或終結的一大因素。但城池的變動並不必然影響到外廟。更重要的是，相比於城池，外廟的數量相對較少。因此，如果說城池的修築可能存在階段性的變化，就外廟而言，個別地區能夠或多或少反映出地方社會的變動。但總體來說，很難尋到這些現象中的規律性。

In the traditional beliefs, whether it is worshipped as a protective god of the city or as an official of the underworld, city-god temples should be built within the city walls, and city-god temples built outside the wall were often regarded as abnormalities. However, in actual practices, such a strict relationship did not exist between city-god temples and the city walls. City-god temples, which began to be established in the Tang and Song dynasties, were built inside walled cities as well as at other places. Utilizing historical documents, mainly local gazetteers, and scrutinizing a larger geographical area, we find that the temples built outside of the city walls present a lot of new meanings beyond our conventional understanding. This paper studies the condition of these outside temples in different historical period. As city-god temples constitute one of the main elements of traditional Chinese cities, where they were built has a close relationship to the history of city-wall building. The notion of outside temples would not exist if there was no wall. The changes of city walls could be a major factor leading to the emergence or termination of the outside temple, but there was no definite correlation. More importantly, there were far less of these outside temples than walled cities. Therefore, only in some particular regions, we are able to find a correlation between the city’s changes and the appearance of the outside temples, where the outside temples more or less reflect the changes in the local community. However, it is hard to find a general pattern.