【内容提要】20世纪90年代以来,东南沿海地区许多地方重建祠堂,恢复祭祀。在现代社会,传统的祭祀活动发生了许多变化。以广东省汕头市潮阳区“四序堂”为例,在身份上,祠堂成为文物保护单位、宗亲会、民办非企业单位。而祠堂的组织形成,从传统的宗法制转化成现代的家族制,并且依赖祭祀活动,将一地区同一宗族的人重新凝聚在一起,构建了新的宗族共同体。另外,祠堂允许同姓宗亲摆放自己祖先牌位,让一般老百姓也能到祠堂中祭祀自己的祖先。祠堂的种种制度创新,是传统制度与现代社会的调和与结合。
【关键词】潮阳 祠堂 祭祀 礼
Abstract: Since 1990s, there has been a revival of ancestral worship in the coastal areas of southeast China where ancestral temples have been rebuilt and sacrificial rites restored. However, traditional patterns of worship have been changed in many ways. Take the Four Orders Temple in Chaoyang district as an example. In terms of status, the Temple is at once an officially designated historical and cultural site, a clansmen association, and a non-governmental enterprise. The organizational setup of the Temple has changed from the traditional patriarchal clan system to the modern family system. Ancestor worship in the Temple helps reunited people of the same clan to create a new clan community. Besides, the Temple allows fellow clansmen who share the family name to institute the memorial tablets of their ancestors in it so that anybody in the clan can worship. All the pattern innovations reflect a combination of the traditional and the modern.
Keywords:Chaoyang, ancestral temple, sacrificial offering, ritual
《礼记·祭统》有云:“凡治人之道,莫急于礼。礼有五经,莫重于祭。”是言祭为礼之大者也。祭礼之中的祖先祭祀,既是为人子孙慎终追远、报本反始的道德行为,又是一家一族敬宗合族、确认人伦的共同活动。就前者而言,致孝于祖先,对个人来说是仁德的本源,如《论语·学而》所谓“孝悌也者,其为仁之本与”。对后者而言,一家一族祭礼的举行,关系着对政治组织、社会结构、人伦关系的理解。因此,在古代中国,祭礼的形式,不但是“情感—道德”性的,而且是“伦理—政治”性的。