餅與匱乏：從節日飲食到英雄傳說的考察

Pancake and Scarcity, from Festival Food to the Legend of Hero

在整個陰曆正月中，有好幾種的歲時習俗用到煎餅，計有天穿、送窮、填倉和薰蟲。追究它們彼此之間的關係，可以發現個別的習俗搭配的日子並不固定，習俗的內容及目的之間也可互通，但均可歸納源頭至女媧補天的傳說。在這些習俗當中，煎餅均以其圓滿豐足的象徵意義，補全天庭、倉廩的缺漏空虛，驅逐窮鬼以迎富足，薰走蟲豸，以避免穀物不飽實。而煎餅傳說到了閩南、台灣後，雖然補天的時間位移到了端午、傳說主人翁自女媧變成鄭成功，但傳說情節中仍保留了煎餅解決匱乏、使人事飽足的功能。總而言之，煎餅最終的目的在於補足事物的匱乏，使身家財物達到豐足圓滿的境界。

Throughout the first month of the lunar calendar, several festivities feature pancake as the folklore food for the occasion. They are tianchuan, songqiong, tiancang and xunchong. With an investigation into their multilateral relation, one discovers that despite mobile combination between dates and customs, content of custom and its purpose are interchangeable and traceable to the mythological legend of “Nüwa patching up the sky.” In almost all of these customs, pancake symbolizes a state of profusion and abundance when it is used to patch up the sky, fill up the granary, drive out impoverished ghosts and expel vermin. When the legend of pancake reached Southern Fujian and Taiwan, though it underwent change of protagonist and shift of dates, the legend still retains the affluent nature that enriches and replenishes human beings as well as crops and wealth. To sum up, the ultimate purpose of pancake is to mend, repair, or fulfill scarcity, turning oneself and/or one’s wealth into a state of completion.