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Transgression in Texts: Literary Quality of Qi from Tang Tales of Marvels to Wang Xiaobo’s Tang Tales
文本中的越界:从《唐人奇事》到王小波《唐人》中气的文学品质

by

Xiaowen Xu

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
符合哲学博士学位要求的论文

Graduate Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto
多伦多大学东亚研究研究生院

© Copyright by Xiaowen Xu 2014
© 版权所有 by Xiaowen Xu 2014

Transgression in Texts: Literary Quality of Qi from Tang Tales of Marvels to Wang Xiaobo’s Tang Tales
文本中的越界:从《唐人奇事》到王小波《唐人》中气的文学品质

Xiaowen Xu Doctor of Philosophy
徐晓雯 哲学博士

Graduate Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto
多伦多大学东亚研究研究生院

2014

ABSTRACT

The modern Chinese writer, Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997), retold three tales from the Tang dynasty (618-907) twice during the last two decades of the twentieth century. In this dissertation I examine the intertextual and intratextual relations between these tales and find that Wang Xiaobo’s efforts at literary adaptation belong to a long tradition of Chinese fiction writing in which the writer’s perceptions of the world are displayed through transformative experiments with language, genre, and reader’s expectations, experiments based on the pursuit of qi (“the marvelous”) in Chinese narrative literature.
中国现代作家王晓波(1952-1997)在二十世纪的最后二十年里两次重述唐朝(618-907)的三个故事。在这篇论文中,我考察了这些故事之间的互文关系和文本内关系,发现王小波在文学改编方面的努力属于中国小说写作的悠久传统,在这种传统中,作者对世界的感知通过对语言、体裁和读者期望的变革性实验来展示,这些实验基于中国叙事文学中对“奇”(“奇”)的追求。

The literary quality of qi was first associated with Tang chuanqi 傳奇, or Tang tales of marvels. The Tang literati made use of shared literary knowledge in writing the Tang tales, and by engaging a literary spirit of you (“freedom of roaming”) in transgressing generic restrictions imposed by their classical education, they were able to present new perspectives on their own world. I argue that it is the pursuit of the literary quality of qi in Tang tales that makes transgression possible for the Tang literati in textual, generic, and thematic terms.
气的文学品质首先与唐传气傳奇或唐朝奇迹故事有关。唐朝文人在撰写唐朝故事时利用了共享的文学知识,通过运用“游荡自由”的文学精神来打破他们古典教育所施加的一般限制,他们能够对自己的世界提出新的视角。我认为,正是对唐故事中“气”文学品质的追求,才使得唐朝文人有可能在文本上、通用上和主题上越界。

ii

Even though the literary quality of qi was domesticated and waned after the Tang dynasty, it persisted through the next twelve hundred years. I take an intertextual and intergeneric approach in analyzing selected texts by writers active in the centuries between the Tang literati and Wang Xiaobo, and find that writers who espouse the literary values of fiction help to preserve and enrich the literary quality of qi in their work. Wang Xiaobo continues the tradition of experimenting with shared literary and generic knowledge to achieve a sense of qi in his adaptations, adding to it a touch of postmodern irony. Wang Xiaobo revitalizes the literary power of qi as a means of two- fold transformation through which writing changes the writer, and reading changes the reader.
尽管气的文学品质在唐朝之后被驯化和减弱,但它在接下来的一千二百年中一直存在。笔者采用互文、跨类的方法,分析了唐代文人和王晓波之间几个世纪以来的作家的选文本,发现拥护小说文学价值的作家有助于在他们的作品中保存和丰富气的文学品质。王晓波在他的改编作品中延续了尝试共享文学知识和通用知识以实现气感的传统,并为其增添了一丝后现代的讽刺。王晓波重振了“气”的文学力量,将其作为一种双重转化的手段,通过这种转化,文字改变了作家,阅读改变了读者。

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
确认

While writing this dissertation I have incurred a multitude of debts of various sorts. The more material ones can be taken care of. The difficulty is with those debts of gratitude which can never be fully repaid.
在写这篇论文时,我背负了各种各样的债务。可以照顾的物质越多。困难在于那些永远无法完全偿还的感激之债。

My greatest debt is to my supervisor, Prof. Graham Sanders. Prof. Sanders has been my supervisor from the first day of my Ph.D. program at University of Toronto, and his original research on Meng Qi’s works in fact ignited my interest in reading the Tang prose narratives that contain poetic lines. I have benefited from his graduate courses on classical Chinese poetry, and from his generous, insightful, and unwavering guidance through all these years. I am grateful to Prof. Linda Hutcheon beyond words. Prof.
我最大的亏欠是我的导师格雷厄姆·桑德斯教授。桑德斯教授从我在多伦多大学攻读博士学位的第一天起就是我的导师,他对孟奇作品的原创性研究实际上激发了我阅读包含诗意台词的唐代散文叙事的兴趣。我从他的中国古典诗歌研究生课程中受益匪浅,这些年来,他慷慨、有见地、坚定不移的指导让我受益匪浅。我对Linda Hutcheon教授的感激之情溢于言表。教授。

Hutcheon has followed my toils with invariable patience and support, reading, reviewing, and revising this dissertation at different stages of its conception, giving me instructive and constructive advice in addition to invaluable encouragement. Without her, I would not be able to theorize my thoughts into any presentable shape. I would like to thank Prof. Yue Meng, who kindly spent numerous office hours discussing with me ever since the first time I proposed my thesis, and her wisdom and knowledge in the field of modern and contemporary Chinese literature have been greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank Prof. Christopher Lupke, my External Appraiser, for his positive review of my dissertation and for his specific advice on how to develop this manuscript into a publishable book script.
Hutcheon 以始终如一的耐心和支持关注我的辛勤工作,在构思的不同阶段阅读、审查和修改这篇论文,除了给予我宝贵的鼓励外,还给了我指导性和建设性的建议。没有她,我就无法将我的思想理论化成任何像样的形状。我要感谢岳萌教授,自从我第一次提出我的论文以来,她就花了大量的办公时间与我讨论,她在中国现当代文学领域的智慧和知识受到了极大的赞赏。我还要感谢我的外部评估员克里斯托弗·卢普克(Christopher Lupke)教授对我的论文的积极评价,以及他对如何将这份手稿发展成可出版的书稿的具体建议。

My special thanks also extend to Prof. Richard Lynn who introduced me to the literary beauty of classical Chinese language, to Prof. Hsiao-wei Wang Rupprecht who inspired me to read contemporary Chinese fiction, to Prof. Vincent Shen who led me to
我还要特别感谢Richard Lynn教授,他向我介绍了中国古典语言的文学之美,感谢Hsiao-wei Wang教授启发了我阅读当代中国小说,感谢Vincent Shen教授带领我阅读中国当代小说。

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study Chinese literature from perspectives of Chinese philosophical thinking, and to Prof. Johanna Liu whose advice on critical thinking in terms of art theories has been a great help. I am also greatly indebted to Prof. Pierre Giordan whose knowledge of works by Shen Congwen has benefited me greatly.
从中国哲学思维的角度研究中国文学,并请教刘约翰娜教授,他从艺术理论的角度对批判性思维的建议有很大的帮助。我也非常感谢Pierre Giordan教授,他对沈从文作品的了解使我受益匪浅。

I would like to thank Dr. Li Yinhe, who generously shared with me her memory of Wang Xiaobo when I interviewed her in 2009. She provided me the publication information regarding Wang Xiaobo’s Tales of the Tang People and The Bronze Age that
我要感谢李银河博士,她在2009年我采访王晓波时慷慨地与我分享了她对王晓波的记忆。她向我提供了有关王小波的《唐人故事》和《青铜时代》的出版资料。

confirmed many of my speculations on the intratextual relations between these two works. I am also grateful for the support of Dr. David Chu Travel Grant which made this interview possible.
证实了我对这两部作品之间文本内层关系的许多推测。我也感谢David Chu Travel Grant博士的支持,使这次采访成为可能。

I should also mention that I am deeply obliged to Prof. Allan Barr and Prof. Naoki Sakai, whose critical and encouraging responses to my presentations at two AAS regional conferences led me to explore into the research questions deeper in this dissertation.
我还应该提到,我非常感谢 Allan Barr 教授和 Naoki Sakai 教授,他们对我在两次 AAS 区域会议上的演讲的批评和令人鼓舞的回应使我深入探讨了本论文中的研究问题。

I would like to thank Dr. Spencer Morrison, who carefully copy-edited the draft of this dissertation just a few days before his own successful oral defence.
我要感谢斯宾塞·莫里森(Spencer Morrison)博士,他在自己成功的口头答辩前几天,仔细地编辑了这篇论文的草稿。

I would also like to thank my husband, Qing Mei, and my two kids, Ruoyu and William, for having supported my pursuit of this time-consuming, nerve-wracking project without ever questioning its feasibility.
我还要感谢我的丈夫青梅和我的两个孩子若雨和威廉,他们支持我进行这个耗时、令人伤脑筋的项目,从未质疑其可行性。

Last but not least, I would like to thank my father, Xu Minduo, and my mother, Zhang Jingxia, for their support. I would like to dedicate this work, immature as it is, to my mother, for her endless love and her undaunted hope all the time. She gave me life, in every sense of the word.
最后,我要感谢我的父亲徐敏多和我的母亲张静霞的支持。我想把这部不成熟的作品献给我的母亲,感谢她无尽的爱和她一直以来无畏的希望。她给了我生命,从任何意义上讲。

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Table of Contents
目录

Chapter I: Introduction1
第一章 引言 1

Chpater II: Tang Tales of Marvels: To Amaze the Everyday World with Qi17
Chpater II: Tang Tales of Marvels: To Marvele the Everyday World with Qi 17 (英语)

Chapter III: Qi Domesticated and Reduced57
第三章 气的驯化与还原 57

Chapter IV: Breaking the Bondage: Qi in Chinese Fiction of the 1980s and 1990s 92 Chapter V: The Tang People and Our Time: Qi in Wang Xiaobo’s Intertextual Travel
第四章 打破束缚——1980年代和1990年代中国小说中的气 92 第五章 唐人与我们的时代——王小波互文游记中的气

137

Chapter VI: Conclusion210
第六章 结语 210

Works Cited216
被引用的著作: 216

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List of Figures
图表一览

Fig. 1. Front Cover of Zhang Ailing, Chuanqi (Shanghai: Shanhe tushu company, 1947) Fig. 2. “Calamity will soon befall the Xie Empire” (燮國的灾難要降臨了)

Fig. 3. Comparison of “Kunlun Slave” and “No.1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave”
图 3.“昆仑奴”与“1号——立新街与昆仑奴”的比较

Fig. 4. Chapter Beginnings in Looking for Peerless
图 4.篇章开始于寻找绝世

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Chapter I Introduction
第一章 引言

A literary interest in the past characterizes the field of Chinese narrative fiction in the 1980s and 1990s, and among the many fictional narratives produced during this period, many display the writers’ perception over the bare events in the everyday world they live in. When a writer’s perception of these events appears as distinct from or even opposite to his/her reader’s surface impression of them, the writer’s words create for the reader a sense of fantasy. In this dissertation, by impression I refer to the superficial appearance of bare events that is seen through human eyes, and in contrast, by perception I refer to the more profound comprehension of those events through human imagination. This phenomenon in the Chinese literary field is not a new thing. It is indeed a revival of the literary quality of qi (the fantastic, the marvelous) in Chinese narrative literature.
1980年代和1990年代的中国叙事小说领域具有对过去的文学兴趣,在这一时期产生的众多虚构叙事中,许多作品展示了作家对他们所生活的日常生活中裸露事件的感知。当作家对这些事件的感知似乎与他/她的读者对这些事件的表面印象不同,甚至相反时,作家的文字就会为读者创造一种幻想感。在这篇论文中,我通过印象指的是通过人眼看到的裸露事件的肤浅表象,而与此相反,通过感知,我指的是通过人类的想象力对这些事件的更深刻的理解。这种现象在中国文学界并不是什么新鲜事。这确实是中国叙事文学中“气奇”(奇妙、奇妙)文学品质的复兴。

The Chinese character qi literally means the fantastic, and as a literary quality in narrative writing it was originally associated with Tang chuanqi 唐傳奇 in the Tang dynasty (618-907).
汉字“奇”的字面意思是幻想,作为叙事写作中的一种文学品质,它最初与唐代(618-907)的唐传奇有关。

In this dissertation I use “tales of marvels” to refer to chuanqi after consulting other scholars’ translations. The English term for Tang chuanqi has been various. Most scholars writing in English language choose to use the Chinese term’s English transliteration with a note to describe it. For example, James Hightower explains chuanqi as “transmitted marvels,”1 Karl S.
在这篇论文中,我在查阅了其他学者的翻译后,使用“奇迹的故事”来指代传气。唐传气的英文术语多种多样。大多数用英语写作的学者选择使用中文术语的英文音译来描述它。例如,詹姆斯·海托尔(James Hightower)将传气解释为“传播的奇迹”, 1 卡尔·

Y. Yao describes it as “accounts of the extraordinary;”2 William Nienhauser, Jr. describes it as
Y. Yao 将其描述为“非凡的叙述”; 2 William Nienhauser, Jr. 将其描述为

1 James Hightower, “The Story of Yingying,” in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 33 (1973) 90.
1 James Hightower,“莹莹的故事”,载于《哈佛亚洲研究杂志》33(1973)90。

2 Karl S. Y. Kao, Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Cenutry (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1985) 1.
2 Karl S. Y. Kao, Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tennutry (布卢明顿:印第安纳州,1985) 1.

1

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“transmissions of the strange, or transmissions of strange stories,”3 and Steven Owen describes it as “transmitting accounts of remarkable things.”4 Grahams Sanders both translates the term into English as “fantastic tales” and describes it as “transmitting the fantastic.”5 Precise are these descriptions are, they intend to cover all the tales in the genre. I choose to use “tales of marvels” to refer to chuanqi narrative mainly because such a term could best describe its aspect of transgression in everyday life, a feature that appeals to and inspires contemporary Chinese fiction writers such as Wang Xiaobo.
3 史蒂文·欧文(Steven Owen)将其描述为“传播非凡事物的叙述”。 4 格雷厄姆·桑德斯(Grahams Sanders)将该术语翻译成英语为“奇妙的故事”,并将其描述为“传递奇妙的故事”。 5 这些描述很准确,它们旨在涵盖该类型的所有故事。我之所以选择用“奇事”来指代川气叙事,主要是因为这样一个词最能描述它在日常生活中的越界性,这一特点吸引并启发了王小波等当代中国小说作家。

While tales of marvels acquired formal maturity in the Tang dynasty, some well-known tales
虽然奇迹的故事在唐朝获得了正式的成熟,但一些著名的故事
continued to be thought of as enduring and brilliant literary expressions
表达 式
of human fantasies. According
幻想。根据
to Lu Xun, “Fiction, like poetry, underwent radical changes in the Tang dynasty,” and these radical changes mainly
而这些根本性的变化主要是
were embodied in
具体体现在
qi, a literary quality with which the Tang writers deliberately invented strange adventures in exquisite literary words.
唐代作家们用精美的文学文字故意编造了奇特的冒险。
6 During the Tang dynasty, however,
然而,在唐朝,
tales of marvels made their debut more as a frivolous
轻浮
variant of official
的官方
historiography. The extant texts of Tang tales preserved in literary collections record the narratives of the tales themselves, often with frame stories describing the occasions that prompted the writer to transcribe the tale (usually told orally as part of casual conversation), and sometimes the responses from the tale’s primary and immediate audience at the time of its telling. All these elements embedded in the text of these fantastic tales have travelled over twelve hundred years
史学。现存的文学作品集中保存的唐童故事文本记录了故事本身的叙述,通常带有框架故事,描述了促使作者转录故事的场合(通常是作为随意交谈的一部分口头讲述),有时是故事的主要和直接受众在讲述故事时的反应。这些奇妙故事的文本中嵌入的所有这些元素已经穿越了一千二百多年

3 William Nienhauser Jr., “Tang Tales,” in Victor H. Mair ed., The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (New York: Columbia UP, 2001) 580.
3 William Nienhauser Jr., “Tang Tales”, in Victor H. Mair ed., The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (New York: Columbia UP, 2001) 580.

4 Stephen Owen (editor and translator), Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1992) 518.
4 斯蒂芬·欧文(主编、译者):《中国文学思想读物》(马萨诸塞州剑桥:哈佛大学出版社,1992年),第518页。

5 Graham Sanders, Words Well Put: Visions of Poetic Competence in the Chinese Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2006) 195.
5 格雷厄姆·桑德斯(Graham Sanders),《说得好的话:中国传统中的诗学能力愿景》(剑桥:哈佛大学出版社,2006年),第195页。

6 See Lu Xun 魯迅 (aka Zhou Shuren 周樹人,1881-1936), A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, trans. Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1930, 1959) 85. Lu Xun’s book divides the history of Chinese fiction by dynasties and correlates literary trends with historical and cultural changes in each dynasty. Though the book lacks detailed textual analysis of individual fictional works, it provides a profound contextualizion for the long history of Chinese fiction. The literary quality of qi in Tang tales of marvels is thoroughly discussed in Chapter II of my dissertation.
6 参见鲁迅(又名周书仁周乐人,1881-1936):《中国小说简史》,杨献义、杨淑仪译(北京外国出版社,1930年,1959年),第85页。鲁迅的书将中国小说的历史按朝代划分,并将文学趋势与每个朝代的历史和文化变迁联系起来。尽管该书缺乏对个别虚构作品的详细文本分析,但它为中国小说的悠久历史提供了深刻的语境化。在我的论文第二章中,关于唐人奇事中气的文学品质已经深入讨论过。

and reached Chinese writers of contemporary China, especially those who aspire to display not only their impressions, but also their perceptions of the everyday world. Among all the rich legacies Tang tales have left for Chinese fiction, the literary quality of qi as mediated through an author who hears then passes on a story especially inspires contemporary Chinese writers.
并影响了当代中国的中国作家,尤其是那些不仅渴望展示自己的印象,而且渴望展示他们对日常世界的感知的作家。在唐故事为中国小说留下的所有丰富遗产中,通过作者听到然后传递故事而产生的“气”的文学品质尤其激励着当代中国作家。

When displaying their perceptions in writing, Chinese fiction writers in the 1980s and 1990s looked back to various past moments from the vantage of the present. The past described in some fictional works may be as recent and short as the period of the People’s Republic of China until the Great Cultural Revolution (1949-1976), as far back as the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945), or even extending back as long as three millennia to the Warring States Period (476-221BC) right up to the 1990s.
1980年代和1990年代的中国小说作家在写作中展示他们的感知时,从现在的角度回顾了过去的各种时刻。一些虚构作品中描述的过去,可能短到中华人民共和国文化大革命(1949-1976年),有到抗日战争(1937-1945年),甚至有三千年前的战国时期(公元前476-221年)一直到1990年代。
7 In terms of critical reception of these works, however, the past
然而,就这些作品的批判性接受而言,过去
described
描述
in these narratives is often considered more historical than fictional in nature. One reason is that most Chinese fiction writers of this period, like their pre-modern precedents, are still under the spell of historiography, and they unconsciously take historiography as their ideal model
原因之一是,这一时期的大多数中国小说作家,就像他们的前现代先例一样,仍然被史学迷住了,他们在不知不觉中将史学作为自己理想的模式
of writing and ultimate
最终
goal of literary pursuit. Correspondingly, critics inside and outside of China are also inclined to interpret the past written by
中国以外的人也倾向于解读由过去所写的
these writers according to its relevance to official history. For example, Lin Qingxin argues that by subjectivizing history and representing the misrepresented in fictional works, some contemporary Chinese fiction writers provide a number of alternative or supplementary histories to the official histories, or
这些作者根据其与官方历史的相关性。例如,林庆新认为,通过对历史进行主观化,在虚构作品中表现被歪曲的事物,一些当代中国小说作家为官方历史提供了一些替代或补充的历史,或者
zhengshi 正史.8

7 To Live (1994) by Yu Hua tells of the vicissitudes of Fugui and his family from 1949 to 1990s. Red Sorghum (1987) by Mo Yan narrates a family’s history in the Anti-Japanese war from 1933 to 1945 as remembered and retold by the family’s members in 1980s. A Dictionary of Maqiao (1996) by Han Shaogong presents a local history in a lexicological form from the Warring States period to the 1990s with an implied first-person narrator from beginning to end.
7 于华的《活下去》(To Live 1994)讲述了1949年至1990年代福贵及其家人的沧桑变迁。 莫言的《红高粱》(1987)讲述了1933年至1945年一个家族在抗战中的历史,这些历史被1980年代的家族成员记住和重述。韩少功的《马桥大辞典》(1996)以词汇学的形式呈现了战国时期至1990年代的地方历史,自始至终以隐含的第一人称叙述者视角呈现。

8 Lin Qingxin’s Brushing History Against the Grain, published in 2005, provides a detailed survey of the “fiction of history.” He notes the traditional imitation among fiction writers of the historians, and gives credit to contemporary writers’ literary efforts to enhance literature by writing historiographic metafiction. Such an approach reinstates the promising literary quality of fiction shown in these works; however, it also paradoxically undermines the self-
8 林庆新2005年出版的《刷历史反粮》一书,对“历史的虚构”进行了详细的梳理。他指出了历史学家小说作家的传统模仿,并赞扬了当代作家通过撰写史学元小说来增强文学的文学努力。这种方法恢复了这些作品中表现出的小说的有前途的文学品质;然而,它也自相矛盾地破坏了自我。

Other than in this traditional reading of literary works as offering an historical alternative, however, the past in these fictional works and the way the past is displayed can be interpreted as a continuation of the pre-modern literary quality of qi in narrative writing. Yet for various reasons, this mode of reading from the perspective of qi is seldom given significant attention by contemporary critics, nor is it studied in depth when it is mentioned.
然而,除了这种传统的文学作品解读提供了一种历史选择之外,这些虚构作品中的过去和过去的展示方式可以被解释为叙事写作中前现代文学品质“气”的延续。然而,由于种种原因,这种从气的角度进行的阅读方式,却很少受到当代批评家的重视,在一提时也未得到深入研究。

The Critical Flaw in the Study of Contemporary Chinese Fiction
中国当代小说研究的批判缺陷

As with most scholarship relevant to contemporary China, the critical attention paid to fictional works that are rich in aesthetic values and literary significance has so far mostly focused on their social and political facets. Recent scholarship on historical and political aspects of contemporary Chinese fiction is especially strong and solid.9 The attention to the aesthetic values and literary significance of these works, however, is far from adequate. Writers who show more literary than political inclinations in their works are sometimes unfortunately ignored in the more sweeping critical discussions. Sometimes if these writers do attract critical attention, the critics’ focus is still more on elements that are extraneous to the narrative text. For example, writers like Ah Cheng 阿城, Mo Yan 莫言, Yu Hua 餘華, and Su Tong 蘇童 are often labelled contrastingly by critics as either “roots-searching” or “avant-garde”, yet such a divisive grouping approach
与大多数与当代中国相关的学术研究一样,对具有丰富审美价值和文学意义的虚构作品的批判性关注迄今为止主要集中在其社会和政治方面。近年来,关于中国当代小说的历史和政治方面的学术研究尤为强大和扎实。 9 然而,对这些作品的审美价值和文学意义的关注还远远不够。不幸的是,在他们的作品中表现出文学倾向而非政治倾向的作家,在更全面的批评讨论中有时会被忽视。有时,如果这些作家确实引起了评论界的关注,那么批评家的注意力仍然更多地集中在与叙事文本无关的元素上。例如,像阿城、莫言、于华和苏童这样的作家经常被评论家贴上“寻根”或“先锋派”的标签,但这种分裂的分组方法却是

reliance of their literary quality. In other words, the aesthetic end of fiction, or xiaoshuo 小說 in Chinese, is again reduced to nothing but a means to reach historical moral goals. His analysis applies well to most of the writers he reads except for Wang Xiaobo. Wang’s works, as will be shown in the final part of this dissertation, overwhelm any thought of historiographical reference. Instead, their literary edge is so sharp that history, whenever mentioned, is treated more as fictional than as historical.
依赖他们的文学品质。换言之,小说的审美目的,或者说中文中的“小说”,再次被简化为只不过是达到历史道德目标的手段。他的分析适用于他读过的大多数作家,除了王晓波的作品,正如本论文的最后一部分将要展示的那样,他压倒了任何史学参考的思想。相反,他们的文学优势如此敏锐,以至于每当提到历史时,人们更多地被视为虚构的,而不是历史的。

