中國人殉的歷史，有其一定的發展脈絡，不過礙於人仁道義，唐宋之後，除少數民間從殉者，皇廷士宦用殉者寡，僅見於外族夷俗。「殉」之遺風，到了明朝卻死灰復燃，由上而下對於整體社會產生很大的影響。明初宮廷殉葬，行之凡六朝，至英宗止殉為止，為時近百年。而有明一朝，諸王用殉一事亦有所聞，可見殉葬於明宮已然成為不成文之俗。再加上明代婦女貞節觀念盛行，殉夫者為數不少，以此而論，明代婦女殉死之舉，與皇廷殉葬的施行有其因果關聯。因此，本文擬探究明代帝妃殉葬形成之因素，並考證明宮帝妃從殉之儀俗，次而究諸王用殉情形，爾後再論士庶妻妾殉死行為，進而比照明代民間節婦烈女之烈行，並分析、探討其中因果關係。最後以西方學者對於自殺一舉，與東方殉死作比較，間輔以筆者之觀點，來提出新的見解，以茲參考。 The history of burying the living with the dead in Chinese has its certain context of development. Due to morality and justice, this kind of burying become rare after Tang and Song Dynasty. However, it come back during Ming Dynasty and had tremendous influence regarding the overall society. Until Emperor Ying-Zong, it sustained for near one hundred years among feudal lords in palace. It can be seen, this kind of burying turned into a formal system had become customary. In addition, related to the popular concept of chastity among women, many women die for their husband. To be fair, it has the causal link with the live burial system among feudal lords. For a start, this paper tries to investigate how the live burial system was formed and to verify the mechanism of live burial system in palace of the Ming Dynasty. Secondly, the live burial system among feudal lords and common people will be discussed. After that, it will be compared with the other chaste behaviors and discuss their relevance. Discussions about the differences between suicide, in Western scholars point of view, and been interred with the dead, in Eastern point of view, will be followed. Finally, the researcher tries to propose new opinions for conclusion.
