关键词: 宋代笔记小说, 中元节, 盂兰盆会, 琐罗亚斯德教, 万灵节

Abstract: In the literary notes of the Song Dynasty, a series of customs related to the Zhongyuan Festival are recorded, including the use of cockscomb flowers to worship ancestors, the sale of sprouted seeds in containers, and the burning of offerings with fire. These customs cannot be explained solely through the traditional lens of the fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and folk practices. However, from a cross-cultural research perspective that brings in the cultural background of the Western Regions, it can be found that these festival customs hold many connections with the “All Souls’ Day” of ancient Persian Zoroastrianism. At the level of mythic thinking, the cockscomb flowers offered to ancestors symbolize the benevolent soul-guide deity Sraosha. In terms of fire worship, the integration of the Song Dynasty’s local fire gods with Zoroastrian fire gods contributed to the flourishing of fire rituals during the Zhongyuan Festival. Additionally, the All Souls’ Day ritual of lighting fires on rooftops to send off souls has been preserved in the Japanese O-Bon Festival’s “welcoming souls’ fire” and “sending-off souls’ fire” traditions. Regarding festival duration of, a “festival interval” beginning with the Qixi Festival and ending with the Zhongyuan Festival continues the “post-life” of “Adonis’s Garden,” composed of “wooden boards with grains,” “sprouted seeds in containers,” and “clay statues of children.” This also reflects the ancient Persian tradition of All Souls’ Day, which lasted several days. Against the Zhongyuan Festival phenomena that are difficult to explain through traditional cultural concepts, there lies the profound influence of ancient Persian Zoroastrian festival culture and mythic ideas, transmitted via Sogdian intermediaries and subsequently localized and folklorized in China.

Key words: literary notes of the Song dynasty, Zhongyuan Festival, O-Bon festival, Zoroastrianism, All Souls’ Day