| As an important part of the traditional Chinese culture,Nuo is an ancient witchcraft ritual to dispel ghosts and epidemics,and it is the advanced stage of original witch culture.It became a "carnival" type of entertainment activities in the late Tang and Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty.Many relevant materials have been found among the Dunhuang manuscripts.The present research only based on single papers,and the thematic research is still inadequate.The study of this subject helps to better understand the local “Nuo”during the Tang and Song Dynasties,and also it can help do further research on the phenomenon of the "generalization" of Nuo culture on latter times.The article is composed of seven chapters.The first chapter discusses the evolution of the system of Nuo before the Tang Dynasty and the changes in Tang and Song Dynasties.It elaborated that the Qin Dynasty was the forming stage of Nuo ceremony,the Nuo ceremony stereotyped in the Han Dynasty,There was a new change in the history of the system during Wei,Jin and the Southern and Northern Dynasties.The system of Nuo was almost mature and perfect in Tang Dynasty,especially Kaiyuan Li system nearly reached the extreme.The system began to chang from the "Miao Tang Zhi Gao" to "Jiang Hu Zhi Yuan" during the Song Dynasty.These constitute the background of Dunhuang Nuo culture.The second chapter briefly illustrates the existence of the Dunhuang Nuo according to the archaeological excavation in Dunhuang during the Wei,Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties.And on the basis of the present research,the author tries to stage the Nuo texts in the period of Guiyijun.In the third chapter,the author proposes to recreate the Nuo ceremony activities of Dunhuang in combination with the analysis of the different forms and the ritual elements of Dunhuang Nuo.On the analysis,it pointed out that Dunhuang Nuo not only reflected the inheritage of traditional Nuo culture as a localized model of the ancient Nuo culture system,but also broke the traditional Nuo culture.And finally it summed up the speciality of Dunhuang Nuo: the distinctive locality,unique religiosity and the outstanding reality.The fourth chapter takes the representative mix gods and ghosts as examples,combined with Dunhuang manuscripts,sketched out the lineage of the divine and ghost of Dunhuang Nuo,including Zhong Kui,Bai Ze,fox with nine tails,strange birds and animals,Penglai Qi Xian,and also Buddha,the four kings,Tai shan fu jun,wu dao jiang jun,and also there are local characteristics "san wei da sheng","jin an du long" and even Zoroastrian gods,in addition,the people also regarded the leader of Guiyi army as the Nuo God.Correspondingly,there are many kinds of the ghosts which should be driven away from district,including fictitious evils and realistic ones.Based on the experience of their own lives,people of Dunhuang also created a variety of grotesque ghosts by themselves.At the same time,they also regarded the the aggressors,who destructed the peace and tranquility of the people in Dunhuang,as realistic ghosts to be expelled.The fifth chapter analyzes and examines the "Ta Xi Mo Zhe" activities introduced into Dunhuang from Serindia.It pointed out that the activities of Dunhuang area were from Serindia and the archaeological discoveries of the Qiuzi area are combined with the characteristics of the combination of Buddhist and folk custom.The sixth chapter refers to an analysis and vertical comparison of the the writing of the hungry ghosts and the purgatory in Maudgalyayana’s story,combined the same in Buddhist sutras.From the vertical point of view of the story and the latter scenes of Nuo opera to explore,the author stated that the Dunhuang manuscripts on Maudgalyayana’s story became the forefront of Nuo opera on the story later.In particular,the elements of the hell and the later Nuo opera are closely related.And the mechanism of Maudgalyayana’s story stepping into today’s Nuo opera is analyzed,as well as the relationship between the plot "Po di yu" and the latter development.The seventh chapter takes the vegetarian literature in Dunhuang manuscripts as an example to discuss the topic of " generalization of Nuo".Nuo culture actually passed through a developmental stage of generalization from the past till now.Nowadays,the activities of the Nuo inevitably appeared in the "generalization" phenomenon,including unlimited time,space,and a wide range of disaster relief,praying for the livelihood of the people,which almost covered all of the contents of people’s lives.The "generalization" of the performance could not appear suddenly and overnightly,which must have a certain trajectory,and because of the shortage of the ancient literature related to the description of the Nuo,the subject became a problem,the academic research found rarely on this issue.A large number of vegetarian literature in Dunhuang manuscripts has provided us the opportunity to explore this problem,which can be regarded as an intermediation to communicate ancient and modern,the article finally made a try to discuss the mechanism of the "generalization" of Nuo. |
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