9 In addition to Lin Qingxin’s criticism, Howard Y.F. Choy’s Remapping the Past: Fictions of History in Deng’s China, 1979-1997, published in 2008, also provides a critical sketch of literary interest in the past in fictions of history. He integrates cultural and political implications into his textual analysis of writers like Han Shaogong, Mo Yan, Zhang Chengzhi, Ge Fei, Wang Anyi, Su Tong, and many others, yet he somehow forgets to mention Wang Xiaobo, whose presence would trouble the historical quality of his argument. Dr. George Andrew Stuckey in his 2005 UCLA dissertation “Memory, Tradition, History: Ties to the Past in Modern Chinese Fiction,” applies Naoki Sakai’s translation theory of configuration to his reading of the traditional inheritance within modern and contemporary fiction, and as a result we see more literary aspects explored; yet his efforts are still very much overwhelmed by the focus on historical background for each work in his discussion.
9 除了林庆新的批评,2008年出版的霍华德·崔玉辉(Howard Y.F. Choy)的《重绘过去:邓的中国历史小说,1979-1997》也对历史小说中过去的文学兴趣进行了批判性勾勒。他在对韩少功、莫言、张承志、葛飞、王安仪、苏桐等作家的文本分析中融入了文化和政治含义,但他不知何故忘记提到王晓波,他的出现会影响他论点的历史质量。乔治·安德鲁·斯塔基博士在2005年加州大学洛杉矶分校的论文《记忆、传统、历史:现代中国小说中与过去的联系》中,将酒井直树的翻译配置理论应用于他对现当代小说中传统传承的解读,因此我们看到了更多的文学方面被探索;然而,他的努力仍然被他讨论中每部作品的历史背景的关注所淹没。

reveals little about overlapping literary and aesthetic values in their fiction writing. Or, even worse, writers who reject critical cages are duly deprived of any serious critical attention and the possible legitimacy associated therewith.
在他们的小说写作中,几乎没有揭示出重叠的文学和审美价值。或者,更糟糕的是,拒绝批评笼子的作家被适当地剥夺了任何严肃的批评关注以及与之相关的可能的合法性。

Wang Xiaobo 王小波 (1952-1997) typifies these critically-ignored writers. His fictional works and literary essays find sympathetic readers among Chinese intellectuals, and yet influential Chinese critics pay him little heed at best. The response is reciprocated, as the writer himself refuses to be categorized in any “circle of literature.” His posthumous idolization by young Chinese high school and university students has not won him significant critical attention either. For this reason, even though his unique re-writing of a few well-known Tang tales of marvels enriches the literary quality of qi greatly, the literary values of fantasy in his writing remain to be discovered and discussed.
王小波(1952-1997)就是这些被批判性忽视的作家的典型代表。他的虚构作品和文学散文在中国知识分子中找到了同情的读者,但有影响力的中国评论家充其量很少关注他。这种反应是相互的,因为作家本人拒绝被归类到任何“文学圈”中。他死后被年轻的中国高中生和大学生崇拜,也没有为他赢得重要的评论界关注。因此,尽管他独特地改写了几部著名的唐人奇事,极大地丰富了气的文学品质,但奇幻在他笔下的文学价值仍有待发现和探讨。

The preference for discussing social and political facets of contemporary Chinese fiction rather than the aesthetic and literary values of the fiction itself indicates a critical partiality in academic
偏爱讨论中国当代小说的社会和政治方面,而不是小说本身的审美和文学价值,这表明了学术界的批判偏向性
studies on Chinese fiction. An awareness
意识
of the dangers of such a critical
危急
partiality has recently alerted some scholars to potential flaws and inspired them to offer more discussions of alternative approaches to the Chinese fiction of today. In
最近,一些学者注意到了潜在的缺陷,并激发了他们对当今中国小说的替代方法的更多讨论。在
Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences
虚构的作者,虚构的观众
published in 2003, Bonnie S. McDougall points out “a persistent methodological problem” when describing
在2003年出版的Bonnie S. McDougall在描述时指出了“一个持续存在的方法论问题”
the state of Chinese
的中文
fiction criticism in the English-speaking
英语中的小说批评
world in the twentieth century. She asks: “To what extent can literature, especially fiction, provide observers with reliable information about the political, economic and social realities of its time?”
二十世纪的世界。她问道:“文学,尤其是小说,能在多大程度上为观察者提供有关当时政治、经济和社会现实的可靠信息?
10 Her answer is: very little. The question
问题
implies
意味 着
that the motivation for English-speaking scholars
讲英语的学者
to study modern and contemporary Chinese fiction lies in something
东西
more than, or other than, the literary. As a result, comparatively speaking, the literary quality of narrative texts has
除了文学。因此,相对而言,叙事文本的文学品质具有

10 Bonnie S. McDougall, Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences (Hong Kong: The Chinese UP, 2003) 11.
10 Bonnie S. McDougall,《虚构的作者,想象的观众》(香港:华人出版社,2003年) 11.

been the least discussed aspect of modern and contemporary Chinese fiction in English-language critical scholarship on the subject.
在关于这个主题的英语批评学术中,这是现当代中国小说中讨论最少的方面。

A critical preference for social and political facets over aesthetic and literary values in fictional texts is not only common, but even intrinsic to the historical study of Chinese fiction both inside and outside of China. For example, when speaking of periodization of Chinese literary
在虚构文本中,对社会和政治方面的批判性偏爱而非审美和文学价值,不仅是普遍的,而且甚至是中国国内外中国小说历史研究的内在特征。例如,当谈到中国文学的分期时
history, it is almost universally
普遍
agreed that the term “modern period” generally means the period from 1919 to 1949. Two events, more of a social and political nature than a literary one, took place in those two years: the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on the mainland in 1949. The term “contemporary period” refers to the period from 1949 to the present. However, due to the lack of surviving literary production from mainland China during the Great Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the contemporary period in the mainland Chinese literary field is
从1919年到1949年。在这两年中,发生了两件大事,与其说是文学性的,不如说是社会和政治性的:1919年的五四运动和1949年在大陆中华人民共和国的成立。“当代”一词是指从1949年至今的时期。然而,由于文化大革命(1966-1976)期间中国大陆幸存的文学作品的缺乏,中国大陆文学领域的当代时期是
de facto
事实上
a period mainly represented by the three decades since 1978, the year when “Chinese Economic Reform” was started by Deng Xiaoping
这一时期主要以1978年以来的三十年为代表,1978年邓小平开始了“中国经济改革”
(1904-1997).

While historical events can arguably be clearly labelled and dated, literature is by nature not a clear-cut process and resists the imposition of fixed categories. Instead, its history is gradual and ambiguous, sometimes sporadic and contingent. For example, in the above- mentioned periodization of modern and contemporary Chinese fiction, the modern actually finds its beginning as early as the late imperial period at the end of the nineteenth century; and in the contemporary designation, some aspects of literary movements are repeatedly identified as a continuation, an echo, or a revival of some literary efforts of the 1930s.11 A social and historical
虽然历史事件可以说可以被清楚地标记和确定日期,但文学本质上不是一个明确的过程,并且抵制强加固定的类别。相反,它的历史是渐进的和模糊的,有时是零星的和偶然的。例如,在上述中国现当代小说的分期中,现代其实早在19世纪末的帝制晚期就开始了;在当代名称中,文学运动的某些方面被反复确定为 1930 年代某些文学努力的延续、回声或复兴。 11 社会和历史

11 For the literary continuation from pre-modern to modern and contemporary, refer to Milena Doleželová- Velingerová, ed. The Appropriation of Cultural Capital:China’s May Fourth Project (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2001). Chen Pingyuan also touches upon the topic of the continuation of literary tradition in modern China in his numerous essays and books, the most insightful and inspirational parts of which are collected in Chen’s Ershi shiji zhongguo xiaoshuo shi diyi juan (1897-1916) 二十世紀中國小說史, 第[A History of Twentieth-century
11 关于从前现代到现代和当代的文学延续,请参考Milena Doleželová-Velingerová编辑。《文化资本的挪用:中国的五四工程》(剑桥:哈佛大学出版社,2001年)。陈平远在他的众多文章和著作中也谈到了近代中国文学传统的延续这一话题,其中最有见地和启发的部分收录在陈的《二十世纪史》第一卷中。

approach to literature therefore contributes more to our knowledge of the extraneous study of literature than to our critical study of meanings produced by the literary works themselves. The drawback of such an approach lies in the priority given to what is external to the narrative text, for the critical focus on such elements outside the narrative text often turns the discussion toward explaining how a certain literary work is determined by the writer, by the writer’s life, and by the writer’s time, and often toward fashioning a critical account of how a literary work can mimetically represent the actual world in the time when that literary work was produced. The writer’s own literary perceptions and aesthetic gestures expressed in the narrative text are then pushed into a corner and given little attention.
因此,对文学的态度比我们对文学作品本身所产生的意义的批判性研究更有助于我们对文学作品本身所产生的知识的认识。这种方法的缺点在于优先考虑叙述文本之外的东西,因为对叙述文本之外的这些元素的批判性关注往往使讨论转向解释某种文学作品如何由作者、作家的生活和作家所处的时代决定,并往往倾向于对文学作品如何模仿地表现现实世界的批判性描述。那部文学作品产生的时间。作家自身在叙事文本中表达的文学观念和审美姿态,则被推到墙角,很少受到关注。

A critical focus on elements external to the narrative text may help answer questions about why a writer writes in a certain generic tradition, and why he/she selects a certain topic to write on; yet it explains little about how the writer makes the specific work appealing to readers of his/her own age, or even to those of future ages. Such an external focus sheds little light on why the text connects the writer and his/her readers in terms of shared literary competence.12 Indeed, for those authors who write more to expand the aesthetic aspects of a literary tradition than to produce its social and political extensions, it can hardly do justice to their works’ textual values if a reader only looks for the social and political meanings in them. The reader may fail to appreciate the generic continuation within which these texts were written, and may hardly see the beautiful formal tapestry of the text into which the writers skillfully weave their perceptions.
对叙述文本外部元素的批判性关注可能有助于回答以下问题:为什么作家以某种通用传统写作,以及他/她为什么选择某个主题进行写作;然而,它几乎没有解释作者如何使特定作品吸引他/她自己这个时代的读者,甚至未来时代的读者。这种外部关注并不能揭示为什么文本在共同的文学能力方面将作者和他/她的读者联系起来。 12 事实上,对于那些写作更多是为了扩展文学传统的审美方面而不是产生其社会和政治延伸的作者来说,如果读者只是寻找其中的社会和政治意义,那么他们作品的文本价值就很难得到公正的评价。讀者可能無法欣賞這些文本寫成的一般繼續,也許幾乎難以看見作者巧妙地館入他們的知見的美麗的正式條圍。

Chinese Fiction, vol. I. 1897-1916], published in 1989, and Zhongguo xiaoshuo xushi moshi de zhuanbian 中國小說叙事模式的轉[Changes in Narrative Modes of Chinese Fiction], published in 2003.
《中国小说》卷。1897-1916],1989年出版,2003年出版的《中国小说叙事模式的变化》。

12 I borrow part of the concept of literary competence from Jonathan Culler in his Structuralist Poetics (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1975), mainly his usage of the term as referring to an awareness of the conventions, genres and rules which is required for an understanding of literature. Graham Sanders’ work on literary competence in poetry performance in pre-modern China explores the concept in the Chinese context. See Graham Sanders, Words Well Put: Visions of Poetic Competence in the Chinese Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2006).
12 我从乔纳森·库勒(Jonathan Culler)的《结构主义诗学》(伊萨卡:康奈尔大学,1975年)中借用了文学能力的部分概念,主要是他对这个词的使用,指的是对理解文学所必需的惯例,体裁和规则的认识。格雷厄姆·桑德斯(Graham Sanders)在《前现代中国诗歌表演中的文学能力》一书中,探讨了中国语境中的这一概念。参见格雷厄姆·桑德斯(Graham Sanders),《词语好:中国传统中的诗意能力愿景》(剑桥:哈佛大学出版社,2006年)。

The artistry of textual tapestry, however, is precisely where a reader can see how the writer connects himself/herself to a tradition of genre, to his/her reader, and to his/her own perceptions of his/her world. For example, in Wang Xiaobo’s repeated efforts to rewrite Tang tales of marvels, one can see his special interest and undaunted efforts in showing his perception in a distinctively artistic way. Writers classified into groups also have made unique contributions to the reservoir of artistic forms of presenting perception in words. From the “root-searching”
然而,文本挂毯的艺术性恰恰是读者可以看到作家如何将自己与体裁传统、与他/她的读者以及他/她自己对他/她的世界的看法联系起来的地方。例如,在王晓波一再改写唐朝奇迹故事中,人们可以看到他在以独特的艺术方式展示他的感知时的特殊兴趣和无畏的努力。被分类的作家也对用文字呈现感知的艺术形式的储备做出了独特的贡献。从“寻根”开始

trend in the 1980s to “avant-garde” experimentation starting in the 1990s, and reaching even further into the twenty-first century, these critically grouped authors write in close yet different intertextual relations to the tradition of literary
从1990年代开始,1980年代趋向于“先锋派”实验,并进一步进入21世纪,这些批判性分组的作者在与文学传统的互文关系中写作,但又有所不同
fantasy in classical Chinese fiction. For example, the narrative in
在中国古典小说中。例如,中的叙述
The King of Chess
国际象棋之王
(棋王 Qiwang) (1986) by Ah Cheng centers on the protagonist’s
) (1986) by Ah Cheng 以主角的
self-identity as rooted in a game of Chinese chess that is symbolic of the traditional Chinese philosophy of Daoism. “Classical Love” (
中国传统的道教哲学。“古典爱情”(
古典愛情
古典爱情
Gudian aiqing) (1986) by Yu Hua narrates a lasting romance between a member of the pre-modern Chinese literati and a fair maiden in a typically disinterested tone characteristic only of modern times, a tone that both subverts and consolidates a sense of fantasy in the clichéd romance. Su Tong literally flaunts historiography with his historical fantasy in
) (1986) 由俞华以现代特有的典型无私语气讲述了前现代中国文人与窈窕淑女之间的持久浪漫,这种语气既颠覆又巩固了陈词滥调的浪漫中的幻想感。苏桐在《苏通》中以他的历史幻想来炫耀史学。
My Life as an Emperor
我的皇帝生活
(我的帝王生涯 Wode diwangshengya) (1992) and boldly connects the narrative in his fiction more with the art of music and the lyric than with any factual record of an emperor’s life. These “grouped” writers may not be as immune to the spell of historiography as Wang Xiaobo, but their unique literary ways of constructing fantasy in words are not fully captured by their labels and merit more significant critical attention.
)(1992)并大胆地将他的小说中的叙述与音乐和歌词的艺术联系起来,而不是与皇帝生活的任何事实记录联系起来。这些“群体化”的作家或许不如王小波那样不受史学魔咒的束缚,但他们独特的文字建构幻想的文学方式并未被他们的标签完全捕捉,值得更深层次的批评关注。

Methodology in this Dissertation: Textual Analysis and Intertextual Analogies
本论文的方法论:文本分析与互文类比

My dissertation aims to devote more critical attention to the literary values of Chinese fiction of the 1980s and 1990s, with a focus on the writers’ artistry in composing fantasy in words. It dissects the artistic tapestry of the narrative text in light of generic developments and intertextual references. Chinese writers of the 1980s and 1990s write at virtually the end of a long tradition of Chinese fiction that originated more than a millennium ago. In the centre of my discussion is the literary quality of qi; this quality is embodied in the writers’ use of linguistic and generic knowledge to portray their unique perception of the world in their respective texts.
我的论文旨在对1980年代和1990年代中国小说的文学价值给予更多的批判性关注,重点关注作家在用文字创作幻想的艺术性。它根据一般的发展和互文引用来剖析叙述文本的艺术挂毯。1980 年代和 1990 年代的中国作家几乎是在起源于一千多年前的悠久中国小说传统的末期写作。我讨论的中心是气的文学品质;这种品质体现在作者使用语言学和通用知识来描绘他们在各自文本中对世界的独特感知。

Indeed, the narrative text is where we find answers to the basic research questions in this dissertation. As human beings we like to hear stories, and we love to read these stories in written form, too, as if by doing so we could freeze the flux of meanings implanted in the narrative text by the writing hand. The text seems to be the straightforward medium of communication between the writer and the reader. However, it is also a fact that the meanings contained in the text continue to shift constantly through readerly interpretation. Different readers find different meanings in the text, and sometimes the same text produces different meanings for the same reader at different times and places. Human efforts to freeze the flux of meaning more often than not make the flux of meaning more active than before.
事实上,叙述性文本是我们在这篇论文中找到基础研究问题的答案的地方。作为人类,我们喜欢听故事,我们也喜欢以书面形式阅读这些故事,仿佛这样做可以冻结写作之手在叙述文本中植入的意义流动。文本似乎是作者和读者之间直接交流的媒介。然而,一个事实是,文本中包含的含义通过读者的解释不断变化。不同的读者在文本中找到不同的含义,有时相同的文本在不同的时间和地点对同一读者产生不同的含义。人类冻结意义流动的努力往往使意义流动比以前更加活跃。

In the field of fiction, the meanings that a writer implants in his/her writing are from his/her impressions or perceptions of his/her world. If a writer puts his/her impressions of his/her world in the text, the meanings are at least true to the surface details of that world. As a result, it is possible and easy for the reader to find references to the actual world so as to fix the flux of
在小说领域,作家在他/她的写作中植入的意义来自他/她对他/她的世界的印象或感知。如果一个作家把他/她对他/她的世界的印象放在文本中,那么其含义至少是真实的,即那个世界的表面细节。因此,读者可以且轻松地找到对现实世界的引用,从而固定

meanings. If it is the writer’s perceptions of the world that he/she inserts into the writing, then it is more challenging for the reader to comprehend the writer’s message, for compared with
意义。如果他/她在作品中插入的是作者对世界的看法,那么与写作相比,读者理解作者的信息更具挑战性。

impressions, the writer’s perceptions are farther from the surface of the writer’s world, and thus rely more on the writer’s literary talents in representing the imagined. How much and in what
印象,作家的感知与作家世界的表层相去甚远,因此更多地依赖作家的文学才能来表现想象。多少,在什么

way the meanings are picked up by the reader will then depend heavily upon how much the reader’s existent literary knowledge overlaps with that of the writer.
因此,读者如何理解这些意义,将在很大程度上取决于读者现有的文学知识与作者的文学知识有多少重叠。

In fiction that aims to display the writer’s perceptions of the world, there is therefore a gap between the writer’s message and the reader’s reception of that message. The gap lies in the text, where the writer leaves his/her message for the reader to interpret. In this dissertation I explore this gap in some contemporary Chinese fictional works, analyzing how a writer encodes his/her message in literary words and in the context of literary traditions; and simultaneously I discuss how much and in what way a reader picks up a writer’s message and decodes that message into valid meanings in the reading process.
因此,在旨在展示作家对世界的看法的小说中,作家的信息与读者对该信息的接收之间存在差距。差距在于文本,作者将他/她的信息留给读者解释。在这篇论文中,我探讨了中国当代小说作品中的这一差距,分析了作家如何在文学语言和文学传统的背景下编码他/她的信息;同时,我讨论了读者在多大程度上以及以何种方式接受作者的信息,并在阅读过程中将该信息解码为有效的含义。

The reader’s act of reading can help validate meanings in the gaps texts create. On the one hand, in the act of reading, the writer and the reader share some of their knowledge regarding language styles, narrative perspectives, and generic features in the text, but not at the same time. The reader’s act of reading eliminates the limitations created by the temporal space between the moment of writing and the moment of reading. The reader and the writer thus find a common ground on which to construct meanings together across time. On the other hand, if the reader’s knowledge of language styles, narrative perspectives, and generic features are different from that of the writer’s, then the reader’s act of reading leads to a new space that might generate new
读者的阅读行为可以帮助验证文本造成的空白中的含义。一方面,在阅读行为中,作者和读者在文本中分享他们关于语言风格、叙述视角和通用特征的一些知识,但不是同时分享。读者的阅读行为消除了写作时刻和阅读时刻之间的时间空间造成的限制。因此,读者和作者找到了一个共同点,在这个基础上,跨越时间共同构建意义。另一方面,如果读者对语言风格、叙述视角和通用特征的了解与作者不同,那么读者的阅读行为就会引向一个新的空间,而这个空间可能会产生新的

meanings. These new meanings might not be consistent with the writer’s original perceptions, but they are still valid in the reader’s interpretation. Whichever the case, a common desire in both the writer and the reader to cross the lines that divide the reader and the writer in time, space, and meaning-production is implicit in the reader’s act of reading.
意义。这些新的含义可能与作者的原始认知不一致,但它们在读者的解释中仍然是有效的。无论哪种情况,作者和读者都渴望跨越读者和作者在时间、空间和意义生产上的分界线,这隐含在读者的阅读行为中。

For example, a member of the literati in the Tang dynasty who writes down a tale of marvels may share with all his readers, in the Tang dynasty as well as a thousand years later, a common understanding and acceptance of the generic requirements for factuality in writing a
例如,一个唐代文人写下了一个奇迹故事,可以与唐代以及一千年后的所有读者分享,对写作中对事实的一般要求的共同理解和接受。

“biography,” in which a person’s factual life is recorded in a formal and straightforwardly
“传记”,其中以正式和直截了当的方式记录了一个人的真实生活
written Chinese literary language. Similarly, the Tang writer may also share with his readers across time a belief that a poem in the tradition of the “Chu lyrics
书面中国文学语言。同样,唐代作家也可能与跨时代的读者分享一种信念,即一首诗在“楚抒情诗”的传统中
楚辭
楚辞
” needs to go beyond impressions of this world and roam freely
“需要超越对这个世界的印象,自由漫游
into a realm of visionary images and perceptions. Or
图像和感知。或
it might happen that the Tang writer breaks away from the restrictions of literary convention and starts to establish his/her own stance in the text. In this case, the writer could only use his/her unique
也许,唐代作家摆脱了文学惯例的束缚,开始在文本中确立自己的立场。在这种情况下,作者只能使用他/她的唯一
literary talents
人才
distilled in the text to persuade his/her readers, both his contemporary ones and those of today, to accept his stance as it is. If the writer persuades the reader in the act of reading, as is the case of a number of Tang tales of marvels, then it is safe to say that the reader of the texts also joins in the procedure of breaking down those restrictions of shared past knowledge
那些和今天的人,接受他的立场。如果作者在阅读行为中说服了读者,就像一些唐朝的奇迹故事一样,那么可以肯定地说,文本的读者也加入了打破那些共享的过去知识限制的过程
, of convention.
公约。
Ultimately
最终
, all answers can be and should be found in textual analysis and intertextual analogies.
分析和互文类比。

Objectives of this Dissertation
本论文的目标

This dissertation singles out the literary quality of qi in fiction as a thread in the long tradition of Chinese fiction writing and traces its fluctuations from the Tang dynasty to the end of the last century, during which the literary quality of qi takes lively and productive forms in Wang Xiaobo’s tales adapted from texts from the Tang dynasty. As one of the essential aesthetic aspects of the tradition of classical Chinese fiction, the literary quality of qi is, however, often marginalized and repressed in that tradition. Writers engaging and producing the literary quality of qi in their fiction often provide readers with a new perspective on the factual surface of life.
本论文将小说中气的文学品质作为中国小说写作悠久传统的一条线索,追溯了从唐代到上世纪末的起伏,在此期间,气的文学品质在汪小波根据唐代文本改编的故事中呈现出生动而富有成效的形式。作为中国古典小说传统中必不可少的审美方面之一,气的文学品质却在古典小说传统中往往被边缘化和压抑。作家在小说中运用和制造气的文学品质,往往为读者提供了一个关于生活事实表面的新视角。

Instead of slavishly recording a writer’s impressions of the world, qi helps the writer express his/her perceptions of what he/she believes underlies and often subverts the world’s surface. Sometimes, with help of qi, a writer also vividly displays his/her imagination about the world
“气”不是盲目地记录作家对世界的印象,而是帮助作家表达他/她对他/她所认为的事物的感知,这些事物是世界表面的基础,并且往往颠覆了世界的表面。有时,在气的帮助下,作家也生动地展示了他/她对世界的想象

clearly in words. In other words, qi is the writer’s fantasy in words. Furthermore, qi also encourages a reader to distance himself/herself from a surface impression of the world, and subsequently opens a communication channel in the text that connects the writer of fantasy and the reader of fantasy.
清楚地用言语表达。换言之,“气”是作家用文字表达的幻想。此外,“气”还鼓励读者与世界的表面印象保持距离,并随后在文本中打开了一个连接幻想作家和幻想读者的交流渠道。

When a writer integrates his/her interest in the literary past into his/her narrative text, this shows some part of the literary quality of qi; and when a reader is lured by such an interest into a reading journey to discover that literary quality, the following questions will be asked: Why does a certain writer choose a certain tradition to follow or respond to? In what relation does he or she hold his or her own world, temporally and spatially, with regards to the past world he or she observes? How do cultural and literary meanings in the source text travel through time and still provoke smiles of recognition from today’s readers, inspiring contemporary readers to relate the text to their own world? And ultimately, how does a contemporary writer adapt the pre-modern texts and reset them into a contemporary literary structure whose meanings break away from limits of historical time in the eye of beholding readers?
当一个作家将他/她对文学过去的兴趣融入到他/她的叙述文本中时,这显示了一部分文学品质 当读者被这种兴趣所吸引,进入阅读之旅以发现这种文学品质时,就会提出以下问题:为什么某个作家会选择某种传统来遵循或回应?他或她在时间和空间上,与他或她所观察的过去世界有什么关系?原文中的文化和文学意义如何穿越时空,仍然引起当今读者的认可微笑,激励当代读者将文本与自己的世界联系起来?归根结底,一个当代作家又是如何改编前现代文本,并将它们重置为一种当代文学结构的,这种结构的意义在旁观者眼中突破了历史时间的限制?

