唐代の改葬儀禮とその制度

Abstract

Reburial (gaizang 改葬) here means the removal of a previously constructed tomb to another location. In the Tang era, removal of a coffin that had been temporarily buried in one place for any of a variety of reasons and transfer to an ancestral cemetery were recognized as nearly obligatory by the sons and grandsons of the dead. Thus there were many cases of such reburial during the period. The main reasons for reburial were to bury a husband and wife who had died at different times or places together, to move the remains of a family member who died in a foreign land from a temporary tomb to an ancestral cemetery, to remove the dead who had been buried in an inconvenient place to a convenient location in order that the family of the deceased could maintain the tomb, and so on. It seems that such reburial received social support in the Tang era as the Da Tang Kaiyuan Li 大唐開元禮 contains the program for a reburial ceremony, and institutional support for reburial was established. For instance, a bureaucrat could apply for a furlough to rebury a parent. Nevertheless, scholars have seldom addressed the content of the system concerned with reburial or its operation. In this paper, the author surveys the contents of the reburial ceremony seen in the Da Tang Kaiyuan Li, and takes up the case of the reburial conducted by Quan Deyu 權徳輿, a bureaucrat of the middle Tang era. The author also examines the contents of the system and its practice, and the problems witnessed therein according to the written procedures. It becomes clear that, in order to rebury someone, it was necessary to apply in advance and report the purpose, the name of the entombed ancestor, the places of exhumation and reburial, the schedule, and the guardian of the coffin. Furthermore, one would also apply for a proxy to serve during one's leave of absence, posthumous honors for the entombed ancestor, and government aid for funeral service according to the ceremonial code ; and then authorities would issue permits for each of these. It is apparent that even for a high-level official such as Quan Deyu, a former prime minister, the mental and economic burden of reburial was very heavy. Nevertheless, there were many cases of reburial in the Tang era and behind this situation was probably the fact that the blood and territorial relationships of bureaucrats had weakened due to frequent personnel changes and transfers at that time. This was especially the case for one who belonged to the newly risen scholar bureaucrat class such as Quan Deyu, who had few close family members or relatives and who was not yet established a foundation to produce bureaucrats generation after generation. It can be surmised that behind the many reburials conducted during the period was the desire by individuals to enhance the prestige of their ancestors with posthumous honors, to improve the location of the ancestral cemetery through reburial, or to strengthen a relatively powerless family.