「佘太君」與「折太君」考

A Study on “佘太君” and “折太君”

在明嘉靖時期的小說《北宋志傳》中，「楊業之妻」為「呂氏」；萬曆三十四年刊《楊家府演義》改為「余（佘）氏」，但這兩部小說多稱其為「楊令婆」。「佘太君」的稱謂大約在《演義》後不久出現在戲曲中。「楊令婆」與「佘太君」帶有南北方不同的地域色彩，加之後世某些作品兼收並蓄，故有時二者可混用。「太君」稱謂的形成或與明代小說中楊六郎妻稱「太郡」有關。由於戲曲在民間的廣泛影響，加之折、佘同音和地緣的原因，約在清康熙中期，宋代武將折克行的母親「折氏」被楊業故里附近的折氏家族居住的岢嵐州一帶的百姓附會成戲曲中的楊業妻「佘太君」。雍正年間，折克行之母「折太君」的墓亦被附會成「佘太君」之墓。由於折克行的母親與楊業相差百年左右，於是後來進一步將「折太君」「合理化」為折德扆的女兒。清代著名學者畢沅及當代一些學者信奉地方誌的誤傳，遂使折德扆女「折太君」為戲曲人物「佘太君」的原型說輾轉相傳，眾口一詞，幾成定讞。

She Taijun (「佘太君」) -She Saihua(佘賽花)is Yang Ye (楊業)’s wife and the mother of Yang Liulang (楊六郎) in Chinese traditional opera. She was pretty and had a temperament of martial bearing when she was a teenager, and married Yang Ye through a Kongfu contest. She gave birth to seven sons and two daughters to the Yang, and had become the leader of the female soldiers of the Yang family since Yang Ye and Yang Liulang passed away. She assumed leadership when she was a hundred-year old, gave military orders, gained victories and finally won respect from government and people. This paper explores the relationship between the origin of this literary figure and the historical character “She Taijun”(「折太君」). Yang Ye’s wife in literature is originally Lü (「呂氏」), whose deeds can be found in the novels of Jiajing period, Ming Dynasty, where she is called Yang Ling Po (「楊令婆」). Then, after Wanli Thirtieth Year of Ming Dynasty, the appellation “She Tai Jun” (「佘太君」) was shown in drama. Yang Ling Po (「楊令婆」) and She Tai Jun (「佘太君」) respectively exhibit regional colors of Southern and Northern China, and are absorbed in some later literatures, thus they are sometimes mixed. The formation of the appellation “Tai Jun” (「太君」) probably relates to the reason that Yang Liu Lang’s wife is called “Tai Jun” in the Ming novels. Since opera exerts extensive influence on the public people, and the two characters 折and 佘 are homophone, as well as there are geopolitical reasons, in around the middle of Qing Dynasty, the General She Kexing (折克行)’s mother She (「折氏」) of Song Dynasty was interpreted by head and ears of the common people, who reside around Ke Lan Zhou region, which was Yang Ye’s hometown, as Yang Ye’s wife She Tai Jun (「佘太君」) of opera. During Yongzheng time, the tomb of Zhe Kexing’s mother “She Tai Jun”(「折太君」)became the farfetched one of “She Tai Jun”(「佘太君」) .As She Kexing’s mother “She Tai Jun”(「折太君」)is about a hundred year older than Yang Ye, then she was “rationally regarded as” the daughter of She Deyi (折德扆). Bi Yuan (畢沅), the well-known scholar of Qing Dynasty, and some contemporary scholars believe the misrepresentation of the local recordings, and make She Deyi’s daughter She Tai Jun (「折太君」) the prototype of the opera character “She Tai Jun”(「佘太君」). This theory has been passed down and almost been the final one. However, it is a misunderstanding of history.