To be more specific, I answer the following research questions in the next five chapters.
更具体地说,我将在接下来的五章中回答以下研究问题。

How does the literary quality of qi both help traditional Chinese fiction to develop its generic independence with the production of the tales of marvels in the Tang dynasty, as well as allow these tales to remain inspirational for Chinese fiction writers and readers of today? How does the literary quality of qi travel through the centuries across prose, poetry, and even drama, to reach the field of China prose fiction in the 1980s and 1990s? When Wang Xiaobo picks a few Tang tales to rewrite first in the 1980s and then again in the 1990s, what has he transformed in his two sets of texts based on the same pre-modern source texts? In spite of his own claim that he
“气”的文学品质如何通过唐代奇事故事的产生,帮助中国传统小说发展其通用独立性,同时又让这些故事对今天的中国小说作家和读者保持鼓舞?气的文学品质是如何穿越几个世纪,穿越散文、诗歌甚至戏剧,到达1980年代和1990年代的中国散文小说领域?当汪小波先是选取几个唐童故事在1980年代改写,然后在1990年代再改写时,他基于相同的前现代源文本的两套文本改变了什么?尽管他自己声称他

belongs to no “circle of literature,” is there any shared artistic pursuit in terms of literary fantasy between Wang Xiaobo and his contemporaries who somehow display similar interest in the
不属于任何“文学圈”,在文学幻想方面,王小波与同时代的人们之间,是否存在任何共同的艺术追求,他们不知何故对文学幻想表现出相似的兴趣。

literary past of pre-modern China? In what specific ways have Wang Xiaobo and those contemporary Chinese fiction writers discussed in this dissertation continued and enriched the long literary tradition to portray perceptions in addition to mere impressions of the everyday world in fiction? Can these writers and their writing, like the Tang tales that gave them such inspiration, find resonance in the next generation and beyond?
前现代中国的文学史?王晓波和本论文中讨论的那些中国当代小说作家,在哪些具体方面延续和丰富了悠久的文学传统,即在小说中描绘除了对日常世界的单纯印象之外的感知?这些作家和他们的作品,就像给他们带来如此灵感的唐故事一样,能否在下一代及以后找到共鸣?

This dissertation is neither a comprehensive historical study of the genre of fiction in the Chinese
这篇论文既不是对中国小说体裁的综合历史研究,也不是对中国小说体裁的全面历史研究
context, nor is it a comprehensive survey of all Wang Xiaobo’s life and works. Rather, it aims to answer more specific questions
问题
based on close textual reading and intertextual analogy in the reading process. The research questions answered here are not so general as to cover all the generic features of Chinese fiction; nor will these questions be exclusively
在阅读过程中。这里回答的研究问题并不笼统,以至于涵盖了中国小说的所有通用特征;这些问题也不会完全是
related to every
与每个相关
detail of Wang Xiaobo’s life and writings. Instead, I present an in-depth comparative study of Wang Xiaobo’s re-writing of some Tang tales, three of which were re-told twice in Wang’s own writings. My discussion of the literary quality of
王晓波的生平和著作详解。取而代之的是,我对王晓波改写的一些唐童故事进行了深入的比较研究,其中三个在王晓波自己的著作中被重述了两次。我关于文学品质的讨论
qi in Wang Xiaobo’s works is contextualized within the tradition of Chinese fiction. For this purpose a few writers between the Tang dynasty and Wang Xiaobo’s time are discussed briefly, and these writers’ works are revealed to provide other sources of inspiration to Wang Xiaobo and his contemporaries writing in this tradition.
在王晓波的作品中,他被置于中国小说的传统中。为此,本文简要讨论了唐代和王晓波时期的几位作家,并揭示了这些作家的作品,为王晓波及其同时代的王晓波在这一传统下写作提供了其他灵感来源。

Wang Xiaobo’s texts bears intertextual relations not only to Tang texts, but also to his own previous texts. By moving across the boundaries that divide what I will designate as his hypotexts and his hypertexts, he prepares in words a journey of fantasy for his readers. His repeated efforts to expand and revise his own texts also create an intratextual relation between the two sets of hypertexts.13
王晓波的文本不仅与唐代文本具有互文关系,而且与他自己以前的文本也具有互文关系。通过跨越我将指定的他的假文本和他的超文本划分的界限,他用文字为他的读者准备了一场幻想之旅。他不断努力扩展和修改自己的文本,也在两组超文本之间建立了一种文本内关系。 13

13 Gérard Genette developed five types of “transtextuality” in his Palimpsetsts: Literature in the Second Degree, trans., Channa Newman and Claude Doubinsky (Linconln and London: U of Nebraska P, 1997). His concept of hypertext inspires most of this dissertation. According to Genette, hypertext refers to “any text derived from a
13 热拉尔·热内特(Gérard Genette)在他的《第二学位文学》(Palimpsetsts)中发展了五种类型的“跨文本性”,Channa Newman和Claude Doubinsky(Linconln和伦敦:内布拉斯加大学出版社,1997年)。他的超文本概念启发了这篇论文的大部分内容。根据 Genette 的说法,超文本是指“任何源自

previous text either through simple transformation …or through indirect transformation” (7). In case of the classical
以前的文本要么通过简单的转换......或通过间接转化“(7)。在经典的情况下

16

The next chapter discusses the origins of classical Chinese fiction, identifying the guiding thread of qi as the key to understanding the Tang tales of marvels. To Tang writers, the literary quality of qi is both a means and an end of their tales. Qi is the literary expression of their fantasy in tales: a fantasy portrayed in classical Chinese language and thematically representing their perception of romantic relations that cross social boundaries. Such fantasy that embodies an
下一章讨论了中国古典小说的起源,确定了“气”的指导思想,这是理解唐朝奇事故事的关键。对于唐代作家来说,“气”的文学品质既是他们故事的手段,也是他们故事的终结。“气”是他们在故事中幻想的文学表达:一种用中国古典语言描绘的幻想,并以主题形式代表了他们对跨越社会界限的浪漫关系的看法。这样的幻想,体现了一种

imagined world can sometimes contradict the everyday world’s surface image. To present their literary fantasies, Tang writers engage their literary talents fully in such Tang tales as “The Tale
想象中的世界有时会与日常世界的表面形象相矛盾。为了呈现他们的文学幻想,唐作家在《故事》等唐故事中充分发挥了他们的文学才华

of the Curly-Bearded Guest” (虬髯客傳 Qiuranke zhuan), “Kunlun Slave” (昆侖奴 Kunlun nu), “Red Thread” (紅線 Hongxian), “Yingying’s Story” (鶯鶯傳 Yingying zhuan), “The Tale of Li Wa” (李娃傳 Liwa zhuan), and “An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River (湘中怨解 Xiangzhongyuan jie). The texts of these tales and the literary techniques Tang writers use in these tales are both sources of inspiration to contemporary Chinese fiction writers.
《卷须客传》、《昆侖奴 Kunlun nu》、《红线》、《莹莹》、《莺樱的故事》、《李娃傳 Liwa zhuan》和《湘中怨解 Xiangzhongyuan jie》。这些故事的文本和唐作家在这些故事中使用的文学技巧都是当代中国小说作家的灵感来源。

The third chapter discusses the decline of the literary quality of qi after the Tang dynasty.
第三章论述了唐代以后气文学品质的衰落。

In pre-modern imperial China, from the tenth century to nineteenth century, the rebellious, challenging, and transformative elements in Tang tales of marvels gave way to the formal accomplishments and thematic conventionality of the classical prose narrative chuanqi and classical verse drama chuanqi, which are adapted from Tang tales. In the early Republican period in the first half of the twentieth century, immediate political demands and social unrest in China restricted in many ways the domain in which fiction writers could express their perception of a world that might show an image different from initial surface impressions. The literary legacy of qi since the Tang dynasty, however, finds sporadic and yet equally powerful expressions in works like Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (聊齋志异 Liaozhai zhiyi) by Pu Songling
在前现代的帝制中国,从10世纪到19世纪,唐人奇迹故事中的叛逆、挑战和变革元素让位于改编自唐人故事的古典散文叙事《传气》和古典诗剧《传气》的形式成就和主题常规性。在20世纪上半叶的民国初期,中国迫切的政治诉求和社会动荡在许多方面限制了小说作家表达他们对世界的感知的领域,这个世界可能呈现出与最初表面印象不同的形象。然而,自唐代以来的气文学遗产在蒲松龄的《聊齋志异 聊斋志一》等作品中得到了零星但同样有力的表达

Chinese concept of fiction that is represented by Chuanqi, it becomes a case of both a simple transformation and an indirect transformation.
以《传启》为代表的中国小说概念,既是简单转化的案例,也是间接转化的案例。

松齡 (1640-1715), Border Town (邊城 Biancheng) by Shen Congwen 沈從文 (1902-1988), and Tales of Marvels (傳奇 Chuanqi) by Zhang Ailing 張愛玲 (aka Eileen Chang, 1920-1995). Each work contributes new ways of constructing fantasy in literary words, leaving new legacies for contemporary Chinese writers writing in the same tradition of qi.
松齡(1640-1715)、沈从文(1902-1988)的《邊城 Biancheng》和张爱玲(又名张爱玲,1920-1995)的《傳奇 Chuanqi》。每一部作品都为文学文字构建幻想提供了新的方式,为当代中国作家在同样的气传统中写作留下了新的遗产。

The fourth chapter discusses literary efforts made by Chinese writers of the 1980s and 1990s to revive the literary quality of qi. According to major literary critics, two major nominally contrary “schools” of fiction—“roots-searching” and “avant-garde” schools—dominated the two culturally feverish decades of post-Mao China. However, my reading of works from these two “schools” reveals a kinship between them based on their shared interest in displaying processes of perception instead of surface impressions of the world. In works like The King of Chess by Ah Cheng, Red Sorghum (紅高粱 Hong gaoliang) by Mo Yan,Classical Loveby Yu Hua, and My Life as Emperor by Su Tong, literary fantasy is often produced in the same way that it was in the Tang dynasty. In these works, the apparently formidable demands of writing in line with external political and social propriety collapse in the writer’s act of writing and the reader’s act of reading.
第四章论述了1980年代和1990年代的中国作家为重振气的文学品质所做的文学努力。根据主要文学评论家的说法,两个名义上相反的小说“流派”——“寻根派”和“先锋派”——主导了后毛时代中国两个文化狂热的十年。然而,我对这两个“学派”作品的阅读揭示了它们之间的亲缘关系,这种亲缘关系基于他们对展示感知过程而不是对世界的表面印象的共同兴趣。在阿成的《象棋王》、莫言的《红高粱》、于华的《古典爱情》和苏通的《我的皇帝生涯》等作品中,文学幻想往往以与唐朝相同的方式产生。在这些作品中,与外部政治和社会礼仪相一致的写作的明显艰巨要求在作家的写作行为和读者的阅读行为中崩溃了。

The fifth chapter studies Wang Xiaobo’s rewriting of a few renowned Tang tales of marvels. A thorough discussion of Wang Xiaobo’s self-defined literary position on fiction in favor of fantasy is offered before I narrow in on the intertextual comparison of three selected Tang tales of marvels: Wang Xiaobo’s initial rewriting of these tales in Tales of the Tang People (唐人故事 Tangren gushi), and his later re-writings based on the same Tang tales in The Bronze Age (青銅時代 Qingtong shidai). Wang Xiaobo’s re-writing in the 1980s foregrounds his literary position first as a reader with literary competency and then, akin to his Tang counterparts twelve hundred years ago, as a cultured writer with a strong awareness of the literary tradition. In
第五章研究了王小波对几个著名的唐朝奇观故事的改写。在我缩小对三个精选唐人奇事故事的互文比较之前,对王晓波自我定义的虚构文学立场进行了深入的讨论:王小波在《唐人故事》中对这些故事的初步改写(唐人故事 Tangren gushi),以及他后来在《青铜时代》中根据相同的唐故事改写。汪晓波在1980年代的改写,首先突出了他作为具有文学素养的读者的文学地位,然后,类似于一千二百年前的唐代作家,作为一个对文学传统有强烈认识的有教养的作家。在

Tales of the Tang People he deliberately uses structural irony as a literary method to validate his fantasy in words, and his parody of classical literary language predicts his more confident literary maneuvers a decade later. In the 1990s, The Bronze Age surprised his readers by revisiting three fantasies based on Tang tales. In this book, published posthumously, his deftness in switching narrative perspectives skillfully and his confidence in using modern literary Chinese language throughout the text reveal that he inherits and transforms the long tradition of Chinese fiction to construct literary fantasies. Wang Xiaobo injects a touch of wit into the concept of qi in this tradition.
《唐人故事》 他刻意使用结构反讽作为一种文学手段,用文字来验证他的幻想,他对古典文学语言的戏仿,预示着他十年后更加自信的文学手法。在 1990 年代,《青铜时代》重新审视了三个基于唐朝故事的幻想,让他的读者感到惊讶。在这本死后出版的书中,他巧妙地转换叙事视角的技巧,以及在全文中使用现代文学汉语的自信,揭示了他继承并转化了中国小说的悠久传统,构建文学幻想。王晓波在这个传统中为气的概念注入了一丝诙谐。

The last chapter concludes with a review of how the literary quality of qi relates to the tradition of Chinese fiction and confirms its vitality in transgressing the limits of, and indeed transforming, the tradition. Qi refers to the construction and realization of the fantastic effect in fiction through literary means. Even though it reached a height in the Tang tales of marvels, it continued to heavily inform the writing and reading of major contemporary Chinese fiction. As it did in the Tang dynasty, qi continues to enable writers to vividly present their perceptions about this world to all willing readers.
最后一章总结了“气”的文学品质与中国小说传统的关系,并肯定了“气”在突破传统界限、甚至改变传统方面的生命力。“气”是指通过文学手段,在小说中构建和实现小说中的奇妙效果。尽管它在唐朝的奇迹故事中达到了顶峰,但它继续为中国当代主要小说的写作和阅读提供重要信息。正如在唐代所做的那样,“气”继续使作家能够生动地向所有愿意阅读的读者展示他们对这个世界的看法。

Chapter II

Tang Tales of Marvels: To Amaze the Everyday World with Qi
唐人奇妙传说:用气惊奇日常世界

Having delineated my aims in this dissertation, as well as the significance of Tang tales of marvels in answering my research questions about contemporary Chinese fiction, I will now define the literary quality of qi in a more detailed and specific discussion of several Tang tales of marvels. I will first explicate the formation of the literary quality of qi in Tang tales by tracing the origins of classical Chinese fiction. Then, through analyzing some well-known Tang tales of marvels, I will outline how the literary quality of qi is constructed in Tang tales and how it is received by the reader.
在阐述了我在这篇论文中的目标,以及唐朝奇迹故事在回答我关于当代中国小说的研究问题方面的重要性之后,我现在将在对几个唐朝奇迹故事的更详细和具体的讨论中定义气的文学品质。首先,我将通过追溯中国古典小说的起源,来阐述唐故事中气文学品质的形成。然后,通过分析一些著名的唐人奇事故事,我将概述唐人故事中气的文学品质是如何建构的,以及它是如何被读者接受的。

The Origins of Classical Chinese Xiaoshuo and Its Traditional Mission
中国古典小朔的起源及其传统使命

Xiaoshuo 小説 is the umbrella genre subsuming Tang chuanqi 傳奇, or Tang tales of marvels. It is the native Chinese term for fiction, but it has a multivalent meaning that has developed over time. Classical Chinese xiaoshuo is a literary genre that gradually developed from diverse origins. When scholars look for the formative elements of xiaoshuo in imperial China, they find wide-ranging possibilities. For example, Hu Shih 胡適 (1891-1962) believed that parables and fables recorded by thinkers of the pre-Qin era (before 221 BCE) to illustrate their philosophical teachings are the earliest form of xiaoshuo.1 Some scholars later confirmed Hu Shih’s belief and label certain parables and fables from the pre-Qin era as “the earliest examples of short stories (duanpian xiaoshuo)”.2 Lu Xun 魯迅 (aka Zhou Shuren 周樹人, 1881-
小蜀小説是包含唐传气傳奇或唐人奇迹故事的总括体裁。它是中国本土的小说术语,但它具有随着时间的推移而发展的多价含义。中国古典小书是一种从多种起源逐渐发展起来的文学体裁。当学者们在帝制中国寻找小朔的形成元素时,他们发现了广泛的可能性。例如,胡适(1891-1962)认为,先秦时代(公元前221年以前)的思想家记录的寓言和寓言来说明他们的哲学教义,是小说的最早形式。 1 后来,一些学者确认了胡适的信念,并将先秦时代的某些寓言和寓言称为“最早的短篇小说(端片小书)”。 2 鲁迅 (又名 周书仁 周樹人,1881-

1 See Hu Shih, “On Short Stories (Lun duanpian xiaoshuo)” in Hu Shhi gudian wenxue yanjiu lunji 胡適古典文學研究論集 (Hu Shih on Classical Literature) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1988).

2 For example, Huang Weiliang selects “The Story of Qi Person” by Mencius (Huang Weiliang, “The Earliest Chinese Short Story”, published in Zhongguo gudian xiaoshuo lunji 中國古典小説論集 (Essays on Chinese Classical Xiaoshuo), ed. Lin Yiliang, [Taiwan: Youshi wenhua Ltd. 1975]). Lu Yongpin insists that Zhaungzi is the founder of story-writing in “Zhuangzi the First Xiaoshuo Writer,” Journal of Hebei University 3(1993). Lin Chen,
2 例如,黄沩亮选取了孟子的《齐人的故事》(黄沩亮,“中国最早的短篇小说”,发表于《中国古典小朔论文集》,林一良编,[台湾:优士文华有限公司,1975年])。陆永品在《小烁第一作家庄子》中坚守认为占子是故事写作的奠基人,《河北大学学报》1993年第3期。林晨,

17

32

1936), however, offered solid evidential research in designating a group of anecdotes about famous historical figures recorded in the Jin dynasty (265-420) as the first group of xiaoshuo.3 Modern scholars like Hou Zhongyi 侯忠義 (b. 1936) and Wu Zhida 吳志達 (b. 1931) disagree with Lu Xun. They insist that xiaoshuo as a genre of prose fiction was born as early as the Han dynasty (206 BCE-206 CE).4 As different as these scholars’ views are from one other, there is one commonality to these designated origins: the first xiaoshuo writings are all insignificant and supplementary to other genres. Among the many genres that have overshadowed xiaoshuo, historiography is the most influential one.
然而,1936)将金朝(265-420年)记载的一组著名历史人物的轶事指定为第一组小朔,提供了坚实的证据研究。 3 侯忠义(生于1936年)和吴志达(生于1931年)等现代学者不同意鲁迅的观点。他们坚持认为,小朔作为一种散文小说体裁,早在汉代(公元前 206 年至公元 206 年)就诞生了。 4 尽管这些学者的观点各不相同,但这些指定的起源有一个共同点:最初的小书著作都是微不足道的,并且是对其他体裁的补充。在众多使小烁黯然失色的体裁中,史学学是最有影响力的一种。

Xiaoshuo has traditionally been valued for its political and practical function from its
传统上,其政治和实践功能受到重视
very beginnings. Its own literary value was not of much importance: the two Chinese characters for
很开始。它本身的文学价值并不重要:这两个汉字
Xiaoshuo 小説 literally mean “petty discourses.” The earliest record of the term
字面意思是“琐碎的话语”。该术语的最早记录
xiaoshuo extant in any text is in Zhuangzi 莊子
庄子
5 (350-300 BCE), in which the insignificance of xiaoshuo is shown in sharp contrast to the ultimate truth of
与最终的真相形成鲜明对比
Dao. The practical function of “petty
.“小事小事”的实际功能
discourses” to help illustrate Dao becomes the major reason for their existence.
成为他们存在的主要原因。
6 In the field of pre-modern historiography,
在前现代史学领域,
xiaoshuo is similarly considered useful as a supplemental record of insignificant people and events. For example, Huan Tan
同样被认为作为微不足道的人物和事件的补充记录是有用的。例如,潭欢
桓譚
桓谭
(ca. 43 BCE-28 CE) in his
(约公元前 43 年-公元 28 年)在他的
Xin lun 新論
新论
(New Treatise) defines
(新论述)定义
xiaoshuo jia, or masters of
或大师
xiaoshuo, as those who collect insignificant
作为那些收集微不足道的人

instead, turns to Mu Tianzi zhuan 穆天子傳 (The Story of King Mu, Son of Heaven) for the earliest example in
取而代之的是《穆天子传》 (《穆王,天子的故事》)作为最早的例子

Books in Company with Life (Shu ban rensheng), published by Liaoning Education Publishing House, 1998.
《与生活相伴的书》,辽宁教育出版社,1998年。

3 See Lu Xun, A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, trans. Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1930, 1959). Lu Xun’s book divides the history of Chinese fiction by dynasties and correlates the literary trends with the historical and cultural changes in each dynasty. Though the book lacks detailed textual analysis of individual fictional works, it offers critical depth alongside an overview of the bigger picture.
3 参见鲁迅:《中国小说简史》,杨献义、杨淑仪译,(北京:外文出版社,1930年、1959年)。鲁迅的著作将中国小说史按朝代划分,并将文学趋势与每个朝代的历史文化变迁联系起来。尽管这本书缺乏对个别虚构作品的详细文本分析,但它提供了批判性的深度和对更大图景的概述。

4 Hou Zhongyi, Zhongguo wenyan xiaoshuo shigao 中國文言小説史稿 (A Draft of the History of Chinese Classical Fiction) (Beijing: Peking UP, 1990). And Wu Zhida, Zhongguo wenyan xiaoshuo shi 中國文言小説(A History of Chinese Classical Fiction) (Jinan: Qilu shushe, 1994).

