| 摘要: | 由於漢字極強的圖畫表意特質，吾人可從漢字的研究一窺古人社會文化現象的縮影，漢字反映的不只是詞義，更反映了古代社會相關文化訊息。分析古文字形的過程，彷彿一場穿越古代文化的旅程，古人的生活起居種種樣貌皆躍然紙上，每一個漢字都是一塊活化石，而這些漢字群聚積累後即成為研究中華民族歷史的豐富史料庫。
中國漢字研究範疇中，東漢許慎所著《說文》一書佔有極為重要的文字學研究地位，本文即奠基於許慎《說文》所列之文字釋義，上溯甲骨文、金文等字形，輔以典籍文獻資料，佐證考古出土文物，以婚姻、生育、喪葬為核心，試圖拼湊出古代人生禮俗之原型。
在漢字與婚姻一章中，藉由漢字溯源瞭解婚禮習俗、親屬稱謂等相關字群，也討論古代特殊婚俗－－搶奪婚、買賣婚、媵嫁婚的由來。而漢字與生育一章中，除了古代生育崇拜與信仰、從懷孕到生育等諸字，亦討論了古代的生育觀念。在漢字與喪葬一章中，則針對古人處理屍骨之方式、人死後的墓葬制度乃至棺槨器具，以及喪禮儀制等諸字進行討論。透過本文，除了將中國文字與中華文化間的緊密依附關係作一紀錄外，另嘗試校補因許慎當時所處時代囿於古文字資料不足而釋形錯誤之處。
;Due to the strong graphic features in Chinese characters, we can take a glimpse at the epitome of the social and cultural phenomena of the ancients from the study of Chinese characters. Chinese characters reflect not only the meaning of words but also the cultural information related to ancient society. The process of analyzing ancient characters was like travel through ancient culture, where the lives of ancient people vitalized in front of us. Every single Chinese character is a piece of living fossil. The gathering and accumulating of these Chinese characters have established a rich historical database for studying the history of the Chinese nation.
Among the category of the study of Chinese character, the book "Shuowen" written by Xu Shen in Eastern Han Dynasty occupies an extremely important position in grammatology. Based on the interpretation of the characters listed in Xu Shen′s " Shuowen", this article traced back to the glyphs such as oracle bone script (甲骨文) and Chinese bronze inscriptions(金文) and supplemented with classics and literature, as well as the evidence of archaeological artifacts. With marriage, procreation, and funeral as its key concepts, this article attempts to construct the prototype of the etiquette within ancient society.
By the means of tracing back the Chinese characters in the chapter on Chinese characters and marriage, it helps to understand the wedding customs, the title for relatives and other related word groups, and it also discusses the special marriage customs in ancient time— the origin of the marriage by capture, the marriage by purchase, and the concubine marriage. As for the chapter on Chinese characters and procreation, in addition to the ancient fertility cult and belief, the word groups from pregnancy to delivery, it also explains the fertility concept in ancient time. In the chapter on Chinese characters and funerals, it highlights the word groups of how the ancient people disposed of the dead bodies, the burial system, and even the utensils in tombs, as well as funeral ceremonies. In addition to recording the close relationship between Chinese characters and Chinese culture, this article attempted to correct the interpretation mistakes Xu Shen made in the era when he was confined to the data insufficiency of ancient characters. |
