海宁端午灵符进入国际论坛

朱关良

端午，被大多数人认为是吃粽子、划龙舟、纪念屈原的节日。其实它的内容远不止这些，它有着很丰富的文化意义。比如浙江海宁至今遗存的吴越端午民俗事象，近年来引起了国际文化界的广泛关注。

悬挂钟馗像和张贴灵符，是中国传统节日端午在民间流传很广的民俗事象。《浙江风俗简志》介绍：“传说五月是‘恶月，端午是‘鬼日，有恶鬼作祟，故民间家家贴驱鬼符于其室。”对此，笔者在浙江海宁作过两次采集调查。

第一次采集（1985年端午节）

海宁以前有各类祠庙340多座，后来一一废去。斜桥凌家亭子的云林寺，是在1985年由当地百姓自发筹资重建的。寺内供奉张六相公菩萨，开光仪式就在这一年端午节，届时有“撇符”。笔者得知消息，专程前往采访。

张六相公是宋代一兵部侍郎，因治理浙西海潮捐躯而被谥“海潮王”。乡人感恩，为之修庙作民间祭祀。

新落成的云林寺有些规模，那天里里外外人山人海，一片繁胜。正殿上搭起了戏台，演出海宁“非遗”项目皮影戏《闹龙宫》等剧目以助兴。据说，过去云林寺举行庙会，分三天迎游，故事（节目）近百堂，牵动海宁、桐乡两县十多个乡镇的百姓数万人，是海宁庙会中的典范。

偏房内一位七旬有余的道士正在挥毫“撇符”，需求者排起了长长的队伍。老人两三分钟撇一张，分发一张，以满足需求者祀求国泰民安的心愿。

凌家亭子附近盛行端午贴灵符驱鬼神的风俗，因此每到端午，云林寺庙祝便将灵符相送百姓，作为一件善事来办。

近中午，老人坐下休息，笔者的一位在该庙做事的熟人乘机介绍。老人叫张应昌，是一位火居道士。他说，如今庙宇靠当地民众筹建，所以今天他一早开始，撇符不止，也是为着回报民众。他强调，端午贴灵符是当地百姓一年生活中的习俗大事，希冀吉祥平安。

撇符这等高超的手艺，当时在海宁全市范围内几乎无存，当然在28年后的今天基本绝迹。张应昌用较多的时间讲述端午贴灵符禳灾避邪的风俗。他说，此等事人有则有、人无则无，完全是一种信仰，时间长了，就变成了一种非做不可的风俗。他还谈到张天师撇符捉鬼和钟馗驱邪禳灾的灵异故事，都是这个意思。至于撇符本身的手艺，他说这完全是熟能生巧或者功到自然成。谈到此，笔者的朋友王祖德把笔者也想得到他这一墨宝的事，很客气地提了出来，张应昌欣然答应，还说给你撇一套四张，叫“四季平安符”。说完，他站起身来，提笔醮墨挥毫，仅用七八分钟时间，四张灵符撇成，并盖上了“凌家亭子三宝大”的红印，作为端午节云林寺张六相公开光仪式之礼物相赠。

灵符分别书画朱天君、岳天君、赵天君、哪吒天君，尤以朱天君一张，笔致特殊，似书法非书法、似绘画非绘画的，两者结合更胜一筹，也更为传神。张应昌下笔果断，起笔轻易，粗中有细，速度之快，尤似一笔通天。故所以说其笔法不能称“画”，也不能谓“书”，只有用它的传统专用名字叫“撇”，即“撇符”才恰如其分。

第二次采集（2011年5月1日）

笔者曾草涂《端午节仪式符号研究》的拙作，参加“2011端午习俗国际学术研讨会”征文活动，得到了嘉兴市民间文艺家协会的重视。他们特地来电告知，认为该文很有特色，但略显单薄，最好还能增加一些分量，比如再作调查采集，内容上得到补充，观点更鲜明，论据更充分。笔者听后思考许久，感到难办，因为目前能撇符的老人实已难找。

正当为难，笔者却在一次到盐官春富镇拜访友人张鹿亭时，无意中见到了他家大门上贴着两张已经破旧、漶漫的灵符。笔者赶快问明情由，方知是出自斜桥镇东九旬高龄的散居道士王雪宝之手迹，是2010年端午节贴上去的。