5飾小說以幹縣令,其于大達亦遠矣. Chapter 26, Zhuangzi. “Refine petty discourses to achieve fame, it is far from reaching great enlightenment.”
5 飾小說以幹縣令,其于大達亦遠矣.第二十六章 庄子.“提炼小话,取名功利,远未达到大悟。”

6 Dr. Liang Shi in his Reconstructing the Historical Discourse of Traditional Chinese Fiction (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2002) provides a most convincing analysis of such a concept of xiaoshuo as in the dichotomy of small talk and the Great Dao, or Truth (39-42).
6 石亮博士在《重构中国传统小说的历史话语》(Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2002)一书中,对小朔这一概念进行了最有说服力的分析,如闲聊与大道或真理的二分法(39-42)。

fragments in short writings drawing analogies with matters in their immediate lives.7 A later historian, Ban Gu 班固 (32-92 CE), records in his Han History (Hanshu 漢書) that writers of xiaoshuo probably started writing in the capacity of baiguan 稗官 (a petty official historian). According to Ban Gu, as a baiguan, the writer collects street talk, laneway gossip, and even hearsay.8 Xiaoshuo thus originated as a supplemental variant of historiography that aimed only to record superficial impressions. The writers of xiaoshuo wrote down their impressions as they collected details that were not important enough to be included in grand official histories.
短篇作品中的片段,与他们眼前生活中的事物进行类比。 7 后来的历史学家班固(公元 32-92 年)在他的《汉书》中记载,小书的作者可能是以白官稗官(一种小官代史学家)的身份开始写作的。在班固看来,作为一个白冠人,作家收集了街头谈话、巷道八卦,甚至道听途说。 8 因此,小烁起源于史学的补充变体,其目的只是记录肤浅的印象。《小硕》的作者们写下了他们的印象,因为他们收集的细节不够重要,无法被载入宏大的官方历史。

Xiaoshuo’s status as a variant of historiography was unsettled in the Six Dynasties (220- 589), when zhiguai 志怪 (records of the strange) became one of its major forms. Some scholars, such as Robert Company, argue that zhiguai is not merely a record, but a processed literary product.9 Other scholars, such as William Nienhauser Jr., insist that zhiguai is still written in the tradition of historiography.10 Both positions are valid in their own ways. For example, of the 454 records collected in Sou shen ji 搜神記 (A Record of the Immortals) by Gan Bao 干寳 (d. 336 CE), most are about figures and events outside most people’s common experiences of the world. Yet most of these records follow the tradition of pre-modern historiography and, as claimed by
小朔作为史学变体的地位在六朝(220-589)不稳定,当时智传志怪(奇异的记录)成为其主要形式之一。一些学者,如罗伯特·科特(Robert Company)认为,《致桂》不仅仅是一种记录,而是一种经过加工的文学产品。 9 其他学者,如小威廉·尼恩豪瑟(William Nienhauser Jr.)坚持认为,《致译》仍然是在史学传统中写成的。 10 这两种立场都以自己的方式有效。例如,在甘宝干寳(卒于公元 336 年)所著的《神仙记》中收集的 454 条记录中,大多数是关于大多数人对世界的共同经验之外的人物和事件。然而,这些记录中的大多数都遵循前现代史学的传统,并且,正如

7 The extant text of Huan Tan’s New Treatise is incomplete; however, Huan’s definition of “masters of xiaoshuo” remains in most versions: “若其小說家,合叢殘小語,近取譬論,以作短書。” (As for the masters of xiaoshuo, they assemble small words insignificant and fragmentary, making analogies to the immediate, and thereby compose short writings.) The definition is recorded in Li Shan 李善’s (ca. 689) Wenxuan zhu 文選注 (Annotations on Selected Literary Texts), vol 31(Beijng, Zhonghua shuju, 1977), in which he also makes annotations to poems by Jiang Wentong 江文通 (aka Jiang Yan 江淹 444-505).
7 现存的《氭欢谭新论》文本不完整;然而,桓氏对“小朔大师”的定义在大多数版本中仍然存在:“若其小說家,合叢殘小語,近取譬論,以作短書。“(至于小朔的大师们,他们把微不足道的、零碎的小词拼凑起来,与直接的词进行类比,从而写出短篇小说。李善(约689年)的《文宣朱文运注》第31卷(北京,中华书刊,1977年)中也记载了李善的定义,其中他还对江文通(又名江燕江淹444-505)的诗歌作了注释。

8 Ban Gu, “Yiwenzhi”, Hanshu 漢書 (Han History), vol. 6, ch. 30, 1745 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962). 小說家者流,蓋出于稗官。街談巷語、道聽塗說之所造也。
8 Ban Gu, “Yiwenzhi”, Hanshu 汉书 (Han History), vol. 6, ch. 30, 1745 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962). 小说家者流,盖出于稗官。 街谈巷语、道听涂说之所造也。

9 Robert Company, Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China (Albany: SUNY P, 1996) 9-12. Company argues that zhiguai is more literary in its nature than historical because the collection of the zhiguai in the Six Dynasties displays a) a subjective selection process; b) a paradox of the “raw” materials and the “cooking” in editing; c) a structured principle; and d) an urban subjugation of periphery narratives.
9 Robert Company, Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China (奥尔巴尼:纽约州立大学出版社,1996年),第9-12页。公司认为,《致传》在性质上与其说是历史的,不如说是文学性的,因为《六代的志传》收藏显示出:a)一个主观的选择过程;b)编辑中的“原始”材料与“烹饪”的悖论;c) 结构化原则;d)城市对边缘叙事的征服。

10 William Nienhauser Jr., “Tang Tales,” in Victor H. Mair ed., The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (New York: Columbia UP, 2001) 580. Nienhauser’s argument is that in spite of the literary quality in zhiguai, it is a genre of fiction by value, but a genre of historiography by intent.
10 William Nienhauser Jr., “Tang Tales”, in Victor H. Mair ed., The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (New York: Columbia UP, 2001) 580.尼恩豪瑟的论点是,尽管《知传》具有文学品质,但从价值上看,它是一种小说的体裁,但从意图上讲,它是一种史学的体裁。

Gan Bao, are written down merely to “prove the credibility of the existence of the immortals.”11 The practical nature of the historical supplement lingers in zhiguai, but there is already the urge to portray in words a world other than the world seen by the empirical eye.
《甘宝》被记载下来,只是为了“证明神仙存在的可信度”。 11 《史记》副刊的实用性在智贵心中挥之不去,但已经有一种用文字描绘一个不是用经验眼看到的世界而来的世界的冲动。

Diverse as the scholarly
像学术界一样多样化
views are on the question of how
意见是关于如何的问题
xiaoshuo developed as a genre, most scholars believe it matured in the Tang dynasty. Tang
作为一种体裁发展起来,大多数学者认为它在唐朝成熟。柄脚
chuanqi, or tales of marvels, became the major form of hobby-writing for members of the Tang literati.
,或奇迹故事,成为唐朝文人的主要爱好写作形式。
12 The writing and reading of
写作和阅读
chuanqi differ from those of previous forms of
与以前形式的不同
xiaoshuo and are closely related to the philosophical
并且与哲学密切相关
concept of you (freedom of roaming) and the literary concept of wen (writing with
(写
patterned
图案
rhymes). These two concepts, together
一起
with the rise of literati in the Tang dynasty, finally
王朝,终于
make xiaoshuo more than a supplemental genre
补充类型
that merely
只是
records human
记录人类
impressions of the world. Instead, human perceptions are presented in these tales of marvels in a variety of
世界的印象。取而代之的是,人类的感知在这些奇迹故事中以各种形式呈现出来
ways, the most prominent of which depends on a shared understanding by the writer and the reader of literary genres. The purpose of writing
方式,其中最突出的方式取决于作家和文学体裁的读者的共同理解。写作的目的
xiaoshuo correspondingly shifts toward more aesthetic and literary directions, and away from the traditional political and practical ones.
相应地,转向更多的美学和文学方向,远离传统的政治和实践方向。

You (Freedom of Roaming) and wen (Writing with Rhythm)
You 遊 (Freedom of Roaming) 和 温 文 (Writing with Rhythm)

The philosophical concept of “freedom of roaming,” or you , is a key concept in
“漫游自由”或“你”的哲学概念是

Zhuangzi 莊子. Zhuangzi used the character repeatedly, and it could mean “swimming,”
Zhuangzi 莊子.庄子反复使用这个字,可能有“游泳”的意思,

11 發明神道之不誣, see Gan Bao, “Preface to Soushen ji,” in Ding Xigen 丁锡根 ed., Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo xuba ji 中國歷代小說序跋集 (A Collection of Prefaces and Colophons of Chinese Xiaoshuo Through the Ages). (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1996) vol. 1, 50.
11 發明神道之不誣,参见甘葆,“序言至苏神记”,载于丁锡根编的《中国小锡根序言和底页集》。(北京:人民文学出版社1996年)第1卷,第50页。

12 Lu Xun in fact implies such a view in his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction and indicates that it is in the Tang dynasty that literati writers transformed the basic concept of fictional narrative and assigns fabulation a priority over facts. He Manzi elaborates on the maturity of fictional narrative in the Tang dynasty in his Zhongguo aiqing xiaoshuo zhong de liangxing guanxi (Gender Relation in Chinese Romances) (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 1999) and calls the pre-Tang period the “pre-historical period for Chinese fiction” (12).
12 事实上,鲁迅在《中国小说简史》中就暗示了这样一种观点,并指出,正是在唐代,文人作家改变了虚构叙事的基本概念,将虚构置于事实之上。何曼子在《中国浪漫史中的性别关系》(上海:上海书店出版社,1999年)中详细阐述了唐代虚构叙事的成熟度,并将唐前时期称为“中国小说的史前时期”(12)。

“floating,” “excursion,andfreedom of roaming” in different contexts.13 In the field of art and literature, it refers to a state of mind that can swerve away from surface reality and roam freely beyond restraints. An example of such an understanding of freedom of roaming is the story of Paoding 庖丁 in Zhuangzi. Paoding performs his skill of butchering an ox so perfectly that he freely moves his knife along the bone seams without touching any of the bones. The bones
不同语境中的“漂浮”、“游览”和“漫游自由”。 13 在艺术和文学领域,它指的是一种能够摆脱表面现实,不受限制自由漫游的心态。这种对漫游自由的理解的一个例子是《庄子》中的保定庖丁的故事。保定将屠宰牛的技巧演绎得如此完美,以至于他可以自由地沿着骨缝移动刀子,而不会触及任何骨头。骨头

symbolize restraints and Paoding’s perfect skills stand for the artistic freedom to avoid restraints. Another level of you also implies contempt for physical limits. Zhuangzi uses youxin 遊心 (roaming mind) to illustrate it, and argues that with youxin one can reach a realm that is limitless.14
象征着束缚,而保定的完美技艺,则代表着逃避束缚的艺术自由。你的另一个层次也意味着对身体极限的蔑视。庄子用“游荡心”来说明它,并认为有了有心,一个人可以达到无限的境界。 14

The concept of freedom of roaming therefore encourages a person to go beyond surface- level impressions of the world. A person may let go of his/her mental limits and forget physical restrictions. When applied to the act of xiaoshuo writing, then, the concept of freedom of roaming enables a writer to travel freely among the limits of different genres, encouraging the writer to write down not only his/her impressions of the world, but also his/her perceptions, which are limited only by the human mind. The perception by one human mind of the outer world might produce an image that is different from the world’s impression made in another human eye. As for the expressions of human imagination produced by such roaming, it is only available in words.
因此,自由漫游的概念鼓励一个人超越对世界的表面印象。一个人可能会放弃他/她的精神限制,忘记身体上的限制。因此,当应用于小朔的写作行为时,漫游自由的概念使作家能够在不同体裁的界限之间自由穿梭,鼓励作家不仅写下他/她对世界的印象,而且写下他/她的感知,这些感知只受到人类思维的限制。一个人的思想对外部世界的感知可能会产生与另一个人眼中世界的印象不同的图像。至于这种漫游所产生的人类想象力的表达,它只能用语言来获得。

The literary concept of wen indeed is traditionally one of the two poles of a dichotomy in writing: wen and bi . Liu Xie 劉勰 (ca. 464 –ca. 521) succintly defines the dichotomy in his Wenxin Diaolong 文心雕龍 (Literary Mind and Carving Dragons):In common parlance
温文的文学概念确实是传统上写作二分法的两极之一:温文和双筆。 刘谢劉勰(约464年-约521年)在他的《文心雕龙》中简明扼要地定义了二分法:“通俗地说

13 For an updated explication of Zhuangzi’s usage of you , see Chen Guying 陳鼓應, Laozhuang xinlun 老莊新
13 有关庄子用法对“你”的最新说明,请参阅陈谷英鼓應,《老庄新轮新论》

(A New Treatise on Laozi and Zhuangzi) (Taipei: Wunan tushu Ltd., 2006) 317-18.
“(《老子与庄子新论》)(台北:武南土数有限公司,2006)317-18。

14 Zhuangzi, ch. 25.

these days, a distinction is made between wen and pi [bi], with pi as writing without rhyme and wen as writing with rhyme.”15 “Rhyme” here does not only refer to the repetition of similar sounds as is characteristic of verse poetry; in classical Chinese it is also a metonymy of the literary and aesthetic pursuit in writing. That is why Liu Xie considers bi, or unrhymed writing, as more suitable for classics to be transmitted through the generations.16 In contrast, wen is preferred in writings that showcase a writer’s literary competence.
如今,温和圆周率[bi]是有区别的,圆周率是没有韵律的书写,温是有韵律的书写。 15 这里的“押韵”不仅指诗歌所特有的相似声音的重复;在古典汉语中,它也是文学和审美追求在写作中的转喻。这就是为什么刘协认为双音不押韵的文字,更适合让经典代代相传。 16 相比之下,温在展示作家文学能力的作品中更受欢迎。

In the field of
在以下领域
xiaoshuo writing, both
写作,两者兼而有之
wen and bi are valued. However, as the traditional mission of
受到重视。然而,作为传统的使命
xiaoshuo prioritizes political and practical functions over literary and the aesthetic ones, and as
将政治和实践功能置于文学和审美功能之上,并作为
xiaoshuo historically originated as an insignificant variant of historiography,
在历史上起源于史学的一个微不足道的变体,
wen was often put in a position secondary
经常被放在次要的位置
to bi in xiaoshuo writing. For example, the literary
例如,文学
quality of the abovementioned
上述产品的质量
Soushen ji displays more bi than wen. When the traditional Chinese concept of
当传统的中国观念
xiaoshuo prioritizes a historical, moral, or political agenda over literary pursuits or aesthetic pleasures, it therefore sets a limit of reception to the world to which a writer could reach when his/her writing reverses such a priority. The writers of the Tang
将历史、道德或政治议程置于文学追求或审美愉悦之上,因此,当作家的写作颠倒了这种优先权时,它设定了对世界的接受限制。唐朝的作家
chuanqi, or Tang tales of marvels, however, were mostly members of the privileged literati, and their tales were mainly written for fellow members of the literati. Taking advantage of this limited but appreciative
然而,唐朝的奇观故事大多是特权文人的成员,他们的故事主要是为文人同胞写的。利用这个有限但感激
readership,
读者
Tang writers took the liberty to reverse the traditional priority of bi over wen in their
在他们的
xiaoshuo writing.

The Tang Literati and Tang Chuanqi
唐朝文人与唐传气

15 Wen Xin Diao Long 文心雕龍 (Literary Mind and Carved Dragon) by Liu Xie 劉勰 (ca. 464 -ca 521) is one of the most complex works, and the most comprehensive one, of literary criticism in pre-modern China. Most of its definitions of literary concepts remain valid even to this day and are still applied to the literary critique of Chinese literature. It provides a critical system quite different from its Western counterparts, a system that is more philosophical than purely literary. It is in this work that Wen and Bi are defined as follows: 今之常言,有文有筆,以爲無韵者筆也,有韵者文也。See Stephen Owen (editor and translator), Readings in Chinese Literary Thought (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard UP, 1992) 273.
15 温 刘协(约464-约521年)的《文心雕龙》是前现代中国文学批评中最复杂、最全面的作品之一。它对文学概念的大部分定义直到今天仍然有效,并且仍然适用于对中国文学的文学批评。它提供了一个与西方同行截然不同的批评体系,一个比纯粹的文学更具有哲学性的体系。正是在这项工作中,温和毕被定义如下: 今之常言,有文有筆,以爲無韵者筆也,有韵者文也。参见Stephen Owen(编辑、译者):《中国文学思想读物》(马萨诸塞州剑桥:哈佛大学出版社,1992年),第273页。

16 Liu Xie 273.

The Tang writers of chuanqi were not common people. They were the literati, a very rare handful of scholars who received a sophisticated literary education and cherished great political ambitions. The social and political status of the Tang literati underwent a gradual change from the early Tang to the collapse of the dynasty. In the early period the Tang government consolidated the political system established by the Sui dynasty (580-618), and the Tang literati enjoyed a rapid increase in number and an enhancement of social status. Both Denis Twitchett and
为数不多的接受过高雅文学教育并怀有远大政治抱负的学者。唐朝文人的社会政治地位从唐初年到朝代崩塌,经历了逐渐的变化。初期,唐政府巩固了隋朝(580-618年)建立的政治制度,唐朝文人数量迅速增加,社会地位提高。Denis Twitchett 和
David McMullen note the “emergence of a more diversified elite”
多元化精英”
17 and the Tang emperors’ efforts to bring the literati “into the centre of the political arena.”
皇帝努力将文人“带入政治舞台的中心”。
18 The expansion of the bureaucracy, the sophistication of the civil service examination system, and the dissemination and
官僚机构的扩张,公务员考试制度的成熟,以及传播和
promotion of Confucian canonical
规范
texts all gave members of the Tang literati a strong desire to enter public life and thereby to exert some political power within the state.
渴望进入公共生活,从而在国家内部行使某种政治权力。

However, the aristocratic basis of early Tang government and the dominance of local military powers after the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763)19 scuttled their political ambitions. These elite scholars were consequently exposed to the gap between illusion and reality, between their impressions of the surface world and their perception of what it could have been, between what they saw in front of their eyes and what they imagined in their minds. On the one hand, they were well trained to believe in the Confucian political values of a public life; on the other hand, the actual hierarchical political system, which favoured the aristocratic clans, constrained their access to the real public world. In contrast with the constricting political arena, the mainstream of the intellectual milieu in the Tang dynasty, especially in the post-Rebellion
然而,唐初政府的贵族基础和安禄山叛乱(755-763)后地方军事力量的主导地位破坏了 19 他们的政治野心。因此,这些精英学者暴露在幻觉与现实之间的鸿沟中,暴露在他们对表层世界的印象与对表层世界的感知之间的鸿沟中,暴露在他们对表层世界的感知之间,暴露在眼前所见和他们脑海中想象之间的鸿沟中。一方面,他们受过良好的训练,相信儒家公共生活的政治价值观;另一方面,实际的等级政治制度有利于贵族氏族,限制了他们进入真正的公共世界。与狭小的政治舞台形成鲜明对比的是,唐朝知识分子环境的主流,尤其是在后叛乱时期

17 Denis Twichett, Perspectives on the Tang (New Haven, New York: Yale UP, 1973) 4.
17 丹尼斯·特威切特(Denis Twichett),《唐人的观点》(纽黑文,纽约:耶鲁大学,1973年) 4.

18 David McMullen, State and Scholars in T’ang China (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988) 6.
18 David McMullen, State and Scholars in T'ang China (剑桥:剑桥大学出版社,1988年) 6.

19 An Lushan (703-757) was a military governor who rebelled in 755 and challenged the centralized political power with his local military force. The rebellion was finally ended by the central government in 763. It was a turning point for the Tang dynasty, and had quite a number of lasting effects on the dynasty, among which was the decline of the empire, and thus the futile efforts of the literati to restore past power made the yearning for a private space increasingly urgent.
19 安禄山(703-757)是一位军事总督,于755年叛乱,并以他的地方军事力量挑战中央集权的政治权力。叛乱最终于 763 年被中央政府结束。这是唐朝的一个转折点,对唐朝产生了相当多的持久影响,其中包括帝国的衰落,因此文人为恢复过去的权力而进行的徒劳努力,使得对私人空间的向往越来越迫切。

period, was open, diversified, and liberal for these small, exclusive literary groups. The literati were disappointed and restrained by the increasingly intense social and political conflicts, but they found consolation in the Daoist spirit of you, or freedom of roaming, in expressing what they perceived and envisioned in various forms of literary experiments. The best of these forms is the Tang chuanqi.
时期,对于这些小型、排他性的文学团体来说,是开放的、多样化的和自由的。文人对日益激烈的社会和政治冲突感到失望和束缚,但他们在通过各种形式的文学实验表达他们所感知和设想的东西时,从“你”的道家精神或漫游自由中找到了安慰。这些形式中最好的是唐传气。

In writing Tang chuanqi, the Tang literati, who were educated to be politically ambitious and yet discouraged by the false promise of a Confucian public life, began to entertain themselves semi-privately in their small groups by trifling with the official classical Chinese language, which was used to govern a public world. Instead of writing the official history commissioned by the emperor, they recorded insignifcant gossip among friends; and in place of tedious descriptions of political procedures, they constructed with their gossip and imagination a separate world of love, literary talents, and fantastic achievements.
在写唐传气时,唐朝文人被教育要有政治野心,但又因儒家公共生活的虚假承诺而灰心丧气,他们开始在自己的小团体中半私下地自娱自乐,玩弄用来管理公共世界的官方古典汉语。他们没有写皇帝委托的官方历史,而是记录了朋友之间微不足道的八卦;他们没有对政治程序进行乏味的描述,而是用他们的八卦和想象力构建了一个充满爱情、文学才华和奇妙成就的独立世界。

As described in Tang zhiyan 唐摭言(Gleanings from the Tang), a record of notes on the Tang literati’s life written by Wang Dingbao 王定保 (870-c.954), it seems that the above- mentioned access to a shared world of literary exploration through the tales of marvels helped the Tang literati keep a spiritual balance in the everyday factual world.20 Once the candidates for the examination were awarded the jinshi 進士 title, or the presented scholar title,21 they were to visit their examiners and thereby become allies, both political and literary, with their fellow examinees who acquired the title of jinshi. This was one of the many ways for the literati in the Tang dynasty to form a literary group. Some literary groups might be formed by kinship, and some by a common interest in a certain literary style. Nevertheless the function of literary groups was less political than artistic, for even though from time to time they might get involved
正如王定保(870-c.954)所著的唐知言《唐书言》所描述的那样,通过奇迹的故事进入一个共同的文学探索世界,似乎有助于唐朝文人在日常事实世界中保持精神平衡。 20 一旦参加考试的考生被授予“进士”称号,即被授予的学者称号, 21 他们就要去拜访他们的考官,从而与获得“进士”称号的考生在政治上和文学上成为盟友。这是唐代文人形成文学团体的众多方式之一。有些文学团体可能是由亲属关系形成的,有些则是由对某种文学风格的共同兴趣而形成的。然而,文学团体的功能与其说是政治性的,不如说是艺术性的,因为即使它们时不时地会参与其中

20 Wang Dingbao 王定保, Tang zhiyan 唐摭言 (Gleanings from the Tang) (Beijing: Beijing zhonghua shuju, 1959).
20 Wang Dingbao 王定保, Tang zhiyan 唐摭言 (Gleanings from the Tang) (Beijing: Beijing zhonghua sju, 1959).

21 Jinshi as a title was only granted after the highest level of the civil examination, administered at the capital.
21 金士作为称号,只有在最高级别的民事考试后才授予,在首都进行。

in the political battles in the imperial court, the major purpose of the literati in forming groups was to share some uncommon literary interests and thereby, through literature, to find and found a world other than that of everyday public life.
在朝廷的政治斗争中,文人组成团体的主要目的是分享一些不寻常的文学兴趣,从而通过文学找到并找到一个与日常公共生活不同的世界。

In order to entertain themselves with a somewhat fanciful world built from real life prototypes, the writers of Tang tales fully engaged the writing techniques of the different genres that
为了在一个由现实生活原型构建的有点幻想的世界里娱乐自己,唐故事的作家们充分运用了不同体裁的写作技巧,这些写作技巧
they were educated
教育
to use in public and political life. Just as is described
描述
by the literary critic Zhao Yanwei
评论家赵彦伟
彥衛
彦卫
(fl. 1195) of the Song dynasty, and as elaborated by the modern Chinese scholar Chen Yinke
(1195年),并由中国现代学者陈印科详细阐述
陳寅恪
陈寅恪
(1890-1969), the writers of Tang
(1890-1969),唐代作家
tales displayed skill in high literary techniques of almost all the genres that predate them, especially parading their ability to write official history, classical poetry, and expository prose combined in the single act of writing tales of marvels.
Tales 展示了几乎所有早于它们的体裁的高超文学技巧,尤其是展示他们撰写官方历史、古典诗歌和说明性散文的能力,这些作品结合在写奇迹故事的单一行为中。
22 The freedom to cross generic limitations is a message in and of itself about the Tang tales to readers during the Tang dynasty as well as to readers in future epochs. As the lyrical force of poetry can penetrate the prosaic plot of prose narrative, and as, within the frame of the factual style of history and biography writing, expository phrases can bear a force that supersedes what is visible in terms of worldly surface, thus human perceptions of the world can be appreciated by readers who are of like mind with the writers.
跨越一般限制的自由,本身就是关于唐朝故事向唐朝读者以及未来时代读者传达的信息。由于诗歌的抒情力量可以穿透散文叙述的平淡无奇的情节,而且在历史和传记写作的事实风格框架内,说明性短语可以具有一种力量,可以取代世俗表象的可见内容,因此,人类对世界的感知可以被与作家志同道合的读者所欣赏。

The label “Tang tales of marvels,” known as Tang chuanqi 唐傳奇 in Chinese, refers to tales written in the classical Chinese language by members of the Tang literati exclusively for their fellow members. The name chuanqi is believed to be originally a title either for a tale written by Yuan Zhen 元稹 (779-831), or for a group of tales written by Pei Xing 裴鉶 (fl. 860-
“唐人奇迹故事”这个标签,在中文中被称为唐传奇,指的是唐朝文人专门为他们的同胞用古典中文写的故事。“川气”这个名字最初被认为是元祯(779-831)写的一个故事的标题,或者是裴兴裴鉶(860-)

22 See Zhao Yanwei 趙彥衛 of the Song dynasty Yunlu manchao 雲麓漫鈔 (Random Notes at Yunlu) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1958) and Chen Yinke 陳寅恪, Yuan Bai shi jianzheng gao 元白詩箋證稿 (A Draft Annotation of the Poems by Yuan Zhen and Bai Juyi)” (Beijing: Joint Publishing Co, 2001).
22 参见《赵燕威:宋代云路漫记》(北京:中华书刊,1958年)和《陈彦科:元真、白詩箋證稿》(北京:联合出版有限公司,2001年)。

878).23 In other words, chuanqi was once used specifically to name certain narrative texts or a certain group of narrative texts composed in the Tang dynasty. Later it was extended in its usage to refer to the type of tales that were formed in the same period bearing significantly similar generic features, i.e., a group of short fictional prose narratives that were written in classical Chinese and mostly produced in the Tang dynasty.
【878) 23 换言之,“传气”曾专门用于命名唐代创作的某些叙事文本或某一组叙事文本。后来,它的用法被扩展为指同一时期形成的具有明显相似的通用特征的故事类型,即一组用古典汉语写成的短篇虚构散文叙述,主要产生于唐代。

Literary critics started to accept and use chuanqi as a generic term around the time of the Yuan (1279-1368) and Ming dynasties (1368-1644). During these two dynasties chuanqi was also used to refer to a type of verse drama that shares a topical interest with the tales of marvels chuanqi. Many Ming chuanqi dramas were in fact inspired by some chuanqi Tang tales.
文学评论家在元朝(1279-1368)和明朝(1368-1644)左右开始接受并使用传气作为通用术语。在这两个朝代,“川气”也被用来指代一种与奇迹传气故事有着共同话题兴趣的诗剧。事实上,许多明传棋戏剧的灵感都受到一些传启唐故事的启发。

Meanwhile chuanqi as a form of prose fiction continued to develop in imperial China after the Tang dynasty, though with much less momentum. In this dissertation, when used without additional annotation, chuanqi refers exclusively to classical prose fiction written in the Tang dynasty or later in imitation of or as a response to Tang chuanqi.
与此同时,作为一种散文小说形式,“传气”在唐朝之后的中国帝国继续发展,尽管势头要小得多。在本论文中,“传气”在不加额外注释的情况下使用时,“传气”仅指唐代或以后时期模仿唐传气或作为对唐传气的回应而写的古典散文小说。

According to Hu Yinglin 胡應麟 (1551-1602) of the Ming dynasty, and to Lu Xun in the 1930s, Tang chuanqi, or Tang tales of marvels, were the first narratives consciously composed as fiction and thus served as exemplary sources for many later literary works.24 Contemporary critics--such as Wang Pijiang 汪辟疆,Wang Mengou 王夢歐, Hou Zhongyi 侯忠義, Cheng Yizhong 程毅中, and Cheng Guofu 程國賦--mainly hold the same opinion, and they also identify many generic precursors to Tang chuanqi, such as zhiguai, zhuan (biography), fu
根据明朝的胡应麟(1551-1602)和1930年代的鲁迅,唐传气或唐人奇迹故事是第一个有意识地构成小说的叙述,因此成为许多后来文学作品的典范来源。 24 当代批评家如王丕江汪辟疆、王门狗王夢歐、侯忠义、程毅中、程国富等,主要持相同观点,他们也指出了许多唐传气的通用前身,如知传、传传、傅賦

23 Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良, Tang chuanqi jianzhu 唐傳奇箋注 (Slips of Annotations on the Tang Tales of the Marvellous) (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2000).
23 周少良, 唐传奇箋注 (Slips of Annotations on the Tang Tales of the Marvellous) (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2000).

