SACRIFICE VS. SUSTENANCE: FOOD AS A BURIAL GOOD IN LATE PRE-IMPERIAL AND EARLY IMPERIAL CHINESE TOMBS AND ITS RELATION FUNERARY RITES

Abstract

Abstract One of the medical manuscripts recovered from Tomb No. 3 at Mawangdui (dated 186 b.c.e.) states that, “When a person is born there are two things that need not to be learned: the first is to breathe and the second is to eat.” Of course it is true that all healthy newborn human beings possess the reflexes to breathe and eat. Yet, the implications of death should have been just as obvious to the ancient Chinese. Once the human brain ceases to function, there is no longer a biological need for oxygen and nourishment. Nevertheless, a large number of people in late pre-imperial and early imperial China insisted on burying food and drink with the dead. Most modern commentators take the deposition of food and drink as burial goods to be a rather trite phenomenon that warrants little reflection. To their minds both kinds of deposits were either intended to sustain the spirit of the deceased in the hereafter or simply a sacrifice to the spirit of the deceased. Yet, a closer look at the archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. By tracking the exact location of food and drink containers in late pre-imperial and early imperial tombs and by comprehensively analyzing inscriptions on such vessels in addition to finds of actual food, the article demonstrates that reality was more complicated than this simple either/or dichotomy. Some tombs indicate that the idea of continued sustenance coincided with occasional sacrifices. Moreover, this article will introduce evidence of a third kind of sacrifice that, so far, has gone unnoticed by scholarship. Such data confirms that sacrifices to spirits other than the one of the deceased sometimes were also part of funerary rituals. By paying close attention to food and drink as burial goods the article will put forth a more nuanced understanding of early Chinese burial practices and associated notions of the afterlife. 提要 馬王堆三號墓出土的一卷醫書（公元前 186 年）寫道：「人產而所不學者二，一曰息，二曰食。」 毋庸置疑，所有健康的新生兒都具備呼吸和飲食的本能。然而，死亡的意義對古人而言却没有那麼明顯。一旦大腦停止工作，人就無需氧氣和營養了。可是在晚前和早期中華帝國，人们往往用食物和酒飲作為陪葬。多數現代學者認為食物和酒飲的陪葬司空見慣，因而不值一提。在他們看来，這兩種陪葬品若不是用來供奉亡靈，就是為逝者獻祭而已。然而，對考古資料的進一步分析後，結論截然不同。通過分析晚前和早期中華帝國墓葬中食器、杯皿之確切位置，並全面解析器皿表面之文字，綜合相關食物之發現，本文証明實際情況遠比簡單的二分法複雜。一些墓葬表明，長期的供奉與偶爾的獻祭不謀而合。此外，本文將介紹目前學界未有涉及的第三類獻祭行為的證據。此證據表明，作為殯葬儀式的一部分，除了祭奠墓主的亡靈，其他亡靈也同樣得到祭奠。通過對作為陪葬品的食物和酒飲進行細緻分析，本文對早期中國殯葬傳統及相關的來世理念提出一種更細緻的解讀。