张鹿亭平素里喜好堪舆之学、留意“风水”之说，与王雪宝一直有些往来。

笔者当即托张鹿亭与王雪宝联系，选定在5月1日登门拜访，采集撇符这一民俗事象。那天上门，王雪宝一身俗装，体格强健。相谈之后得知，他原来是前文所提的道士张应昌的师弟，平时家居，民间有祭祀，他就会合伙拜忏，穿着道衣戴著道巾做道场法事。当笔者提出请教“撇符”一事后，他满口答应，拿出了纸墨笔砚，不到半个小时撇了四张灵符。

王雪宝告诉笔者，灵符是镇邪恶之宝。他说，端午是个“鬼节”，五月之时鬼出来作恶，灵符上撇了“天神四将”，贴在大门上，鬼见了便逃。据王雪宝介绍，每张灵符的结构，分上、中、下三个部分组成。他说，灵符上端称谓“九笔符头”，必须由九笔完成，不可多一笔，也不可少一笔。灵符下端是正符人物“天神四将”，分别是三眼马（灵耀）天君，手持武器为戟；二是暴眼赵（元坛）天君，手拿武器为藤鞭；三是青面温（琼）天君，手持狼牙棒；四是岳（飞）天君，手握长枪。每张灵符中段盖有一枚“道经师宝”的大红印章，使之稳如泰山。端午节将灵符贴在门上，保护全家一年平安。目睹王雪宝的手艺，听了端午灵符的来由，笔者体会到了民俗文化的作用、地位和影响。

不过，笔者问起一直站在旁边看的王雪宝儿子王春光是否继承了父亲的技艺时，得到的回答是否定的，这使笔者感到有点遗憾。

进入国际论坛（2011年6月）

风俗内容的丰富与流行，是和原始崇拜、迷信禁忌有关，继而渗入神话传奇故事和对一些历史人物的纪念，融合凝聚了历史感和文化色彩。吴越端午风俗另起一端，应从纪念春秋伍子胥而展衍，源头远于纪念战国屈原。清雍正年间，海宁盐官建海神庙，祭祀治理潮患的五代吴越国钱和“潮神”、春秋吴国伍子胥，百姓将斜桥凌家亭子云林寺张六相公与伍子胥相提并论。道教曾将伍子胥以中华名将列忠武战神，百姓也就把张六相公以忠孝节义之士列人鬼之神、非正式纳入道教多神崇拜谱系，或称地方俗神。之后，云林寺庙祝也着道袍戴道巾，行一些道观仪轨，保留了“撇符”这一民俗事象。以前，“撇符”反映了民众文化心理，本质上是先人对世界的应付、对未来的思考；当下，这一活动更多地转为娱乐礼仪型，图个节日欢快喜庆、丰富多彩，并延续发展。

让人欣喜的是，海宁端午灵符已经引起了国际文化界的关注。

两年前，由中国民俗学会、嘉兴市人民政府主办了“2011端午习俗国际学术研讨会”。当时，中国民俗学会会长、中国社会科学院民族文学研究所所长、非物质文化遗产专家朝戈金以及65位来自日本、越南、马来西亚和全国各地的教授、学者出席了研讨会。

论坛上，笔者宣读了自己的论文《关于采集端午灵符的调查》。由于论文深入浅出、图文并茂，大会效果非常强烈，许多代表纷纷采访作者或座谈，都认为论文视点独特、图片珍贵、资料来之不易，评价较高。

会后，与会代表去桐乡乌镇考察民俗，日本东京大学教授吉川真司带着翻译专门有约，采访了笔者，要求今后多多联系，对海宁端午灵符这一民俗事象作进一步的研究。可以肯定，这种民俗事象将会越来越被有识之士所关注。

（除署名外，本文图片由作者提供）

Presentation on Symbols of Exorcism at International Forum

By Zhu Guanliang

Posting a portrait of Zhong Kui and exorcism symbols at Duanwu Festival， which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar Chinese calendar， is a tradition that goes back to ancient times. In folk faith in many parts of ancient China， the fifth month was a month of evils and the fifth day of the month was a day of devils. Exorcism symbols were a part of folk ritual on the day in many households. To find out exactly how local people do this， i have done two field studies in Haining， now a county-level city in northern Zhejiang Province.