24 For Hu Yinglin’s original analysis of the generic definition of chuanqi and xiaoshuo, please read Laura Hua Wu, “From Xiaoshuo to Fiction: Hu Yinglin’s Genre Study of Xiaoshuo” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 55.2 (1995) 339-371.
24 关于胡颖林对传气和小烁的通用定义的原创分析,请阅读Laura 华武,“从小烁到小说:胡英林对小烁的体裁研究”,《哈佛亚洲研究杂志》,55.2(1995):339-371。

(parallel prose/rhapsody), and lun (expository prose). 25 Based on what previous scholars have observed, a tentative and simplified
并简化
description
描述
of Tang chuanqi might go as follows:
遵循:
most of the so-called
所谓的
Tang tales of marvels anthologized together show
奇迹选集一起表演
that first, in terms of form, they
首先,就形式而言,他们
were prose narratives written in the classical Chinese language, mainly following the tradition of historiography (official biography in particular), with occasional poems scattered in the text; in terms
是用中国古典文字写成的散文叙述,主要沿袭史学传统(尤其是官方传记),文中偶尔散布诗歌;就此而言
of content, such tales were mainly about the adventures
历险记
of the Tang literati, especially their unconventional romances with ladies, both human and from other worlds; stylistically, these
他们与人类和其他世界的女士们的非常规恋情;从风格上讲,这些
tales incorporated detailed dialogue as a literary technique in order to augment the plot, characters, and settings; in terms of the writers’ ambitions, most of the tales also seem to be motivated by a desire to recount narratives distinct from the conventional knowledge of their immediate audience; meanwhile, audiences seemed to welcome the amazing authorial perceptions conveyed in the texts of these tales.
故事将详细的对话作为一种文学技巧,以增强情节、人物和设置;就作家的野心而言,大多数故事的动机似乎也是为了讲述与直接受众的传统知识不同的叙述;与此同时,观众似乎欢迎这些故事文本中传达的惊人的作者观念。

The Tang tales of marvels therefore are a form of generic hybridity in literary history. During the Tang dynasty chuanqi developed quickly and, later in the dynasty, established itself firmly as a sub-genre under the genre of xiaoshuo, covering a range of fantastic subjects like the supernatural world, romantic affairs, and knight-errant adventures. The Tang tales also allowed Tang writers to experiment with a number of literary techniques: for example, expanding the range of the classical Chinese language, enriching received historical narrative patterns, and developing expository speech as a narrative voice that frames many of the tales. As the Tang literati wrote these tales for their fellow members to show off their literary talents, they worked
因此,唐朝的奇观故事是文学史上一种普遍的混合形式。在唐朝,传气发展迅速,并在唐朝后期牢固地确立了自己作为小朔流派下的子流派的地位,涵盖了一系列奇妙的主题,如超自然世界、浪漫事务和骑士冒险。唐故事还使唐作家能够尝试一些文学技巧:例如,扩大中国古典语言的范围,丰富公认的历史叙事模式,并将说明性语言发展为构成许多故事的叙述声音。当唐朝文人为他们的同伴写这些故事以炫耀他们的文学才华时,他们工作了

25 See Hou Zhongyi, Zhongguo wenyan xiaoshuo shigao 中國文言小說史稿 (A Draft History of Chinese Classical Xiaoshuo [Beijing, Peking UP, 1990]); Cheng Yizhong, Tangdai xiaoshuo shihua 唐代小說史話 (A Hisotry of the Xiaoshuo of the Tang Dynasty [Beijing, Wenhua yishu chubanshe, 1990]); Fu Xuancong, Tangdai keju yu wenxue唐代科舉與文學 (Civil Examination and Literature in the Tang Dynasty [Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1995]); and Wang Meng’ou, Tangren xiaoshuo yanjiu sanji 唐人小說研究三集 (Studies on the Xiaoshuo of the Tang People, 3 vols.[Taipei: Yiwen, 1974]).
25 参见侯忠义:《中国古典小说史草稿》[北京大学出版社,1990年];Cheng Yizhong, Tangdai xiaoshuo shihua 唐代小說史話 (A Hisotry of the Xiaoshuo of the Tang Dynasty [Beijing, Wenhua yishu chubanshe, 1990]);傅宣聪, 唐代科舉与文学 (Civil Examination and Literature in the Tang Dynasty [Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1995]);以及王梦鸥, Tangren xiaoshuo yanjiu sanji 唐人小說研究三集 (Studies on the Xiaoshuo of the Tang People, 3 vols.[Taipei: Yiwen, 1974])。

out a sophisticated avenue for the development of classical Chinese fiction. On one hand, each of the contributing source genres for Tang chuanqi is complicated in its own form and highly sophisticated in its own composition, and therefore creates inevitable expectations in the writing and reading of the Tang chuanqi. On the other hand, the new genre of chuanqi was written and read exclusively in small circles and therefore the members of these circles were less concerned with the traditional missions of xiaoshuo, which is the umbrella genre covering chuanqi. For the first time in the mind of a writer of xiaoshuo, the genre’s traditional hierarchy of practical over aesthetic, of political over literary, and of bi over wen, was unsettled, if not completely inverted.
为中国古典小说的发展开辟了一条复杂的道路。一方面,《唐传气》的每一种源体裁在形式上都是复杂的,在构成上也是高度复杂的,因此在《唐传气》的写作和阅读中产生了必然的期望。另一方面,新的传气体裁完全是在小圈子里写和读的,因此这些圈子的成员不太关心小书的传统任务,小书是涵盖传气的总括体裁。在小朔作家的心目中,这种体裁传统的实用与审美、政治与文学、双性与温的等级制度,如果不是完全颠倒的话,也是第一次被打破了。

The literary quest for more wen, or aesthetically-oriented, works went hand-in-hand with the Tang literati’s search for you, the freedom of roaming. The concept of freedom of roaming was a precondition for the Tang literati to go beyond the limitations of their generic sources. By helping Tang writers break away from historiography and other generic strictures, wen and you work together and validate the Tang literati’s pursuit of aesthetic pleasure which had until then been suppressed by the priority given to political and pragmatic goals in writing all forms of xiaoshuo.
文学对更多温或审美导向作品的追求,与唐朝文人对你的寻找,即漫游的自由是相辅相成的。自由漫游的概念是唐朝文人超越其通用来源限制的先决条件。通过帮助唐代作家摆脱史学和其他通用的束缚,温和您共同努力,验证了唐代文人对审美愉悦的追求,这种追求在此之前被各种形式的小朔写作中对政治和实用目的的优先考虑所压制。

However, even with the help of the concept of freedom of roaming, the Tang literati did not accomplish generic transgressions in chuanqi without difficulty. They often had to defend themselves in the face of accusations of transgressions. For example, in his own words Han Yu韓愈 (768-824) boldly claims that in writing tales he does not look for social and public fame but pursues a literary goal and a true spirit of entertainment.26 He freely admits to accusations that
然而,即使借助自由漫游的概念,唐朝文人也并非毫无困难地完成了川气的一般过犯。面对违法行为的指控,他们经常不得不为自己辩护。例如,用他自己的话说,韩宇韓愈(768-824)大胆地宣称,他写故事不是为了社会和公众的名声,而是追求文学目标和真正的娱乐精神。 26 他坦率地承认了以下指控:

he was taking writing too lightly and spending too much time writing miscellaneous statements
他把写作看得太轻了,花了太多时间写杂七杂八的陈述

26 See the letters of Han Yu 韓愈 (768-824) in defense of his writing of tales instead of grand historical narratives. “Da Zhangji shu” (Letter In Reply to Mr. Zhang Ji), Quantangwen 全唐文 (An Anthology of Tang Proses) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1985), vol. 12, 7079. As we shall see, when Han Yu wrote a popular tale of marvel entitled Maoying zhuan 毛穎傳 (A Biograhpy of Mao Ying), Zhang Ji 張籍 (767-830), a fellow member of literati of Han Yu, tried to persuade Han to give up writing such tales because, in Zhang’s view they portrayed things not true to reality, and in styles not consistent with any one genre.
26 参见韩愈(768-824)的书信,为他写的故事而不是宏大的历史叙述辩护。《大张记书》载《唐文全唐文》(北京:中华书刊,1985年),第12卷,第7079页。正如我们将要看到的,当韩禺写了一部名为《毛英的传记》的流行奇事时,韩禺的文人之一张记張籍(767-830)试图劝说韩缵籍放弃写这样的故事,因为在张煜看来,这些故事描绘的事物与现实不符,风格与任何一种体裁都不一致。

with no reference
参考
to grand topics and real life. His admission thus confirms that in his tales he is not recording
未录制
what impressions the
什么印象
world leaves in his eye, but something more. He
世界在他的眼中留下了,但还有更多的东西。他
also openly casts off any
也公开抛弃任何
political mission attributed to his writing by
他的著作赋予他的政治使命
explicitly admitting that he has indeed committed the literary crime of neglecting this mission. However, to defend his position, he wittily compares the purpose of his writing to that of having wine and women, which he claims is essential to a gentleman’s life.
承认自己确实犯了忽视这一使命的文学罪。然而,为了捍卫自己的立场,他诙谐地将他的写作目的与拥有葡萄酒和女人的目的相提并论,他声称这对绅士的生活至关重要。
That is a shrewd argument, since in the Confucian classic
这是一个精明的论点,因为在儒家经典中
Analects, Confucius defines man’s pursuit of pleasure in food and sex as basic elements in human nature.
,孔子将人类对食物和性享乐的追求定义为人性的基本要素。
Having made this claim, Han Yu painstakingly privileges pleasure in listing his motives
既然提出这个说法,韩愈煞费苦心地乐于列举自己的动机
in writing tales of marvels, elevating it above the motives of recording
录音
empirical
实证
reality, conveying a moral message, or promoting a political agenda. In such a joking way, Han Yu makes the function of
现实,传达道德信息,或促进政治议程。以这样开玩笑的方式,韩宇做出了
chuanqi writing to entertain not only morally justified, but even aesthetically preferred.
为了娱乐而写作不仅在道德上是合理的,而且在美学上也是受欢迎的。

Han Yu claims to prioritize aesthetic entertainment over moral education as his purpose of writing tales of marvels, yet in his
韩愈声称,他将审美娱乐置于道德教育之上,这是他书写奇妙故事的目的,然而在他的
Maoying zhuan 毛穎傳
毛颖传
(A Biography of Mao Ying) he borrows
“(《毛应传》)他借来的
many important techniques from the genre of historical biography, putting them to new, playful purposes. The need to state his defence confirms his transgression of the genre of historical biography. His contemporary Zhang Ji
新的、有趣的目的。需要陈述他的辩护,证实了他对历史传记体裁的侵犯。与他同时代的张骥
張籍
张籍
(767-830) wrote to criticize him for not following the norms of historical biographies, showing clearly that Han Yu’s literati contemporaries were sensitive to the transgressive literary moves in his tales, and that some fellow
“(767-830)写信批评他不遵循史传的规范,清楚地表明,韩愈的文人同时代的文人对他故事中的文学越界举动很敏感,一些同僚
literati found it hard to accommodate them in their reception of such texts. In some other cases, however, the texts of Tang tales describe the responses from their immediate audience in the Tang dynasty; these parts of the texts also reveal the literary efforts of the Tang literati to cross generic
然而,在其他情况下,唐故事的文本描述了唐代直接读者的反应;这些文本部分也揭示了唐朝文人试图将通用叉的文学努力
boundaries through the form of
边界通过以下形式
chuanqi. In tales like
在像这样的故事中
Yingying’s
莹莹
Story 鶯鶯傳
莺莺传
and

The Tale of Li Wa 李娃傳 there are passages either in the opening or the concluding sections that describe the occasions for narrating the tales and the responses of contemporary listeners/readers. These parts are sometimes written on the model of historical judgments in official historiography, or as a kind of literary appreciation often expressed about poetry. These echoes of other genres reveal the Tang literati’s struggle to represent something other than the normal while using familiar modes of discourse. Sometimes the transgression of genre is so drastic that
李娃傳的故事 在开头或结尾部分都有段落描述了叙述故事的场合和当代听众/读者的反应。这些部分有时是按照官方史学中的历史判断模型写成的,或者是对诗歌经常表达的一种文学欣赏。这些对其他体裁的呼应揭示了唐朝文人在使用熟悉的话语模式时努力表现非正常事物的斗争。有时,对流派的越界是如此剧烈,以至于

it literally changes the direction of the plot’s development, as we can see in Xiangzhongyuan jie
它从字面上改变了情节发展的方向,正如我们在《湘中院街》中所看到的那样

湘中怨解 (An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River).
湘中怨解 (An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River)。

Yingying’s Story 鶯鶯傳 and The Tale of Li Wa 李娃傳
Yingying's Story 鶯鶯傳 and The Tale of Li Wa 李娃傳

The efforts of the literati to transgress the traditional restrictions on what to write and how to write can be seen in two well-known Tang tales of marvels: Yingying’s Story by Yuan Zhen 元稹 (779-831) and The Tale of Li Wa by Bai Xingjian 白行簡 (776-826).27 Both these tales of marvels were originally transmitted through a small group of fellow members of literati who shared the same knowledge of literature and literary values and who were able to respond to the tales with literary comments. Yuan Zhen and Bai Xingjian belonged to the same literary group, one with Bai Juyi 白居易 (772-841), the famous Tang poet, as its central figure. Bai Juyi and Bai Xingjian were brothers, and Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen were lifelong friends. The texts of the two
文人试图突破传统对写什么和怎么写的限制,可以从两个著名的唐童故事中看到:袁真元稹(779-831)的《莹莹的故事》和白行剑(776-826)的《李华的故事》。 27 这两个奇迹故事最初都是通过一小群文人传播的,他们对文学和文学价值有着相同的知识,并且能够用文学评论来回应这些故事。袁真和白行剑属于同一个文学团体,一个是以著名唐诗人白居易(772-841)为中心人物的文学团体。白居仪和白兴剑是兄弟,白居仪和袁真是一辈子的朋友。两者的文本

27 Yingying’s story presents a most puzzling plot to readers: Scholar Zhang rescues the aristocratic young maiden Yingying in a besieged Buddhist temple, and successfully lures her into an exchange of erotic poems. After rebutting his physical advances with moralistic preaching, Yingying finally succumbs to him, under the influence of her maid Hongniang and becomes his fiancée. After that Zhang goes off to the capital to attend the civil service examinations and abandons Yingying, who writes letters to Zhang, receiving no encouraging reply. Zhang shows Yingying’s letter to his literati friends, and later in his life, visits Yingying as her cousin after her marriage.
27 莹莹的故事向读者呈现了一个最令人费解的情节:张学者在一座被围困的佛教寺庙中救出了贵族少女莹莹,并成功地引诱她进行了一场情色诗的交流。莹莹在用道德说教反驳了他的身体进步后,最终在她的女仆红娘的影响下屈服于他,成为了他的未婚妻。之后,张某去京城参加公务员考试,抛弃了莹莹,莹莹给张某写信,没有得到任何令人鼓舞的答复。张将莹莹写给他的文人朋友的信拿给莹莹,在他晚年的时候,他以表妹的身份拜访了莹莹。

Yingying refuses to receive him and only leaves a poem in the ancient style. The discrepancy between Yingying’s poetic response to Zhang and her prosaic attitude toward him makes rational explanations hard to find. The Tale of Li Wa tells the adventures of Scholar Zheng from Xingyanga in the Capital City of Chang’an, and describes how this young aristocratic scholar encounters Li Wa, a courtesan, and is redeemed by her love and care after he had degraded himself from his high rank and been deserted by his aristocratic father.
莹莹拒绝接见他,只留下了一首古风的诗。莹莹对张的诗意回应和她对张的平淡态度之间的差异,使得很难找到合理的解释。《李华的故事》讲述了来自兴洋嵵噶的郑学士在都城长安的历险记,讲述了这位年轻的贵族书生如何与李华相遇,在他从高位贬值、被贵族父亲抛弃后,被她的爱和关怀所救赎。

tales thus record similar occasions for spreading the tales. For example, after Yingying’s story was told, Yuan Zhen concluded his text by meticulously documenting the story’s reception among his literary group as follows:
因此,《故事》记录了传播故事的类似场合。例如,袁祯在讲述莹莹的故事后,在文本的最后,细致地记录了这个故事在他的文学团体中的接受情况,如下:

In the ninth month of a year in Zhenyuan reign era (785-806), Officer Li Gongchui stayed overnight in my residence at the Jinganli quarter, and our conversation touched upon this matter. Gongchui exclaimed that it was most extraordinary, and then composed “Song of Yingying” to help transmit the story. Miss Cui’s childhood name was Yingying, and Gongchui used it for the title.28
真元年(785-806年)九月,李公棣官在我位于金安里区的住所过夜,我们的谈话就此展开。公崔感叹这是最不平凡的,然后创作了《莹莹歌》来帮助传递这个故事。崔小姐儿时的名字叫莹莹,公垂就用这个名字来取这个名字。 28

This reads like a paratextual note about how the tale was written, read, and received.
并收到。
A story that goes beyond surface impressions of life
生活印象
is told among literary friends, inviting
朋友, 邀请
or expecting
或期待
their comprehension, interpretation and appreciation. Such a story holds the attention of the literati audience with its convincing portrayal of characters from a world that they
他们的理解、解释和欣赏。这样的故事以其对来自世界人物的令人信服的描绘吸引了文人观众的注意力,他们
inhabit: for example, the male protagonist boasts literary talents and a firm belief in Confucian virtues. Yet the familiar is transposed into literary language and this alerts the audience to the not-so-common emotional elements in the story; therefore, the audience designates the tale as “extraordinary.” Even with a generically
居住:例如,男主角拥有文学才华和对儒家美德的坚定信念。然而,熟悉的事物被转化为文学语言,这提醒观众注意故事中不那么常见的情感元素;因此,观众将这个故事指定为“非同寻常”。即使有一个通用的
familiar figure such as Scholar Zhang going through the experience and retelling it to his fellow members of the literati, the events in the tale still present something other
熟悉的人物,如张学者的经历,并向他的文人同伴复述,故事中的事件仍然呈现出另一种东西
than what the
比什么
literati normally see in their daily
在他们的日常中
lives, as is evidenced by
生命,正如
their reaction to it both within and outside of the narrative of the story. Throughout the romance, Scholar Zhang repeatedly feels “confused” at Yingying’s words and behavior. There is no supernatural quality to the events in the tale. The breach of their comfort within the boundaries of normal life is the emotional content, which evokes a literary response. The small group of readers/listeners, who
他们在故事叙述内部和外部对此的反应。在整段恋情中,张学者反复对莹莹的言行感到“困惑”。故事中的事件没有超自然的品质。在正常生活的界限内打破他们的舒适感,是情感内容,它唤起了文学上的回应。一小群读者/听众,他们

28 貞元歲九月,執事李公垂,宿于予靖安裏第,語及于是。公垂卓然稱异,遂爲《鶯鶯歌》以傳之。崔氏小名鶯鶯,公垂以命篇。Yingying’s Story, TPGJ 4017
28 贞元岁九月,执事李公垂,宿于予靖安里第,语及于是。 公垂卓然称异,遂为《莺莺歌》以传之。 崔氏小名莺莺,公垂以命篇。 Yingying’s StoryTPGJ 4017
.

have a glimpse of what transpires in the tale, do not brush it away as whimsy. Instead, they provide their responses in literary
瞥见故事中发生的事情,不要把它当作异想天开。取而代之的是,他们以文学作品的形式提供他们的回应
form: by writing poetry inspired by the perceptions presented in the tale, they
故事中呈现的观念,他们
try to comprehend it, and take a different perspective on the world as described in the tale. A long poem in the form of a ballad was composed as an event in the narrative and named after the female protagonist in the tale: Yingying puzzles not only
去理解它,并对故事中描述的世界采取不同的看法。一首歌谣形式的长诗是作为叙事中的一个事件而创作的,并以故事中的女主角命名:莹莹不仅
the male protagonist, Scholar
男主,学者
Zhang, but also the literati audience that hears the tale in the narrative, which is a proxy for the literati audience extrinsic to the tale. In this way, through their shared admiration and astonishment, the literati audience members identify
代表文人观众,故事的外在。就这样,通过他们共同的钦佩和惊讶,文人观众们认同了
themselves with the male literati character and adopt a certain attitude toward the text of the tale as transcribed when they produce their lyrical response
他们自己具有男性文人的性格,并在产生抒情反应时对故事的文本采取一定的态度,正如他们所转录的那样
to it. Han Yu’s
对它。韩煜
claim of pure
声称纯
literary pleasure in writing
以书面形式
tales of marvels seems to be a given here: no one in the text even mentions that the tale falls short of reaching any political and practical goal.
奇迹在这里似乎是给定的:文本中甚至没有人提到这个故事没有达到任何政治和实际目标。

The poetic lines recorded in Yuan Zhen’s text also work with the prose narrative written in the tradition of historical biography, and affect the tale’s reception among its literati readers. In addition to the ballad-style poems by Yang Juyuan 楊巨源, Gongchui29--and the writer Yuan Zhen himself, who appears as a tangential character within his own story--there are other poems inserted in the story in the voice of the protagonists. Recent research shows that those pieces in the voice of the male protagonist, Scholar Zhang, are indeed poems that Yuan Zhen himself
袁祯文本中记载的诗意台词,也与历史传记传统的散文叙事相得益彰,影响了故事在文人读者中的接受度。除了杨巨源、贡垂 29 的民谣式诗——以及作家袁震本人,他在自己的故事中以切线人物的身份出现——还有其他诗意以主人公的声音插入到故事中。最近的研究表明,男主角张士生的那些作品,确实是袁真本人的诗

29 Li Gongchui, aka Li Shen 李紳 (772-846), writes Song of Yingying 鶯鶯歌, in which he uses qilü 七律, a complicated eight-line poetic pattern with seven Chinese characters in each line, to describe how a seventeen-year- old Yingying lives demurely in seclusion in a deserted Buddhist temple after her father passes away. Yingying’s image is sharply different from Zhang’s label of her as youwu 尤物,a special Chinese term referring to physically charming ladies with powers potentially destructive to the mental and spiritual ability of a man. “Femme fatale” might be a tentative English equivalent, only the Chinese youwu are more passive than active in precipitating the disastrous events. The complete Song may contain more than four stanzas; only the first was anthologized into The Complete Tang Poems 全唐詩. The next three stanzas were quoted in a Yuan drama based on Yingying’s story. See Zhou Shaoliang, Tang Chuanqi jianzheng 407-408.
29 李公棴,又名李深李紳(772-846),著《莺莺歌》,其中他使用“七律”(qilü 七律)一个复杂的八行诗歌模式,每行有七个汉字,描述了一个十七岁的莹莹在父亲去世后如何在一座废弃的佛教寺庙中隐居生活。莹莹的形象与张艺莹的“尤物”标签截然不同,“尤物”是一个特殊的中文术语,指的是身体迷人的女士,其力量可能会对男性的心理和精神能力造成破坏。 “蛇莺美人”可能是一个暂定的英语等价物,只是中国的尤武在引发灾难性事件方面更被动而不是主动。整首歌可能包含四个以上的诗节;只有第一部被选入《全唐诗全集》。接下来的三节被引用在一部根据莹莹的故事改编的元剧中。参见周少良,唐传启,建正,407-408。

53

wrote on other occasions. These poems are all well documented in collections of Tang poems.30 The blurring between the writer’s actual life and his literary tale of marvels caused critical controversy over the autobiographical elements in the story, but it nevertheless helped both the writer and the reader who were members of the Tang literati to break down the generic boundaries of historiography and poetry, and thereby to mix the aesthetic and literary functions of both in one text. It also provides an opportunity for later readers to appreciate the complexity of a tale purely constructed in literary words and techniques.
在其他场合写过。这些诗在唐诗集中都有很好的记载。 30 作家的真实生活与他的文学奇迹故事之间的模糊,引起了对故事中自传元素的批评争议,但它仍然帮助作家和作为唐朝文人成员的读者打破了史学和诗歌的一般界限,从而将两者的审美和文学功能混合在一个文本中。它还为后来的读者提供了一个机会,让他们欣赏纯粹由文学词汇和技巧构建的故事的复杂性。

