The Story of Lady Meng Jiang 孟姜女传说

时间：2006年
Date: 2006
类别：民间文学
Category: Folklore Literature
地区：山东
Region: Shandong Province
编号：Ⅰ—8
Project No. I-8
申报地区或单位：山东省淄博市
Name of Applicant (region or institution): Zibo City, Shandong Province
据《左传》“襄公二十三年”载：公元前550年（春秋时期，齐庄公四年）秋，齐国将军杞梁率兵攻打莒国(今山东莒县)，不幸身亡。其妻孟姜迎柩至郊外(齐长城与淄水交汇处，今淄博博山源泉镇北)。齐王欲在此处吊唁，孟姜抵制，要求按仪节到宫舍祭祀。杞梁安葬后，孟姜仍悲痛万分。过了200年，《檀弓》记载曾子对此事的说法谓：“其妻迎其柩于路而哭之哀。庄公使人吊之。”到西汉刘向的《说苑•善说篇》中出现了“其妻悲之，向城而哭，隅为之崩，城为之厄”的记载。《列女传》里出现了杞梁妻赴淄水(今源泉北)而死的情节。杞梁妻的事迹是为孟姜女传说原初的内容。孟姜女传说因其深厚的群众性，流传二千五百多年而不衰，流传地区遍及全中国，内容上也多有演变，本来是春秋齐国的杞梁妻（孟姜女），最终其悲剧命运却与秦始皇和秦长城联系了起来。但追根溯源，杞梁妻哭崩的杞国都城、投身自尽的淄水都在山东淄博一带。
According to recordings in the Tso Chuan: China’s Oldest Narrative History (the 23rd year during the reign of Duke Xiang), in autumn, 550 B. C. (the fourth year during the reign of Duke Zhuang, Qi Dynasty, Spring and Autumn Period), Qi Liang, a general of Qi, led an army to attack the State of Jü (now Jü County, Shandong Province) and was unfortunately killed. His wife Lady Meng Jiang came to the outskirts to receive the coffin cart (wher the Great Wall of Qi Zishui met, now the north side of Yuanquan Township, Boshan, Zibo City). The King of Qi was about pay tribute to the dead general but Lady objected to it and asked the sacrifice be done in the palace according to proper rituals and rules. After the burial, Lady Meng Jiang still appeared to be extremely saddened. After 200 years, Zeng Shen was recorded in The Record of Rituals: Tan Gong as saying: “his wife came to receive his coffin on the road and started wailing, so Duke Zhuang asked the tribute be paid to the general right there.” And in The Art of Speaking: Rhetoric by Liu Xiang in the West Han Dynasty, it was recorded as “his wife felt sad for him and burst into cry in the direction of the city wall and somehow the wall collapsed in a corner.” In The History of Women in Ancient China, there was a plot about the wife of Qi Liang who went to Zishui (now the north side of Yuanquan Township) and died. The story of the wife of Qi Liang was the original blueprint of the Story of Lady Meng Jiang. Due to its great popularity among the masses, the story has survived throughout over 2,500 years and circulated nationwide with much variation in content: originally, it was merely a story of the wife of Qi Liang (Lady Meng Jiang) in the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period, but over time the sad fate was associated with Emperor Qinshihuang and the Great Wall of Qin. Notwithstanding, the city wall of the State of Qi that had collapsed due to the crying of Qi Liang’s wife and the Zishui wher she drowned herself can be both traced to the area of Zibo of Shandong Province.
孟姜女传说流传的范围极广，据顾颉刚20世纪20年代的研究统计，该传说流传的省区包括：北京、河北、辽宁、山东、山西、河南、陕西、江苏、上海、安徽、浙江、湖北、湖南、福建、广东、广西、云南、四川、甘肃。有孟姜女相关遗迹的地方也很多，如山海关的姜女祠庙、姜女坟，辽宁绥中县姜女祠，河南杞县孟姜女庙，陕西哭泉及孟姜女庙，上海万喜良石像，山东博山姜女泉（4处）等。
The story of Lady Meng Jiang is really widespread. According to the statistics conducted by Gu Jiegang in the 1920’s, the area of circulation could have covered Beijing, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunan, Sichuan and Gansu. And the places wher related relics have been found are many: the Temple of Lady Meng Jiang and Grave of Jiangnv in Shanhai Pass, the Shrine of Jiangnv in Suizhong County, Liaoning Province, the Temple of Lady Meng Jiang in Qi County, Henan Province, the Wailing Spring and Temple of Lady Meng Jiang in Shaanxi Province, the Statue of Wan Xiliang in Shanghai, and the Spring of Jiangnü in Boshan, Shandong Province (four locations).
姜女的形象使人们认识到古代妇女的善良性格和战争带给人们的悲惨苦痛，表达了古代人民对战争的厌恶之情。孟姜女的故事在博山世代流传，“孟姜女哭长城”的民歌至今仍在博山民间传唱。西汉以前形成的“悲歌哀哭”这一与孟姜女传说有关的民俗，在博山民众中被一代代传承下来，至今博山中老年妇女仍是长歌代哭，以孟姜女传统曲调来寄托哀思。孟姜女式的哭腔在农村广泛流传，可以说形成了一种哭文化。
The image of Lady Meng Jiang reminds people of the kind disposition of women in the old times of China and the misery brought about by war, disclosing the hatred of people for war in ancient past. The story of Lady Meng Jiang has been circulating in the Boshan area generation after generation and the folklore of Lady Meng Jiang Wailing at the Great Wall is still being sung among folks in Boshan. The custom “saddening tunes and weeping voices” related to the Story of Lady Meng Jiang that had formed before West Han Dynasty has been passed down among the settlers in Boshan generation after generation. Up till today, the middle-aged and senior ladies of Boshan are even used to long-hour wailing instead of mere crying, in remembrance of sadness or worries in the traditional tunes of Lady Meng Jiang. The Lady Meng Jiang style of wailing has been widespread in the countryside and formed, so to speak, a culture of wailing.