論清宮目連戲《勸善金科》之政治與宗教功能

A Discussion of the Political and Religious Functions of a Qing-dynasty Palace Opera about Mulian, The Golden Rule for Guiding to Good

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

本活躍於民間的目連戲，進入清宮，已產生變化，演出時不以中元節爲主，亦不偏重於超渡亡魂，並省略許多民間信仰複雜的禁忌與儀式。《勸善金科》演於歲暮，具有“代古人行儺祓”之性質，若就其編演之意義與目的，則可析分爲二：其一，在政治作用方面，張照秉持著王化觀再造《勸善金科》，乃欲藉由目連戲這類勸善懲惡、宣揚因果報應的載體，達到“人文化成”的效益，清廷甚至將之視作一部能演的善書，務使觀者能忠君愛國、隨順不逆。其二，在宗教作用方面，因該劇爲替代宮儺而演，故劇中的跳靈官與扮仙，別具特殊的宗教儀式意義，這兩種小戲，一反常態，已被容納於內容情節之中，且主題思想與全劇也是一脈相承，不可任意獨立或剔除，此爲相當特別的現象。

This essay is a study of a Qing-dynasty palace Mulian play, Zhang Zhao’s The Golden Rule for Guiding to Good, with a focus on the political and religious functions of its script. The investigation found that the plays featuring the story of Mulian, originally a repertoire of popular tales for common people, underwent some changes when they were introduced to the Qing palace. These plays were not merely performed on the Hungry Ghost festival, as transcendence of the souls of the dead was no longer the only function of these plays. Moreover, many complicated taboos and rituals in folk beliefs were also omitted. The Golden Rule for Guiding to Good was performed at the end of the year as a means for “lustrating and exorcising evils on behalf of ancient people.” The significance and purpose of writing and performing this opera can be summed up in two points. The first is its political function. Zhang Zhao recreated The Golden Rule for Guiding to Good in accordance with the teaching principle of the monarch and used the Mulian play as a means to exhort people to good and punish evil in order to advocate the retribution karmic cycle and to achieve the effect of “educating people with humanity-based virtues.” The Qing palace even regarded the play script as a book of benevolence that could be acted out to educate the audience about loyalty and obedience to the monarch and empire without engaging in rebellion. The second is a religious function. As this opera was played in place of some palace rituals, the role-play of the numinous and the one of immortals in the opera had unique significance in religious rituals. These two small plays were exceptionally included in the plots, and their themes were also closely related to the whole opera and could not be arbitrarily isolated or removed. This was a very special phenomenon.