Thus in Yuan Zhen’s prose narrative, the tale is complicated and enriched by his use of poetry. Readers of Yingying’s Story are, on one hand, marvel at the verbal power of a scholar’s poetry that could so seduce a morally upright maiden, yet on the other hand, they still hesitate to accept it as a natural story reflecting their normal knowledge of life. For the Tang literati, if they take Scholar Zhang’s behaviour as morally unproblematic, which they might be willing to, then they cannot explain his weak justification for his repudiation of Yingying in the name of Confucian virtues, which he himself did not follow. If they admit that they are deeply touched by Yingying’s farewell poems and letter to Zhang, then they can hardly justify his callous behaviour. Such hesitation is a symptom of their indecision in receiving the tale as purely fictional. When the reader, as a member of the literati class portrayed in the tale, accepts the
因此,在袁震的散文叙事中,故事是复杂的,而他的诗歌运用又丰富了这个故事。《莹莹的故事》的读者,一方面惊叹于学者诗歌的语言力量,能够如此勾引一个道德正直的少女,另一方面,他们仍然不愿接受它作为一个反映他们正常生活知识的自然故事。对于唐朝文人来说,如果他们认为张学者的行为在道德上没有问题,他们可能愿意这样做,那么他们就无法解释他以儒家美德的名义否定莹莹的无力理由,而他自己并没有遵循这种美德。如果他们承认他们被莹莹的告别诗和写给张的信深深打动了,那么他们就很难为他的冷酷行为辩护。这种犹豫不决是他们优柔寡断的症状,他们认为这个故事纯粹是虚构的。当读者作为故事中描绘的文人阶层的一员,接受

tale’s existence and starts to write his responses to it through poetry, then he is admitting that the tale is not merely about the impressions of a puzzling romance, but rather about how to perceive what is underneath the ostensible failure of a romantic affair--the tale suggests an emotional truth that was beyond the scope of prose narratives up to that point.
故事的存在,并开始通过诗歌写下他对它的回应,然后他承认这个故事不仅仅是关于一个令人费解的浪漫的印象,而是关于如何看待浪漫事件表面上的失败背后是什么——这个故事暗示了一种情感上的真相,这种情感真相在当时超出了散文叙事的范围。

30 Yang’s poem and Yuan Zhen’s are all included in the text of the tale, while the two chunci 春詞“spring verses” by Scholar Zhang are not recorded except for their titles. However, critics find in The Complete Tang Poems two such verses by Yuan Zhen, in which the Chinese character Ying as in Yingying’s name is symbolically used.
30 杨氏诗和袁真氏的诗篇均收录在故事正文中,而张学者的两首春詞“春诗”除标题外未被记载。然而,评论家在《唐诗全集》中发现了袁真的两句这样的诗句,其中莹莹的名字中的汉字莹被象征性地使用。

Even today, the Tang writer’s freedom of generic transgression--and consequent transgression of social and cultural values embedded in different genres--still gives pleasure and curiosity to readers and critics alike. For example, Stephen Owen in his The End of the Chinese Middle Ages presents controversial interpretations of Yingying’s Story and displays therein the gap between cultural roles and genuine feelings throughout the text.31 He points out that “the rise of romance with the representation of individually chosen and socially unauthorized relationships between men and women” is closely related to “the development of individual acts of
即使在今天,唐代作家对一般性越界的自由——以及随之而来的对不同体裁所蕴含的社会和文化价值观的侵犯——仍然给读者和评论家带来乐趣和好奇心。例如,斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen)在他的《中国中世纪的终结》中对《莹莹的故事》提出了有争议的解读,并在其中展示了贯穿整个文本的文化角色和真实情感之间的差距。 31 他指出,“浪漫主义的兴起,表现了男女之间个人选择的和社会未经授权的关系”,这与“个人行为的发展”密切相关。

interpretation or valuation and the demarcation of private space,”32 and he illustrates the tension between the culture of romance and Confucian values as represented in the loss of authority of discourses to more subversive interpretations and judgments. Yuan Zhen’s perceptions and implied judgments of his Tang world, embedded in his tale, are thus uncovered and decoded in Stephen Owen’s reading more than a thousand years later, using an explicit vocabulary that may well have been unutterable during the Tang. Thus Tang tales--in their emphasis on the literary over the historical--can say more.
解释或估价以及私人空间的划分“ 32 ,他说明了浪漫文化与儒家价值观之间的紧张关系,表现为话语权威的丧失,被更具颠覆性的解释和判断所体现。袁震对唐朝世界的感知和隐含的判断,嵌入在他的故事中,就这样在一千多年后斯蒂芬·欧文的阅读中被揭示和解码,使用了一种在唐朝时期可能无法说出的明确词汇。因此,唐故事——在强调文学而非历史——可以说得更多。

Similarly, the priority given to literary experimentation in The Tale of Li Wa33 enables the tale’s focus on the male protagonist’s transgression of social rank.34 The male protagonist in the tale makes full use of his literary knowledge and, with a true spirit of freedom of roaming, he transgresses many social restrictions. At the climax of the tale, the protagonist’s adventures reveal less about his social experience than they do about the aesthetic and literary beliefs that
同样,《李华的故事》中对文学实验的重视, 33 使故事的重点突出在男主人公对社会地位的超越上。 34 故事中的男主人公充分运用了自己的文学知识,以真正的自由漫游精神,超越了许多社会限制。在故事的高潮处,主人公的冒险经历与其说揭示了他的社会经历,不如说揭示了审美和文学信仰。

31 Stephen Owen, End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996) 166.
31 斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen),《中国“中世纪”的终结:中唐文学文化随笔》(斯坦福大学:斯坦福大学出版社,1996年),第166页。

32 Owen 130.

33 TPGJ 3985—3991.

34 In The Tale of Li Wa, Young aristocratic scholar Zheng sets out on his journey from his upper class household, where he is treasured as the legal heir to the family. Once in Chang’an, the capital city, and physically away from his family and the values the family represents, he lives with Li Wa, a courtesan who has seduced him to cross class lines and inhabit a quarter of the capital that is not familiar to elite members of the Tang literati. Zheng eventually squanders all his money and cast away by his own family. He is then driven to the lowest quarters of Chang’an.
34 在《李华的故事》中,年轻的贵族学者郑从他的上流社会家庭出发,在那里他作为家庭的合法继承人而受到珍视。一旦到了首都长安,他就远离了家人和家庭所代表的价值观,与李华住在一起,李华是一个,她引诱他跨越阶级界限,居住在唐朝文人精英阶层不熟悉的四分之一的首都。郑最终挥霍了所有的钱财,被自己的家人抛弃了。然后他被驱赶到长安的最低层。

There he makes a living in a mortuary by singing elegies for people’s funerals. After many ups and downs, he is redeemed by Li Wa and restored to his original social rank.
在那里,他通过为人们的葬礼唱挽歌在太平间谋生。历经千方百变,他被李娃赎回,恢复了原来的社会地位。

obviously gain the approval of his literary group. Unlike Yingying’s Story, in which the reader could still discern many elements of the critical controversy over its autobiographical nature, The Tale of Li Wa is told in a consistent third-person voice and the events in the narrative are deliberately presented as offering a partial picture. In the beginning of the narrative, Bai Xingjian seems to distance himself from the tale and uses young scholar Zheng, the male protagonist, as an agent to move through different layers of society in the plot. The tale functions as a reflection on Tang society and therefore provides an incomplete yet consistent impression of Tang society through one person’s eyes. The love story in the tale is thus like an image projected onto the backdrop of the hierarchy of the society: all walks of life in the mid-Tang period are represented in their interaction with the male protagonist.
显然得到了他的文学团体的认可。与《莹莹的故事》不同,《莹莹的故事》在《莹莹的故事》中仍能看出关于其自传性质的批评性争议的许多元素,《李华的故事》以一致的第三人称声音讲述,叙述中的事件被故意呈现为提供局部画面。在叙事的开头,白行健似乎与故事保持距离,利用男主郑青年学者作为代理人,在情节中穿越社会的不同阶层。这个故事是对唐社会的反映,因此通过一个人的眼睛对唐社会提供了一个不完整但一致的印象。因此,故事中的爱情故事就像是投射在社会等级制度背景下的形象:唐代中叶的各行各业都表现在他们与男主角的互动中。

However, given the possibility of writing the tale as a factual documentation of a young scholar’s impression of goings-on around him, Bai Xingjian manages to surprise his literati readers pleasantly with unexpected turns in his narrative. The most striking part of this tale comes when Scholar Zheng is reduced to being a beggar barely making a living by singing elegies in a mortuary, and yet he finds that his literary talents help in overcoming social boundaries and building up a new sense of self.
然而,考虑到有可能把这个故事写成一个年轻学者对他周围发生的事情的印象的事实记录,白行健设法在他的叙述中以意想不到的转折给他的文人读者带来了惊喜。这个故事最引人注目的部分是,郑学者沦为一个乞丐,在太平间靠唱挽歌勉强谋生,但他发现他的文学才能有助于克服社会界限和建立新的自我意识。

Zheng sings elegies so touchingly that his mortuary asks him to represent the mortuary to compete with their rival mortuaries in an elegy contest. To make this elegy contest (an experience alien to Bai’s contemporary Tang literati audience) comprehensible on the common ground of literary competences, Bai Xingjian makes full use of their shared literary knowledge and values in his writing. The description of Zheng’s performance in the elegy contest between the rival mortuaries deploys allusions to other narratives, and it shows how Bai Xingjian, himself a member of literati, undermines social impossibilities via the literary imagination. When the
郑唱的挽歌如此动人,以至于他的太平间要求他代表太平间与敌对的太平间竞争挽歌比赛。为了让这场挽歌比赛(对白的当代唐朝文人来说是陌生的经历)在文学能力的共同基础上能够被理解,白行健在他的写作中充分运用了他们共同的文学知识和价值观。对郑在对立太平间之间的挽歌比赛中的表现的描述,运用了对其他叙事的暗示,并展示了作为文人一员的白行剑如何通过文学想象破坏社会的不可能性。当

stage is set and the audience settles down, Zheng and his rival start to perform their artful elegies:
舞台搭建完毕,观众安顿下来,郑和他的情敌开始表演他们巧妙的挽歌:

… A man with a long beard came in, holding a handbell, attended by several guards. He then shook his beard, raised his brows, grasped his own wrist, and kowtowed before he went up to the platform. There he sang “White Horse (
…一个留着长胡子的男人走了进来,手里拿着一个手铃,有几名警卫在旁边。然后他晃了晃胡须,扬起眉毛,握住自己的手腕,磕了个磕头,然后走上了平台。他在那里唱了“白马(
Bai ma)”. Confident that he would be the winner, he glanced here and there as if no other singers could be as good as he was. The audience all applauded with praises, which made him think that he was now without rival that day. After a while, the mortuary from the east quarter
)”.他对自己成为赢家充满信心,他四处看了一眼,仿佛没有其他歌手能像他一样好。全场全场鼓掌称赞,这让他以为自己现在已经没有对手了。过了一会儿,东区的太平间
assembled
组装
a connected
连接
platform in the north corner. A youth in a black turban, holding a feather fan, flanked by
一把羽毛扇,两侧是
five or six people, came forward. He was none other than the young scholar of our tale. He straightened his clothing, bowed and stood straight with much deliberation. Then, clearing his throat, he started to sing. It was “Dew on the Leaves (
或六个人,挺身而出。他就是我们故事中的年轻学者。他整理了一下衣服,鞠了一躬,站直了身子,深思熟虑。然后,清了清嗓子,他开始唱歌。那是“树叶上的露水(
Xie lu)”. His clear and transcending voice flew high and made even the forest trees tremble. The audience sighed and wept even before
)”.他清澈而超凡脱俗的声音高高飞翔,连森林里的树木都颤抖了起来。观众们甚至在之前就叹息和哭泣
the song was finished.
完成。
35

In this scene, the narrator in fact describes the competing performances in front of the audience with great insight into the artistic and literary effects of such performances. Scholar Zheng may be educated and have a beautiful voice, but he is not a professional performer, and his rival is an experienced professional who knows all the tricks of the trade. Once the contest starts, it is evident in the text that Bai Xingjian, the writer, has more to say about the significance of such a contest than his mere surface impressions. His implicit code of literary values would be shared
在这个场景中,叙述者实际上描述了观众面前的竞争表演,对这种表演的艺术和文学效果有深刻的洞察力。学者郑可能受过教育,有一副美妙的嗓音,但他不是专业的表演者,他的对手是一位经验丰富的专业人士,知道这个行业的所有技巧。比赛一开始,从文字中可以明显看出,作家白行剑对这样一场比赛的意义,比他单纯的表面印象要说的更多。他隐含的文学价值准则将被分享

35有長髯者,擁鐸而進,翊衛數人,于是奮髯揚眉,扼腕頓顙而登,乃歌《白馬》之詞。恃其夙勝,顧眄
35 有长髯者,拥铎而进,翊卫数人,于是奋髯扬眉,扼腕顿颤而登,乃歌《白马》之词。 恃其夙胜,顾眄左

右,旁若無人。齊聲贊揚之,自以爲獨步一時,不可得而屈也。有頃,東肆長于北隅上設連榻,有烏巾少年,左右五六人,秉翣而至,即生也。整衣服,俯仰甚徐,申喉發調,容若不勝。乃歌《薤露》之章,舉聲清越,響振林木。曲度未終,聞者歔欷掩泣。TPGJ 3986
右,旁若无人。 齐声赞扬之,自以为独步一时,不可得而屈也。 有顷,东肆长于北隅上设连榻,有乌巾少年,左右五六人,秉翣而至,即生也。 整衣服,俯仰甚徐,申喉发调,容若不胜。 乃歌《薤露》之章,举声清越,响振林木。 曲度未终,闻者歔欷掩泣。 TPGJ 3986
.

by his contemporaries among the Tang literati, and therefore his vision can be perceived and shared by
被他同时代的唐朝文人所接受,因此他的观点可以被那些人所感知和分享。
his immediate readers. The
他的直接读者。这
description of
的描述
the professional singer from the west quarter recalls
来自西区的专业歌手回忆起
the butcher, Paoding, who dissects an ox in Zhuangzi: both treat their profession
职业
more like performances, and both present a self-contented attitude during and after the performance. What makes Paoding different from the singer is that for the former his performance is closer to Dao (in other words, it is a way for him to approach the truth), while for the latter it is nothing but a presentation.
喜欢表演,在表演中和表演后都呈现出一种自我满足的态度。宝定与歌唱家的不同之处在于,对于前者来说,他的表演更接近于道(换句话说,这是他接近真相的一种方式),而对于后者来说,它只不过是一种呈现。
Paoding achieves freedom of roaming in his performance, while the singer
歌手
achieves only
仅实现
the smooth appearance
外观
of performance. The singer
歌手
makes a great show of himself
他自己
before his performance. He is performing a ritual. What he receives is enthusiastic applause, justified for such a great performance. His audience is engaged by but not involved in his performance. In contrast, the youth from east quarter, i.e., the “degraded” young scholar Zheng, arrives with a humble and modest appearance. His deliberate movements show that for him, it is more an expression of mood than a presentation of ritual. In other words, if the other singer aims at overwhelming his audience with his superior skills, Zheng touches his audience by sharing his true sorrow through emotional openness. His spirit is not restricted by the superficial
他的表现。他正在进行一个仪式。他得到的是热烈的掌声,如此出色的表现是有道理的。他的观众被他的表演所吸引,但没有参与到他的表演中。与此形成鲜明对比的是,来自东城的青年,即“堕落”的郑青年学者,则以谦逊谦逊的外表到来。他深思熟虑的动作表明,对他来说,这更像是一种情绪的表达,而不是仪式的呈现。换言之,如果说另一位歌手的目标是用他卓越的技巧压倒他的听众,那么郑通过情感的开放来分享他真正的悲伤,从而打动了他的听众。他的精神不受肤浅事物的限制

presentation of the performance; instead, it goes across the division of performer and audience and evokes sympathy from his audience rather than mere appreciation. The two elegies that are respectively selected by the two singers also reveal the literary beliefs of Bai Xingjian and his
表演的呈现;相反,它跨越了表演者和观众的划分,并引起了观众的同情,而不仅仅是欣赏。两位歌唱家分别挑选的两首挽歌,也揭示了白行剑及其本人的文学信仰。

literary group. Scholar Zheng’s “Dew on the Leaves” is a short elegy lamenting the shortness of a human life; and is in contrast to his rival singer’s choice of “White Horse”, a long poem
文学团体。郑学者的《树叶上的露水》是一首短篇挽歌,哀叹人类生命的短暂;与他的对手歌手选择的长诗《白马》形成鲜明对比

praising royal soldiers’ deaths on the battlefield. In the Tang dynasty, it may have been
赞美皇家士兵在战场上的死亡。在唐朝,可能是

politically incorrect to portray Zheng’s more poetic choice as triumphant over his rival singer’s patriotic choice, and yet Bai Xingjian and his audience share a possibility through this tale to better appreciate “Dew on the Leaves” in a new context.
将郑钦文更诗意的选择描绘成战胜对手歌唱家的爱国选择,这在政治上是不正确的,但白行健和他的观众通过这个故事分享了一种可能性,即在新的语境下更好地欣赏《树叶上的露水》。

“An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River湘中怨解

Sometimes in Tang tales of marvels, even without evident support from fellow members of the audience, the generic transgressions in the writing of chuanqi could transform the narratives of the tales. As can be seen in Yingying’s Story and The Tale of Li Wa, the Tang
有时,在唐朝的奇妙故事中,即使没有其他观众的明显支持,《传气》写作中的一般性过错也会改变故事的叙述。从《盈盈的故事》和《李华的故事》中可以看出

writers’ and readers’ shared literary knowledge, common literary values, and joint yearning for freedom of roaming make it possible for their tales of marvels to transgress the strictures of genre. The transgressions sometimes more clearly engage with source genres in the final forms of tales of marvels. The best example to illustrate this point is Xiangzhongyuan jie 湘中怨解 (An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River) by Shen Yazhi 沈亞之 (781-832),36 in which the tug of war between the genres, i.e., classical Chu lyrics 楚辭 (chuci) and biographical prose narrative, drastically changes the style of prose narrative in this tale.
作家和读者共同的文学知识、共同的文学价值观以及对自由漫游的共同向往,使他们的奇迹故事有可能超越体裁的束缚。这些僭越有时更清楚地与奇迹故事的最终形式中的源体裁有关。说明这一点的最好例子是沈亞之(781-832 36 )的《湘河之歌》中的拉锯战,其中古典楚词楚辭(chuci)和传记散文叙事两种体裁之间的拉锯战,极大地改变了这个故事中散文叙事的风格。

The tale “An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River” portrays a romance between a young Imperial Scholar Zheng and a river Goddess Siren.37 Zheng encounters Siren who is disguised as a forlorn young woman. Touched by her helplessness, Zheng generously takes care of her. In their life together, she shows her resourcefulness in practical life as well as her literary
故事《湘江哀歌解读》描绘了一位年轻的帝国学者郑和河女神塞壬之间的浪漫故事。 37 郑遇到了伪装成孤独的年轻女子的塞壬。郑被她的无助所感动,慷慨地照顾她。在他们在一起的生活中,她展示了她在实际生活中的足智多谋以及她的文学能力

36 Shen Yazhi 沈亞之 (781-832) wrote Xiangzhongyuan jie in the thirteenth year of Yuanhe 元和 reign (818). Shen Yazhi, also named Xiaxian 下賢, is the author of several other Tang tales of marvels. These can be found in Shen Xiaxian wenji 沈下賢文集, a collection of writings by Shen Yazhi. Later a shorter version was edited into Taiping guangji 太平廣記 under a different title Taixue zhengsheng 太學鄭生 (Imperial Scholar Zheng), annotated as coming from an earlier collection entitled Yiwen lu 異聞錄 (Record of Strange Stories Heard). Two English translations of the story are available in the following titles: Chinese Prose Literature of the T’ang Period by E.D. Edwards, Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century, translated by Michael Broschat and edited by Karl S. Y. Kao. In 1998, William H. Nienhauser Jr. working with a fuller source text that appeared in Wang Pi-jiang, Tangren Xiaoshuo 唐人小說, provided his own translation in his essay “Creativity and Storytelling in the Ch’uan-ch’i: Shen Ya-chih’s T’ang Tales.” All these previous translations are valuable secondary resources, but I will present my own translation of quoted texts. Also, the source text of my translation is taken from Shen Xiaxian Ji 沈下賢集
36 沈亞之(781-832)在元和元和十三年(818年)写成《湘中元界》。沈雅之,又名夏贤,是其他几部唐朝奇事的作者。这些可以在沈雅之的著作集《沈夏先文集》中找到。后来,一个较短的版本被编辑成《太平广济》,以不同的标题“太平廣生”(《帝国学者郑》)为标题,注释为来自早期的一本名为《镰聞錄》的合集。这个故事有两个英文译本,书名如下:E.D. Edwards 的 Chinese Prose Literature of the T'ang Period、Classical Chinese Tales of the Supernatural and the Fantastic: Selections from the Third to the Tenth Century,由 Michael Broschat 翻译,Karl S. Y. Kao 编辑。1998年,William H. Nienhauser Jr.利用《唐人小說王丕江》中更完整的原文,在他的论文《Ch'uan-ch'i的创造力和讲故事:沈亚志的唐故事集》中提供了他自己的翻译。所有这些以前的翻译都是宝贵的二手资源,但我将展示我自己对引用文本的翻译。另外,我翻译的原文摘自《沈下賢集》
.