First Field Study on the Festival in 1985

Local documentation records that there were about 340 temples of various sorts across Haining before 1949， the year the New China was founded. That was， there was a temple in almost every village. They disappeared gradually over decades. It was not until the 1980s that temples staged a comeback thanks to the adoption of a religious policy when the country began to open to the outside world again. Yunlin Temple， a village religious sanctuary， was constructed in 1985 with funds donated through private channels. The buddha worshiped at the temple is called Duke Zhang Liu. I visited the temple on Duanwu Festival shortly after the temple was opened.

Local legend has it that Zhang Liu， a general of the Song Dynasty （960-1279）， came to Haining in a bid to bring destructive tides under control. He died for the project. Local people built a temple in honor of the heroic general. In good old days， the sacrificial ceremony was a big event for local people from more than ten townships. During the ceremony， people paraded for three days， traveling about 50 kilometers in three days. And there were about 100 events. Tens of thousands of people participated. It was one of the biggest temple affairs in Haining.

Posting exorcism symbols was a popular practice in the neighborhood. On the day I visited， there was a leather-silhouette showoutside the temple， watched by a large audience. A long queue of people were waiting for their turns to get an exorcism symbol from an old Taoist in a side room of the temple. The old man drew a set of four symbol s every two or three minutes and distributed them fast.

While the Taoist took a break during the lunch time， i chatted with him. He was Zhang Yingchang. He declined to talk about himself. He said the temple was built thanks to the donations and endeavors of the local people. To express his appreciation， he had come to distribute exorcism symbols the first thing in the morning. He considered these symbols as the way he thanked local people. He explained that posting exorcism symbols on Duanwu Festival was a top priority of local people.

Zhang spent a lot of time explaining the custom and symbols to me. He said that local people believed in exorcising evils and devils during the Duanwu Festival. It was a folk faith and people just did it. As for the art of drawing symbols， he said practice makes perfect. I politely asked him to draw me some symbols. He gladly obliged， drawing a set of four. It took him about 8 minutes to create all four symbols. After finishing the drawing， he stamped the symbols with a red seal.

The four symbols look powerful. They are something between painting and calligraphy. Zhang Yingchang made them almost at one stroke. The four symbols are 26 years old now.

In 1985， he was one of the few people in Haining who knew how to create exorcism symbols. Now， twenty-six years later， in all probability， there is no one in Haining who is able to draw such symbols in a traditional way.

Second Field Study on May 1， 2011

Before the festival in 2011， i wrote a paper on symbols of exorcism in Haining and presented it to the organizing committee for qualifying to participate in the 2011 International Forum on Duanwu Customs. The paper was highly appreciated. I received a call from the Jiaxing Folk Artists Association and I was asked to flesh out the paper with more materials. I ran into difficulty， thinking it was extremely hard to locate a man specialized in drawing such symbols. However， i happened to see two symbols， which looked extremely old on the door of a friend i was visiting. I learned that they were created by Wang Xuebao， a Taoist in his 90s. The symbols were posted on the door on Duanwu Festival in 2010.

Through the arrangements of a friend， i made an appointment with Wang Xuebao and visited him on May 1. In good health， Wang still practiced Taoist ceremonies. It turned out that he and Zhang Yingchang had studied under the same master and he was junior to Zhang in seniority. He agreed without hesitation to create symbols. It took him less than 30 minutes to create a set of four symbols.

He elaborated on the symbols， explaining who these four gods were and how they exorcised devils and evils. I asked Wang Chunguang， a son of Wang Xuebao， if he inherited his father's art. Quite disappointingly he said no.

International Forum in June， 2011

In June 2011， i was invited to attend the international symposium. Participants included 65 domestic and international experts and scholars. I presented my paper. The paper caused a sensation. It was unanimously greed that the paper provided a unique angle and valuable pictures， which were hard to come by.

After the symposium， a Japanese professor chatted with me through an interpreter and he earnestly suggested we keep in touch in the future. He was eager to further the exploration of the subject.