37 There are two characters in Siren 汜人. Si is the name of the river; and ren is a term for human beings in general. “Siren” is the pinyin spelling of the name. It does not necessarily have the same association as Siren in English, which means a Sea Nymph who lures sailors to destruction on the rocks where she lives.
通常。“警笛”是名字的拼音拼写。它不一定与英语中的海妖有相同的联系,海妖的意思是引诱水手在她居住的岩石上毁灭的海仙女。

talents as a poet. She sings many classical pieces of Chu lyrics with ease and creates her own piece in the style of Chu lyrics entitled Fengguang ci 風光詞 (Lyric of Light and Breeze). She then reveals her true identity as a river Goddess when she takes leave of Zheng. More than ten years later, Zheng comes across Siren again on the Xiang River, with her true identity of a river Goddess now revealed. Zheng laments the loss of her in a couple of poetic lines in the style of Chu lyrics, and Siren responds with her own poetic lines. After the song is chanted, she disappears and leaves Zheng in deep misery. In this tale of fantasy written in classical prose, poetry acts as a shaping power of the roaming imagination as it assumes the form of a lady demonstrating literary powers in Chu lyrics; the poetry is in tension with the more utilitarian biographical prose, which opposes these poetic flights with a demystifying tendency, shown
作为诗人的才能。她轻松演唱了许多经典的楚抒情诗,并以楚抒情诗的风格创作了自己的作品,名为《光与风的抒情》。然后,当她离开郑时,她揭示了自己作为河流女神的真实身份。十多年后,郑在湘江上再次遇见了海妖,她那位河神的真实身份也随之揭晓。郑以楚抒情风格的几句诗句表达了对她逝去的哀悼,而塞壬则用她自己的诗意诗句回应。唱完歌后,她消失了,留下郑在深深的痛苦中。在这个用古典散文写成的奇幻故事中,诗歌作为漫游想象的塑造力量,因为它在楚歌中呈现出一位女士的形态,展示了文学的力量;这些诗歌与更功利的传记散文存在紧张关系,后者以一种揭开神秘感的倾向反对这些诗意的飞行

clearly in the tale’s plot of domestication. In particular, Siren strongly revives the spirit of literary beauty and the free roaming spirit of art in her revival of Chu lyrics, in spite of the fact that the prose narrative tries to domesticate and transform her Goddess image into a homely lady.
显然在故事的驯化情节中。特别是,塞壬在对楚抒情诗的复兴中,强烈地复兴了文学美的精神和自由漫游的精神,尽管散文叙事试图将她的女神形象驯化和改造成一个家常的淑女。

The Chu lyrics are a unique poetic genre in classical Chinese literature.38 Unlike the central Chinese poetic tradition emanating from Book of Poetry, it shows great poetic power in creating an internal, private, and personal space where the poet can capture a moment of epiphany.39 In the Tang dynasty, most prose narratives written in the classical Chinese language are meant to convince the audience that they at least sound true to impressions of daily life. Thus
楚抒情诗是中国古典文学中一种独特的诗体。 38 与源自《诗经》的中国中心诗歌传统不同,它展示了巨大的诗意力量,创造了一个内在的、私人的、个人的空间,诗人可以捕捉到顿悟的时刻。 39 在唐代,大多数用中国古典语言写成的散文叙述都是为了让读者相信,它们至少听起来是真实的日常生活印象。因此

two literary drives co-exist in the tale form: one upward and outward that celebrates the literary
两种文学驱动力以故事形式并存:一种向上和向外,庆祝文学

38 Christopher Leigh Connery, in “Sao, Fu, Parallel Prose, and Related Genres,” argues that the Chu lyrics differ from the central Chinese genres commonly identified with poetry. He notes that the Chu lyrics often have exotic descriptive passages with images drawn from the flora, fauna, and rituals of the Chu region, and that thematically speaking, the Chu lyrics, talk abundantly about encounters with the otherworldly. Also, he notices a contrast between the almost unrealistic nature of such encounters and the solid concreteness of specific images used in its description. See Christopher Leigh Connery, “Sao, Fu, Parallel Prose, and Related Genres,” Victor H. Mair ed.,The Columbia History of Chinese Literature (New York, Columbia UP, 2001) 225-227.
38 克里斯托弗·利·康纳利(Christopher Leigh Connery)在《骚、福、平行散文及相关体裁》一书中认为,楚抒情诗与通常与诗歌相等的中国中心体裁不同。他指出,楚族歌词中经常有异国情调的描述性段落,其图像取自楚族地区的动植物和仪式,从主题上讲,楚族歌词大量讲述了与超凡脱俗的相遇。此外,他注意到这种相遇几乎不切实际的性质与其描述中使用的特定图像的坚实具体性之间的对比。参见Christopher Leigh Connery:〈Sao, Fu, Parallel Prose, and Related Genres〉,Victor H. Mair编,《哥伦比亚中国文学史》(纽约,哥伦比亚大学出版社,2001年),第225-227页。

39 Stephen Owen assigns the cause for a rise of romance in the Tang dynasty to “the development of individual acts of interpretation or valuation and the demarcation of private space,” and he gives credit of creation for that “private space” to the poet. Stephen Owen, The End of the Chinese “Middle Ages”: Essays in Mid-Tang Literary Culture (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996) 130-131.
39 斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen)将唐代浪漫主义兴起的原因归因于“个人解释或估价行为的发展以及私人空间的划分”,并将这种“私人空间”的创造归功于诗人。斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen),《中国“中世纪”的终结:唐代文学文化随笔》(斯坦福大学:斯坦福大学出版社,1996年),第130-131页。

act of capturing the moment in language; the other downward and inward that laments losing the moment and dealing only with the aftermath of the inexpressible.
用语言捕捉瞬间的行为;另一种是向下的和向内的,哀叹失去当下,只处理无法表达的后果。

Shen Yazhi himself enjoyed great fame as a poet in the Tang dynasty.40 The otherworldly style of his poems shows how much he follows in the tradition of Chu lyrics. It is therefore not surprising that the motif of ascending, the image of a flowery and fragrant goddess, and the celebration of short but ecstatic moments which are so commonly seen in Chu lyrics all find expression in his narrative writing. “An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River”, however, is basically a prose narrative that is meant to follow the generic structure and content expected from its Tang readers conditioned by the biographical form from historiography. Shen Yazhi conscientiously makes this clear in the title, the plot, and the theme. The frame structure of the
沈雅之本人在唐代作为诗人享有盛誉。 40 他诗歌的超凡脱俗的风格表明他对楚抒情诗传统的遵循程度。因此,毫不奇怪,升天的主题,花香四溢的女神的形象,以及对短暂而欣喜若狂的时刻的庆祝,这些在楚的歌词中都很常见,都在他的叙事写作中得到了表达。然而,《湘江哀歌》基本上是一部散文叙事,其目的在于遵循唐朝读者所期望的一般结构和内容,这些结构和内容受史学传记形式的制约。沈雅之在标题、情节、主题上都认真地把这一点说清楚了。的框架结构

tale constrains the lyrical poetic lines within a narrative sequence. The title “An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River” promises a key to understand the text that follows. The framing introduction and conclusion, written in flat classical prose, also help curb the outward drive of the poetic sections. The plot itself clearly strives to contain, subdue, and incorporate the literary transgression ultimately sung out in Siren’s song.
故事限制了叙事序列中的抒情诗意线条。书名《湘江哀歌解读》为理解接下来的文字提供了一把钥匙。用平淡的古典散文写成的框架引言和结论,也有助于抑制诗歌部分的外向驱动力。情节本身显然努力遏制、制服和融入最终在塞壬之歌中唱出的文学违规行为。

The keyword, “Explication”, in the title of the tale reveals the purpose of the prose narrative containment. The prose narrative was meant to dissolve the power of poetry. By explication, or jie , Shen Yazhi declares that he means to analyze, to explain, and to dissolve the mystery and fantasy linked with the lyric “Lament from the Xiang River.” (The word jie is the very one used to describe butchering an animal into its component parts, as Butcher Paoding
故事标题中的关键词“阐释”,揭示了散文叙事收容的目的。散文叙事是为了消解诗歌的力量。沈雅之通过阐释,或称解解,宣称他的意思是分析、解释和消解与歌词“湘江哀歌”相关的神秘和幻想。(“杰”一词就是用来形容将动物屠宰成其组成部分的词,如屠夫保定

does in the Zhuangzi.) It is a rhetorical gesture that aims to bring the private space created by the
在庄子中做。这是一种修辞姿态,旨在带来由

40 Shen Yazhi’s reputation as a poet can be seen in his being cited in the preface to the literati chapter in Xintangshu新唐書 (New History of the Tang, 201:5726) and in his being acknowledged and lauded by other famous poets such as Li He 李賀 (790-816), Du Mu 杜牧 (803-852), and Li Shangyin 李商隱 (812-858). Du Mu lines on Shen--“To crystal lyrics by this man who can sing in echo? / Weeds covering the path, moss spreading everywhere, he is not to be found.” 斯人清唱何人和,草徑苔蕪不可尋 (Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 521:5958)--are precise in summarizing Shen’s style and fame in poetry writing.
40 沈雅之作为诗人的声誉,可以从他在《新唐书》(新唐书201:5726)文人篇序中被引用,以及他被李和李賀(790-816)、杜牧(803-852)和李商隱(812-858)等其他著名诗人所承认和赞美。杜牧对沈的台词---“给这个能回声唱歌的男人的水晶歌词?/杂草覆盖着小路,苔藓到处都是,他找不到。 斯人清唱何人和,草徑苔蕪不可尋 (Quan Tang shi 全唐詩 521:5958)--准确地概括了沈氏在诗歌创作中的风格和名声。

lyrical force of poetry into the public field to analyze and reveal every bit of its mystery to the audience, thus materializing the poetic fantasy with everyday details of factual descriptions in prose. The accomplishment of jie therefore means both completion of narration and the deconstruction of the mysterious beauty of fantasy created by the genre of Chu lyrics when these lyrics are incorporated into prose tales of marvels. However, even as the text of the tale evolves, the lyrical power of Chu lyrics shifts the tale’s destination.
诗歌的抒情力量走进公共领域,分析并向观众揭示其每一点神秘之处,从而将诗意的幻想与散文中事实描写的日常细节具体化。因此,“解”的成就,既意味着叙述的完成,也意味着解构了楚抒情诗这种体裁所创造的神秘的幻想之美,当这些抒情被融入到奇幻的散文故事中时。然而,即使故事的文本在不断发展,朱歌词的抒情力量也改变了故事的目的地。

Siren, the female protagonist, is metaphorically the personified spirit of Chu lyrics living in a mundane world: she has a double identity in the narrative. In the prose narrative she is a plausible woman living in the Tang dynasty. She emblematizes the situation of most women in the Tang dynasty in that she relies on the mercy of men to have a decent life. She is an orphan, so she first depends on her elder brother; and then, finding her sister-in-law unaccommodating, she wishes to drown herself in the river. When Zheng, the male protagonist, proposes to take care of her, she acknowledges her status in his life as an inferior and a dependant. In the prose part of the tale, she is first a discarded woman and then a wife figure, until the end of the tale. The genre of Chu lyrics enters the tale of marvels with a similar self-effacement: ready to give up some part of lyrical force so as to be accepted by the reader.
女主角塞壬,隐喻了朱棠歌词中生活在世俗世界的拟人化灵魂:她在叙事中具有双重身份。在散文叙述中,她是一个生活在唐朝的似是而非的女人。她象征着唐朝大多数女性的处境,她依靠男人的怜悯来过上体面的生活。她是个孤儿,所以她首先要依靠她的哥哥;然后,她发现她的嫂子不适应,她想把自己淹死在河里。当男主郑提出要照顾她时,郑承认了自己在他生活中的地位,她是低人一等和依赖者。在故事的散文部分,她首先是一个被抛弃的女人,然后是一个妻子的形象,直到故事的结尾。楚抒情诗的体裁以类似的自我贬低进入了奇迹的故事:准备放弃一部分抒情力量,以便被读者接受。

Siren’s prosaic identity in everyday reality is as a wife to Zheng. She is, on the other hand, endowed with immortality and fantasy by the poetic lines that are scattered throughout the tale. She is said to have created lyrics thatare so beautifully done that they do not belong to this world 其詞麗絕,世莫有屬者.” Indeed, Siren’s poem is the only complete poetic piece allowed into the prose narrative, and it is aptly titled “Lyric of Light and Breeze”41
塞壬在日常现实中平淡无奇的身份是郑的妻子。另一方面,她被散布在整个故事中的诗意线条赋予了不朽和幻想。据说她创作的歌词“做得如此优美,以至于它们不属于这个世界,其詞麗絕,世莫有屬者”。事实上,塞壬的诗是唯一被允许进入散文叙事的完整诗歌作品,它被恰当地命名为“光与风的抒情诗” 41
:

41 Siren’s true identity of a River Goddess is only fully revealed at the end of the tale. The dramatic irony is thereby embedded in the prose narrative, which mainly describes how Siren fits into the prosaic actual life that is constructed by all boundaries set up for a woman. On one hand, “Lyric of Light and Breeze” is said to be a lyric by Siren; on the
41 塞壬的河神真实身份直到故事的最后才完全揭晓。因此,戏剧性的讽刺被嵌入到散文叙事中,散文叙述主要描述了塞壬如何适应由女性设定的所有界限所构建的平淡无奇的实际生活。一方面,《光与风的抒情诗》据说是塞壬的一首抒情诗;在

隆佳秀兮昭盛時,42Luxuriant are the beautiful woods, prime the flourishing
隆佳秀兮昭盛時 42 Luxuriantare the beautiful woods, prime the flourishing

season,

播薰綠兮淑華歸.43I sow the seeds of rich green, and in return, the sweet
播薰綠兮淑華歸. 43 播下浓郁的绿色种子,作为回报,收获甜美的种子

blossoms arrive.
鲜花盛开。

故室荑與處萼兮,44In the chamber I place fresh lily buds and new calyxes,
故室荑與處萼兮 44 在房間裡,我放了新鮮的百合花蕾和新花萼,

潛重房以飾姿.45Within the layers of the room I adorn myself.
潛重房以飾姿. 45 在房间的层次内,我装饰自己。

見耀態之韶華兮,46Radiance shows from my appearance in the flower of youth,
見耀態之韶華兮 46 光辉从我的外表中显现出青春之花,

蒙長靄以爲幃,47Concealed in the long veils of thin mist.
蒙長靄以爲幃 47 隐藏在薄雾的长纱中。

醉融光兮眇眇瀰瀰. 48Intoxicated with the flowing light, distant and diffused,
醉融光兮眇眇瀰瀰. 48 陶醉于流淌的光芒,遥远而漫射,

遠千里兮涵烟眉.I look afar to a thousand li, and my brows harbor the foggy shores.
遠千里兮涵烟眉.我望着远方千里,眉头紧锁着雾气缭绕的海岸。

晨陶陶兮暮熙熙,49Happy I am in the mornings, and joyful at dusks,
晨陶陶兮暮熙熙 49 HappyI are in the mornings, and joyful at dusks,

舞婀娜之穠條兮,50Supple is my dancing figure, like willow branches,
舞婀娜之穠條兮 50 Suppleis my dancing figures, like 柳枝,

娉盈盈以披遲。51And with grace I move, slowly and steadily.
娉盈盈以披遲。 51 我优雅地移动,缓慢而稳定。

other hand, with the knowledge of Siren’s immortal identity, the reader will understand that it is actually a lyric of Siren. In this case, in my translation, I interpret it as a self-confessional poem and use the first-person voice.
另一方面,有了海妖的不朽身份,读者就会明白,这其实是海妖的一句歌词。在这种情况下,在我的翻译中,我将其解释为一首自我忏悔的诗,并使用第一人称语气。

42 隆佳秀兮昭盛時:Jiaxiu 佳秀 (beautiful woods) literarily refers to the trees higher and more beautiful than the rest in the woods. Plants are often used as an image for gods and Goddesses in the Chu lyrics.
42 隆佳秀兮昭盛時:Jiaxiu 佳秀(美丽的树林)字面上是指树林中的其他树木更高、更美丽。在楚歌词中,植物经常被用作神和女神的形象。

43 播薰綠兮淑華歸: xunlü 薰綠 refers to a fragrant green plant. Shuhua 淑華 are flowers with a sweet smell. First “I” sow the seeds, then the green plants grow up, and at harvest time, the sweet flowers will reward all the efforts. 44 故室荑與處萼兮: yi is the blossoms of wild lilies. Chu’e 處萼 is the newly blossomed calyxes.
43 播薰綠兮淑華歸: xunlü 薰綠 指一种芬芳的绿色植物。Shuhua 淑華是带有甜味的花朵。首先“我”播下种子,然后绿色的植物长出来,在收获的时候,甜美的花朵将回报所有的努力。 44 故室荑與處萼兮: Yi 荑是野百合的花朵。Chu'e 處萼是新开花的花萼。

45 潛重房以飾姿: Chongfang 重房, in comparison with shi in the previous line, refers to the inner chamber of the Goddess. The Goddess finishes with the outward decoration and is ready to give the final touch of elegance to herself.
45 潛重房以飾姿:Chongfang 重房,与前一行的shi室相比,指的是女神的内室。女神完成了外在的装饰,并准备给自己最后的优雅。

46 見耀態之韶華兮: This line describes the appearance of the Goddess coming out from her inner chamber. Her beauty is shining like the brightest flower. Shaohua 韶華 literarily means blossoming and is often poignantly associated with the quickly disappearing youth.
46 見耀態之韶華兮:這句話描繪女神從她的內室出現。她的美丽像最明亮的花朵一样闪耀。韶华的字面意思是盛开的意思,经常与迅速消失的青春产生尖锐的联系。

47 蒙長靄以爲幃: Wei is the veil attached to a hat, a common garment in the Tang dynasty.
47 蒙長靄以爲幃:魏幃是戴在帽子上的面纱,是唐代常见的服装。

48 醉融光兮眇眇瀰瀰: miaomiaomimi 眇眇瀰瀰 describes the way one looks afar but without seeing much. This line and the following line together describe the eyes and eyebrows of the Goddess, outlining the foggy expression on her face.
48 醉融光兮眇眇瀰瀰:miaomiaomimi 眇眇瀰瀰描述了一个人望向远方但看不到太多的方式。这句台词和接下来的台词一起描绘了女神的眼睛和眉毛,勾勒出她脸上朦胧的表情。

49 Taotao 陶陶 and xixi 熙熙 both describe a happy, contented state of mind.
49 陶和西西熙熙都描述了一种快乐满足的心态。

50 Nongtiao 穠條 means willow branches.
50 Nongtiao 穠條 意思是柳枝。

酡游顔兮倡蔓卉,52Flush on my face spreads, like vines flowering,
酡游顔兮倡蔓卉 52 Flushon my face spreads, 像藤蔓开花,

縠流茜霓兮石發髓旎53 Waves issue forth lights dainty and delightful as the moss grows from the rock, full of charm.
縠流茜霓兮石發髓旎。 53 海浪发出光芒,娇嫩宜人,苔藓从岩石中长出,充满魅力。

In a short prose narrative comprising 672 Chinese characters,54 the 104 characters in “Lyric of Light and Breeze” conveniently help Siren, the domestic lady, pierce through the confining role of her social world, as well as the prose narrative that constructs it. It elevates her out of subservience. The poetic lines take the reader’s attention away from the events and the plot to focus on the moment itself. The poem also culminates in the vision of Siren the Goddess breaking through the restrictions of the human world. When it comes to the description of the Goddess herself, the lines follow the order from far to near, and from body to face. The poetic
《光与风之抒情》中的104个字,由672个汉字 54 组成的短篇散文叙事,方便地帮助家庭小姐塞壬刺穿了她的社会世界的禁锢角色,以及构建它的散文叙事。它使她摆脱了屈从。诗意的台词将读者的注意力从事件和情节上移开,专注于当下本身。这首诗还以女神塞壬突破人类世界限制的异象达到高潮。当涉及到对女神本人的描述时,台词从远到近,从身体到脸部都遵循顺序。诗意的

lines aim to alter the mood and introduce fantasy into the reading moment. Siren’s final appearance from the layered chamber is celebrated in elegant, intoxicating language.
台词旨在改变情绪,并在阅读时刻引入幻想。塞壬最后一次从分层的房间里出现,以优雅、令人陶醉的语言庆祝。

“Lyric of Light and Breeze” seems to have little relevance to the narrative plot of domesticating Siren in the tale. However, it drastically affects this plot thereafter. Indeed, it contradicts the escalating domestication of the immortal lady by the prose narrative. The latter half of the tale further makes the tug of war evident before ending in a sate of compromise. The lyric first reveals its force of generic transgression by interrupting a chronological narrative flow. It does this by introducing an intoxicating moment of poetry that breaks from the flow of the
《光与风的抒情》似乎与故事中驯化海妖的叙事情节关系不大。然而,它此后极大地影响了这个情节。事实上,它与散文叙事对不朽女士的不断升级的驯化相矛盾。故事的后半部分进一步使拉锯战变得明显,然后以妥协告终。抒情诗首先通过打断按时间顺序排列的叙述流程来揭示其普遍的越界力量。它通过引入一个令人陶醉的诗歌时刻来做到这一点,打破了

51 娉盈盈以披遲: In contrast with the previous line, this line describes the elegance of the slow movement of the Goddess. Ping means slow but exquisite feminine gesture.
51 娉盈盈以披遲:与前一句台词形成鲜明对比,这句台词描述了女神慢动作的优雅。Ping 娉的意思是缓慢而精致的女性姿态。

52 酡游顔兮倡蔓卉: tuo means a state of intoxication by drinking too much. You means to wander. Yan refers to the complexion of the face. Changmanhui 倡蔓卉 means the vines and flowers grow and spread. This line describes how the Goddess flushes gradually, and yet she is closely associated with plants and flowers.
52 酡游顔兮倡蔓卉:tuo 酡 意思是因饮酒过多而处于醉酒状态。你遊的意思是流浪。颜顏是指脸部的肤色。Changmanhui 倡蔓卉意味着藤蔓和花朵的生长和蔓延。这句台词描述了女神如何逐渐潮红,但她与植物和花朵密切相关。

53 縠流茜霓兮石發髓旎: Hu refers to the curving wave. Liu and fa are two verbs, meaning to issue, to give out, to flow, and to grow out. Qianni 茜霓 is the beauty and daintiness of colors as reflected on the water. Suini 髓旎 means elegant beauty. Literarily, it means the river flows while its water body gives out colorful reflections, and that even the stone gives out its bone-deep beauty by growing hair-like mosses.
53 縠流茜霓兮石發髓旎:胡縠是指弯曲的波浪。Liu 流和 fa 發 是两个动词,意思是发出、发出、流出和生长。Qianni 茜霓 是倒映在水面上的美丽和精致的色彩。Suini 髓旎的意思是优雅的美丽。从字面上看,这意味着河流在流淌时,其水体会发出五颜六色的反射,甚至石头也会长出头发状的苔藓,散发出其深入骨髓的美丽。

54 TPGJ 2372-73.

prose; then the changes taking place in the narrative frame responsively incorporate such a transgressive force into the tale’s final structure.
散文;然后,叙事框架中发生的变化,响应性地将这种越界的力量融入到故事的最终结构中。

For example, immediately after Siren sings “Lyric of Light and Breeze,” the prose narrative takes a dramatic turn. Siren orally confesses her true otherworldly identity to Zheng and decides to leave him and the human world behind. She thus emancipates herself from human bondages with the lyrical force of “Lyric of Light and Breeze” and leaves the prosaic worldly life. The prose narrative turns to Zheng, the mortal human being, as the centre of events.
例如,在塞壬唱完《光与风的抒情诗》之后,散文叙事立即发生了戏剧性的转变。塞壬向郑口口承认了她真正的超凡脱俗的身份,并决定抛弃他和人类世界。于是,她以“轻与风之抒情”的抒情力量,将自己从人类的束缚中解放出来,离开了平淡无奇的世俗生活。散文叙事将郑这个凡人作为事件的中心。

However, the narrative’s attempts to stick strictly to impressions of the human world collapse as Siren and her lyrical force powerfully reshape the prose narrative. Zheng is now hardly the confident secular scholar he appears to be in the beginning of the narrative. Instead, he now resembles a shaman after accomplishing a sacrificial service: obsessed, deserted, and indulging in his own sense of loss. A reader with knowledge of the Chu lyrics will remember that many Chu lyrics indeed were written in the voice of a shaman. Such a reader would find such a narrative revision acceptable if the tradition of Chu lyrics is followed, even in the prose narrative. Zheng himself utters the first two lines for the second section of poetry in the tale:
然而,随着塞壬和她的抒情力量有力地重塑了散文叙事,叙事严格遵守人类世界印象的尝试失败了。郑现在已经不是他在叙述开始时看起来的那个自信的世俗学者了。取而代之的是,他现在就像一个完成祭祀仪式后的萨满:痴迷、被遗弃,沉迷于自己的失落感。了解楚歌词的读者会记得,许多楚歌词确实是用萨满的声音写成的。这样的读者会发现,如果遵循楚抒情的传统,甚至在散文叙事中,这样的叙事修改是可以接受的。郑自己说出了故事中第二部分诗歌的前两行:

情無垠兮靄靄洋洋,55 My affections go like an ocean without shores, far and wide,
情無垠兮靄靄洋洋 55 My affections go like a Ocean Without Shore, Far and Wide,

懐佳期兮屬三湘56 I cherish delightful times at the Three Xiang.
懐佳期兮屬三湘。 56 我珍惜在三湘的愉快时光。

55 情無垠兮靄靄洋洋: The metaphor lies in the comparison of Zheng’s profound feelings for Siren to the deep and wide river. It also recalls the beginning lines of Xiang Jun and Xiang Furen. It sings of a desire and anguish for the object of affection.
55 情無垠兮靄靄洋洋:比喻在於將鄉對海妖的深情比較為深邃而宽邊的河流。也让人想起《项俊》和《项福仁》的开头台词。它歌唱着对爱慕对象的渴望和痛苦。

56 懐佳期兮屬三湘: huai means to think of, to linger upon. Jiaqi 佳期 literarily means a good time, especially the time when two people in love meet. Sanxiang 三湘 is another name of Xiang River, mainly coming from the fact that there are three levels of the Xiang River: Lixiang 漓湘, the upper level where it joins the Li River 漓水; Xiaoxiang 瀟湘, the middle level where it joins with the Xiao River 瀟水; and the lower level where it joins the Zheng River 蒸水. As Siren already reveals her true identity as 湘中蛟宮之娣, one of the concubines in the
56 懐佳期兮屬三湘:懐意味著思念,徘徊。Jiaqi佳期的字面意思是美好的时光,尤其是两个恋爱中的人相遇的时候。三湘是湘河的别称,主要来源于湘江有三个层次:李乡漓湘,与漓水汇合的上层;小乡瀟湘,与萧河汇合的中层瀟水;以及与郑河汇合的下层蒸水.由于塞壬已经透露了她作为湘中蛟宮之娣的真实身份,湘中蛟宮之娣是其中一位的妾室。

Dragon’s Palace in the Xiang River, Zheng expresses his love for her in this line. Also, di reveals Siren’s real status in the Dragon Palace to be a lower-rank concubine instead of a dependent younger sister, and justifies later narrative descriptions of her dancing in a group of ladies.
湘江中的龙宫,郑在这句台词中表达了对她的爱意。此外,狄娣揭示了塞壬在龙宫的真实身份,她是一个低级的妾室,而不是一个依赖的妹妹,并为后来关于她在一群女士中跳舞的叙述描述辩护。

These two lines may be interpreted as Zheng’s anguish for a lost love in this world, but they may also be understood as a a shaman’s song for the desirable otherworldly Goddess, a mode commonly found in Chu lyrics. The war between prose narrative and poetry reaches an armistice via a double compromise. Inserting the poems within the prose narrative, the tale mediates between the two forces by intertwining both parties into the text.
这两句歌词可以被解读为郑为在这个世界上失去的爱情而感到痛苦,但它们也可以被理解为萨满对令人向往的超凡脱俗的女神的歌,这是楚歌词中常见的模式。散文、叙事和诗歌之间的战争,通过双重妥协达成了停战。将诗歌插入散文叙事中,故事通过将双方交织在文本中,在两种力量之间起到调解作用。

Both genres, Chu lyric and biographical prose narrative, cross their generic boundaries in the
抒情和传记散文叙事,在《抒情诗》和《传记散文》中跨越了它们的通用界限。
text and come to build a new common ground for the tale of marvels. Within the tale, Siren’s “Lyric of Light and Breeze,” the only lyric whose text is allowed to appear in full form in the tale, is hardly subordinate to the prose narrative in that it remains an independent piece of text outside the plot of the tale. Rather than bending its will to the narrative’s demands, it fully displays its poetic force in rebelling against the domestication of a Goddess. After the lyric appears, the narrative focus is essentially
塞壬的《光与风的抒情诗》是唯一允许在故事中以完整形式出现的抒情诗,它几乎不从属于散文叙事,因为它仍然是故事情节之外的独立文本。它没有屈服于叙事的要求,而是在反抗女神的驯化中充分展示了其诗意的力量。歌词出现后,叙事重点基本上是
poeticized. Action is far less important in the latter half of the prose narrative than in the first half. It is as if the narrative frame were thus broken by the poetic
诗意化。在散文叙述的后半部分,行动远不如前半部分重要。仿佛叙事框架就这样被诗意打破了
attention
注意力
to moment and mood. Parallel to the change made to prose narrative by the genre of Chu lyrics, the poetic genre is reduced in accordance with narrative necessity
抒情诗,诗歌体裁根据叙事的需要而减少
and offers more consideration
并提供更多考虑
to characterization
表征
in the plot. For example, unlike Siren’s full poem at the turning point, the two poetic fragments in the latter half of the text of the tale are characterized by a communicative nature that is specific to the two lovers, rather than with a descriptive richness typically seen in “Lyric of Light and Breeze.” In the last lyric fragments, the reader reads the shaman’s yearning for his Goddess as expressed in a more individual and human way; and the Goddess reveals herself to her shaman, but at the same time, it is also a separated wife bidding goodbye to her deserted husband with a touch of human anguish.
转折点是,故事后半部分的两个诗意片段的特点是具有两个恋人特有的交流性质,而不是通常在“光与风的抒情诗”中看到的描述丰富性。在最后的歌词片段中,读者以更加个人化和人性化的方式表达了萨满对女神的向往;女神向她的萨满显现自己,但与此同时,它也是一个分离的妻子,带着一丝人类的痛苦向被遗弃的丈夫告别。

Shen Yazhi thus applies freedom of roaming, as represented in Siren’s Chu lyrics, to his prose narrative and transforms the latter. The narrative plot thus transformed in turn works to
因此,沈雅之将塞壬《楚》歌词中所表现的漫游自由运用到他的散文叙事中,并对后者进行了改造。这样转变的叙事情节反过来又起作用

expand its horizon in a new direction. A generic compromise of two genres occurs in one unified new form of chuanqi, and fragments of lyric lines become part of a less eventful prose narrative. The immortal, free, and otherworldly literary beauty of Chu lyrics attracts the mortal, conventional, and worldly scholar to the immortal Goddess; and the factual and prosaic details of a worldly life with the scholar domesticate at least part of the spirit of the Goddess. Siren goes back to her immortal world and leaves the factual and prosaic world for good, but she bestows her legacy on the worldly life, on the text, and on readers’ reading experience, be they pre- modern or those of today.
向新的方向拓展视野。两种体裁的普遍折衷发生在一种统一的新形式的川气中,抒情诗句的片段成为不那么多事的散文叙事的一部分。楚歌词的不朽、自由、超凡脱俗的文艺之美,吸引着凡人的、传统的、世俗的学者对不朽的女神的追捧;与学者一起生活的世俗生活的事实和平淡无奇的细节至少驯化了女神精神的一部分。塞壬回到了她不朽的世界,永远离开了事实和平淡的世界,但她将她的遗产赋予了世俗的生活、文本和读者的阅读体验,无论是前现代还是今天的阅读体验。

“The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest虬髯客傳, “Kunlun Slave” 昆侖奴, andRed Thread” 紅線
《卷胡子客的故事》 虬髯客傳、「昆仑奴」 昆侖奴、《红线》

Three Tang tales of marvels--“The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest” (虬髯客傳 Qiuranke zhuan) by Du Guangting 杜光庭 (850-933),57 “Kunlun Slave” (昆侖奴 Kunlun nu) by Pei Xing, and “Red Thread” (紅線 Hongxian) by Yuan Jiao 袁郊 (fl. 860-870)--despite first appearing in different times and bearing no textual relationship to one another, have often been categorized jointly by many post-Tang literary critics as “The Tales of Three Reds” (唐傳奇之 三紅”), as if they together could reveal some common feature of chuanqi. All three tales of marvels can be categorized by a common subject, i.e., they are all tales about knights-errant who traditionally have operated on the margins of the social system. The names of female
三个唐朝奇事——杜光庭(850-933)的《卷胡客传》、裴兴的 57 《昆侖奴昆仑奴》和袁郊(860-870年)的《红线》——尽管首次出现在不同的时代,彼此之间没有文本关系,但经常被许多后唐文学评论家一起归类为“唐傳奇之”(“三紅”), 仿佛他们一起就能揭示出川气的一些共同特征。这三个奇迹故事都可以按一个共同的主题进行分类,即它们都是关于传统上在社会制度边缘运作的骑士的故事。女性的名字

57 The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest tells a story about three main characters: Hongfu (last name as Zhang, nicknamed as Hongfu or Red Whisk because she holds a red whisk in her first appearance), Li Jing (a historical figure whose biography is found in the New Tang History and Old Tang History 新唐書、舊唐書, a successful general and Duke of Wei in the Tang dyansty), and the titular Curly-Bearded Guest with the same last name as Red Whisk. The story centres around Red Whisk and her choice of Li as her betrothed husband and the Curly-Bearded Guest as her sworn brother. It also tells of the Curly-Bearded Guest’s choice to give up his fortune in acknowledgement of the talents and power of Li Shimin 李世民, the future Tang emperor.
57 《卷胡子客的故事》讲述了三个主要人物的故事:洪福(姓张,绰号洪福或红拂,因为她第一次出场时就拿着红拂)、李静(历史人物,其传记见于《新唐史》和《旧唐史》中、舊唐書,唐書是一位成功的将军,唐朝的魏国公), 以及名义上的卷胡子客人,与红拂同姓。故事围绕着 Red Whisk 和她选择 Li 作为她的未婚妻丈夫和卷发胡子的客人作为她的结拜兄弟。它还讲述了卷胡子客人选择放弃自己的财产,以承认未来的唐朝皇帝李世民的才能和权力。

protagonists in these three tales are all composed of two Chinese characters, the first one of which is “Red” (hong , literarily meaning the color red in Chinese) and the second, a Chinese character standing for a household material or tool, i.e., Silk (xiao ) inKunlun Slave”, Whisk (fu ) in “The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest”, and Thread (xian ) in “Red Thread”. In addition to the name similarities, the three female characters in the these Tang tales all conjure a sense of fantasy in that they all display personalities and characters atypical of ladies in the Tang dynasty but in accord with what the Tang literati imagined for their fellow members.
这三个故事中的主人公都由两个汉字组成,第一个是“红”(洪紅,字面意思是红色),第二个是代表家用材料或工具的汉字,即《昆仑奴》中的丝绸(xiao 綃),《卷胡子客的故事》中的拂(fu 拂), 和《红线》中的线(xian 綫)。除了名字上的相似性外,这些唐故事中的三个女性角色都给人一种幻想感,因为她们都表现出唐代女士的非典型个性和性格,但与唐朝文人对其同胞的想象相符。

The inverted images of Tang society as represented in these tales of marvels are indeed the Tang writers’ perceptions of it. Their use of received genres that aim to faithfully record impressions instead of perceptions sometimes produces a textual irony in the reader’s reading experience, especially if the reader shares the writer’s literary knowledge and values. A subversive reading is often the result: there arises a disharmony between the textual display of the writer’s perceptions and the generic expectations known by the text’s writer and the knowledgeable reader. In the knowing beholder’s eye, this disharmony becomes irony.58 Take “The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest,” for example. It is basically a tale of choices: how Red Whisk chooses her love, how Li Jing chooses a monarch to follow, and how the Curly-Bearded
这些奇事故事中所表现的唐社会的倒置形象,确实是唐代作家对唐代作家的认知。他们使用旨在忠实记录印象而不是感知的接受体裁,有时会在读者的阅读体验中产生文本讽刺,特别是如果读者分享作者的文学知识和价值观。结果往往是颠覆性的解读:在文本对作者的感知的展示与文本作者和知识渊博的读者所知道的一般期望之间出现了不和谐。在知情的旁观者眼中,这种不和谐变成了讽刺。 58 以《卷胡子客人的故事》为例。这基本上是一个关于选择的故事:红拂如何选择她的爱情,李静如何选择追随君主,以及卷胡子如何

Guest chooses to withdraw from the battlefield. The story is set in the pre-Tang period, when the Tang royal family was gaining greatly in confidence and came to rule the whole country, but the text itself was written in the late Tang period when social turmoil caused much doubt about royal authority in most of the literati’s minds. The problem of (or potential for) differences among times of narrative setting, textual production, and of the time of the reception of the textual
客人选择退出战场。故事设定在唐前时期,当时唐朝皇室信心大增,开始统治整个国家,但文本本身写于唐末时期,当时社会动荡在大多数文人心中对王权产生了很大的怀疑。叙事设置、文本产生和接受文本的时间之间的差异问题(或可能存在差异)

58 Linda Hutcheon’s Irony’s Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony (London and NY: Routledge, 1994) reveals much about how irony works in Western cultural fields. Interestingly enough, most of her theories, especially the part about how the intentions and interpretations of irony have to work together to make it happen (in section 5)
58 琳达·哈奇恩(Linda Hutcheon)的《讽刺的边缘:反讽的理论与政治》(伦敦和纽约:劳特利奇出版社,1994年)揭示了反讽在西方文化领域的运作方式。有趣的是,她的大部分理论,尤其是关于讽刺的意图和解释如何共同发挥作用才能实现它的部分(在第 5 节中)

applies most conveniently in reading many of the Tang tales, if we take Han Yu’s declaration in his defense letter seriously.
如果我们认真对待韩煜在他的辩护信中的声明,那么在阅读许多唐故事时最为方便。

message creates a space for the writer to play with generic expectations. In the narrative, Du Guangting allows the leading characters to verbally justify their own choices in conversations. Their arguments, however, read more like political speeches than emotional outbursts, and the way these arguments are thus presented in such a romance is contrary to what Tang literati readers
消息为作者创造了一个空间,让作者可以满足一般的期望。在叙事中,杜广庭让主角们在对话中口头上为自己的选择辩护。然而,他们的论点读起来更像是政治演说,而不是情绪的爆发,而这些论点以这样的浪漫方式呈现,与唐朝文人读者所表达的相反
in Du Guangting’s
广庭
time would expect from a romantic story like that between Red Whisk and Li Jing.
拂子和李静。
In addition, at the
此外,在
end of the tale Du Guangting
杜广廷
the writer speaks up and explains in a passage his intended purpose in writing. According to him, his writing of the tale aims only to confirm that Li Shimin, the second Emperor of the Tang dynasty, is the “true man” deserving of the throne.
作者直言不讳,并在一段话中解释了他写作的意图。据他说,他写这个故事的目的只是为了确认唐朝第二皇帝李世民是配得上皇位的“真人”。
59 So bold an experiment with the accepted genre of biography is not to be explained away
对公认的传记体裁进行如此大胆的实验是不能解释的
by Du Guangting’s half-hearted self-defence. Indeed, it only
杜光庭半心半意的自卫。事实上,它只是
makes his fellow members of the literati more aware of the vulnerability of generic strictures as well as of the transformative power of romance.
使他的文人同仁更加意识到一般限制的脆弱性以及浪漫的变革力量。

Indeed the tension in the writing of Du Guangting, the late Tang elite writer, between the values of his own time and those of the time of his tale, is relieved by the transgressions depicted in his tale of marvels. He goes beyond the limits of his education and accesses in his text that which is blocked to him. As an educated Tang elite scholar, Du Guangting follows Confucian teachings of loyalty so as to show his confidence in the legitimacy of the Li royal family’s rule over the country; yet despite all the details justifying his characters’ choices, he offers a much less convincing conclusion to his fellow members of the literati. The narrative also works against his concluding remarks. Throughout the tale, Li Shimin, the chosen royal representative, does nothing but sit over a chess board. Indeed, to the sympathetic ears of Du Guangting’s fellow
事实上,杜光庭这位已故的唐朝精英作家,在写作中,他所处时代的价值观与他的故事中所描绘的价值观之间的紧张关系,被他所描绘的违法行为所缓解。他超越了他所受教育的界限,在他的文本中获得了他被阻挡的东西。作为一位受过良好教育的唐朝精英学者,杜广庭遵循儒家的忠诚教义,以表明他对李氏王室统治国家的合法性的信心;然而,尽管所有细节都证明了他笔下人物的选择的合理性,但他还是为他的文人同僚提供了一个不那么令人信服的结论。叙述也与他的结论性发言背道而驰。在整个故事中,被选中的皇室代表李世民除了坐在棋盘上什么也没做。的确,在杜广庭的同伙的同情下

59乃知真人之興也,非英雄所冀。况非英雄者乎?人臣之謬思亂者,乃螳臂之拒走輪耳。我皇家垂福萬 葉,豈虛然哉。或曰:衛公之兵法,半乃虬髯所傳耳。” (Then did we know that the rising of a true man is not what a hero could expect. Not to mention to be expected by those who are not heroes! Those subjects of the emperor who think of rebels in vain are virtually mantis trying to block the moving wheels of a cart. “The Duke of Wei knows the military strategies well, and half of his knowledge comes from the teachings by the Curly-Bearded
59 “乃知真人之興也,非英雄所冀。况非英雄者乎?人臣之謬思亂者,乃螳臂之拒走輪耳。我皇家垂福萬 葉,豈虛然哉。或曰:“衛公之兵法,半乃虬髯所傳耳。“(那时我们才知道,一个真正的人的崛起并不是一个英雄所能期待的。更不用说被那些不是英雄的人所期待了!那些徒劳地认为叛乱者的皇帝臣民实际上是螳螂,试图阻挡马车的移动车轮。“魏公对军事谋略了如指掌,他一半的知识都来自卷胡子的教诲

Guest,” so say some people.)
客人,“有些人这么说。

members of the late Tang literati, all of whom lived in social and political chaos partly because of the Li royal family’s incompetence, the last sentence of the tale ironically destabilizes the royal family’s authority. It reveals that the “truly” knowledgeable and capable person in the tale is not Li Shimin, but the Curly-Bearded Guest who withdraws from the battlefield. The
已故唐朝文人,他们都生活在社会和政治混乱中,部分原因是李皇室的无能,这个故事的最后一句话具有讽刺意味,破坏了皇室的权威。它揭示了故事中“真正”知识渊博、能力出众的人并不是李世民,而是那个从战场上撤退的卷胡子客人。这

embedded irony is logically meant for Du Guangting’s fellow literati, who might find the discrepancy between what they have been taught to believe and what they, with their knowledge and intelligence, would rather question. Such an irony is forbidden in historiography or in any grand narrative, but is miraculously accommodated and even appreciated in Tang tales of marvels.
从逻辑上讲,蕴含的讽刺是针对杜广庭的文人同胞的,他们可能会发现他们被教导要相信的东西和他们凭借知识和智慧宁愿质疑的东西之间的差异。这种讽刺在史学或任何宏大叙事中都是被禁止的,但在唐朝的奇迹故事中却奇迹般地被容纳,甚至得到了赞赏。

As with many Tang tales of marvels, “Kunlun Slave,” written by Pei Xing,60 relates a fantasy of socially impossible love between two young people aided by a slave with extraordinary skills. The romance starts with a young scholar Cui visiting a high military official’s home, where Red Silk the maid entertains, embarrasses, and seduces him with a few mysterious gestures. Once home, tormented by his yearning for Red Silk and confused by her
与许多唐朝的奇迹故事一样,裴兴所著的《昆仑奴》 60 讲述了两个年轻人在具有非凡技能的奴隶的帮助下,幻想着社会上不可能的爱情。浪漫故事始于一位年轻的学者崔访问一位高级官员的家,女仆红丝在那里招待他,使他难堪,并用一些神秘的手势勾引他。曾经回到家,被他对红丝的向往折磨,被她迷惑

gestural puzzle, Cui composes a poem, in which his Kunlun slave discerns his true intention. The Kunlun slave solves Red Silk’s puzzle and helps the young couple through his magical martial arts. He jumps into Red Silk’s courtyard and after overhearing her chanting a love poem, evidently intended for his young scholar master, confirms his judgment of the girl’s wishes. He carries her out of the high official’s residence and then she lives with Cui, happily. Two years later, Red Silk is spotted by a servant from her old master, and Cui out of fear confesses his actions to the high official, who tries to arrest and kill the Kunlun slave, but in vain. A dozen years later, the Kunlun slave is seen in the market, peacefully selling mysterious medical herbs for a living.
手势谜题,崔创作了一首诗,其中他的昆仑奴隶辨别了他的真实意图。昆仑奴隶解开了红丝的难题,并通过他的神奇武术帮助这对年轻夫妇。他跳进红丝的院子,在无意中听到她吟唱一首情诗后,这首诗显然是为他的年轻书生主人准备的,证实了他对女孩愿望的判断。他把她带出高官邸,然后她就和崔幸福地住在一起。两年后,红丝被她旧主人的仆人发现,崔出于恐惧向高级官员坦白了自己的行为,高级官员试图逮捕并杀死昆仑奴隶,但徒劳无功。十几年后,昆仑奴出现在市场上,以出售神秘药材为生。

60 TPGJ 1452-54.

For the Tang literati audience, the incongruous part in the story
对于唐朝文人来说,故事中不协调的部分
derives from the fact that the success of the romance is not secured by the couple themselves, but by Red Silk and the Kunlun slave. It is not Cui, Red Silk’s intended lover, who breaks her mysterious gestural code. In fact, scholar Cui is clueless about her subtle expressions of desire, but the Kunlun slave thoroughly
源于这样一个事实,即浪漫的成功并不是由这对夫妇自己保证的,而是由红丝和昆仑奴隶保证的。打破她神秘手势密码的不是红丝的预定情人崔。事实上,崔书生对她微妙的欲望表达一无所知,而是彻底的昆仑奴
comprehends
理解
them. Later it also turns out that the Kunlun slave is the one who assists her in her escaping from the high official’s residence. In the whole course of the romance, Cui only responds with passive shock, confusion, or frustration, and never with determination or action.
协助她逃离高级官员的住所。在恋情的整个过程中,崔只是以被动的震惊、困惑或沮丧来回应,而从未以决心或行动来回应。
Cui plays a weak role in the relationship and his purpose in the narrative is mostly to shift the
移动
reader’s attention
读者的注意力
more to the leading lady in the tale. Compared
故事。比较
to a maid who chants poems and designs a set of gestural codes, and a slave who sees the intention of the poems, understands the meaning of the codes, and takes action based on them, the nominal member of the literati, Cui, is nothing but a puppet. In addition to his inadequacy as a hero of romance, Cui betrays the Kunlun slave once his love affair with Red Silk is exposed.
诗,设计了一套手势代码,一个看到诗歌意图,理解代码含义,并根据它们采取行动的奴隶,文人的名义成员,崔,只不过是一个傀儡。除了作为浪漫英雄的不足之外,崔在他与红丝的恋情曝光后,还背叛了昆仑奴。
By doing that, he joins the conventional
通过这样做,他加入了传统
social order that works against his own romance in the Tang dynasty, in spite of the fact that it is a romance in which he is supposed to play an active role.
事实上,这是一部浪漫故事,他应该在其中发挥积极作用。

Such a tale is not conventional if judged in terms of Tang social values. The true “hero” is not a member of the literati but a slave from a foreign land; the male protagonist of the love affair, who in a clichéd romance between a scholar and a beauty would possess literary competence to conquer his lady’s heart, turns out to be a cowardly young man with little literary talents who would rather stay safely within social confines. The lady finally has to live with the young man, not out of love, but out of necessity and convenience. Yet, reading to the end of the narrative, the reader is surprised by a vision of the Kunlun slave free and selling his medical herbs in market, and is thus consoled with the possibility of escaping from the depressing status quo.
如果从唐朝的社会价值观来判断,这样的故事并不具有传统意义。真正的“英雄”不是文人中的一员,而是来自异国他乡的奴隶;《恋情》的男主角,在书生与美女之间的陈词滥调的恋情中,拥有征服夫人心的文学能力,结果却是一个懦弱的年轻人,没有什么文学才能,宁愿安全地呆在社会的范围内。这位女士最后不得不和这个年轻人住在一起,不是出于爱,而是出于必要和方便。然而,读到叙述的最后,读者对昆仑奴逍遥法外并在市场上出售他的药材的景象感到惊讶,从而对摆脱令人沮丧的现状的可能性感到安慰。

“Red Thread”,61 written by Yuan Jiao, is unique in the corpus of Tang tales of marvels in that it is hardly a romance.62 Indeed, in order to achieve an other-worldly effect, Yuan Jiao makes the female protagonist defy any romantic expectations in the text. A maid to General Xue Song, Red Thread first earns General Xue’s respect with her literary accomplishments, which is not a traditional female talent in premodern China. Similar to a male member of the literati, she is erudite, quick-witted, with a fully developed knowledge of music. She is even given a mock official title of “Secretary of Home Affairs” by the General. Moreover, she helps General Xue with her extraordinary martial arts, skillfully stealing a casket from Xue’s military rival and
袁娇 61 所著的《红线》,在唐人奇幻小说的语料库中是独一无二的,它几乎不是一部浪漫小说。 62 的确,为了达到超凡脱俗的效果,袁娇让女主角无视文本中的任何浪漫期待。作为薛松将军的侍女,红线首先以她的文学造诣赢得了薛将军的尊重,这在前现代中国并不是传统的女性人才。与文人中的男性成员相似,她博学多才,机智,对音乐有充分的了解。她甚至被将军授予了一个“内政部长”的假官方头衔。此外,她还帮助薛将军施展非凡的武功,巧妙地从薛将军的军事对手那里偷走了一具棺材,并

frightening the rival into submission. The ending of Red Thread’s tale is as unexpected as her characterization: she reveals her former identity in a past life as a male physician, and persuades General Xue to set her free from bondage.
吓唬对手屈服。红线故事的结局和她的人物塑造一样出乎意料:她揭示了自己前世男医生的身份,并说服薛将军将她从束缚中解脱出来。

Such a tale offers marvels for its Tang literati readers in several ways. First, the female protagonist challenges the social expectations of a lady in the Tang dynasty through her “male” skills: literary talents, martial arts, bravery, and a strong will to earn individual freedom. Second, the social role for male literati captured in an official title is willingly assigned to Red Thread by the male protagonist. While the audience contemporary with the Tang writer is fully aware that “secretary” is a position in the Tang dynasty that could only be acquired by an educated male, Red Thread is addressed by General Xue as my “Secretary of Home Affairs.” She is differentiated from normal males by the addition of a modifier, nei or “inner/domestic ,” to the title, meaning she does not fit completely into either the male or the female sphere in the
这样的故事以多种方式为唐朝文人读者带来了奇迹。首先,女主角通过她的“男性”技能挑战了唐代女士的社会期望:文学才华、武术、勇气和争取个人自由的强烈意志。其次,在官方头衔中捕捉到的男性文人的社会角色,是男主角心甘情愿地赋予《红线》的。虽然与唐代作家同时代的读者都清楚地知道,“秘书”在唐朝是一个只有受过教育的男性才能获得的职位,但薛将军称红线为我的“内务秘书”。她与正常男性的区别在于在标题中添加了修饰词 nei 内 或“内部/家庭”,这意味着她不完全适合男性或女性领域。

Tang dynasty. Third, and as a result of the first two points, her relationship with General Xue
唐代。第三,也是前两点的结果,她与薛将军的关系

61 TPGJ 1460-62.

62 Many readers, including Wang Xiaobo, however, mistake the author of his Tang hypotext as Yang Juyuan 楊巨源 in his preface to his later extended hypotext. For the academic controversy over the authorship of the Tang hypotext, see Zhou Shaoliang 周紹良, Tang Chuanqi Jianzheng 唐傳奇箋證 (Annotation on the Tang Tales of Marvels [Beijing, Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2000]), and Liu Kairong 劉開榮, Tangdai xiaoshuo yanjiu 唐代小說研究 (A Study of Tang Tales of Marvles [Taiwan: Taiwan Commercial Press, 1964]).
62 然而,包括王晓波在内的许多读者在他后来扩展的副文本的序言中,将他的唐代副词的作者误认为杨菊元楊巨源。关于《唐代名言》作者身份的学术争议,参见周少良、唐传奇箋證、唐传奇箋證(Annotation on the Tang Tales of Marvels[Beijing, Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2000])、刘凯荣启榮、《唐代小说谜研究》[台湾:台湾商务出版社,1964年]。

Song bears few of the qualities of romance. Instead, the relationship resembles more one between two male members of the literati who have like minds: she is more his consultant than his erudite maid, and her service to Xue is not bound by her female gender. Such a female character transgresses almost all social boundaries in the Tang dynasty. Indeed, the discrepancy between what she is supposed to be and what she is created to be is so huge that Yuan Jiao finally uses the device of a past life to mediate the gap for his readers. He conveniently uses a Buddhist concept of karma to explain Red Thread’s identity as a female with male talents, claiming in her own voice that she used to be a male physician in her past life when s/he accidentally killed a pregnant woman in delivery, so that in this life she lives with a female identity, which is both a punishment and an atonement.
歌曲几乎没有浪漫的品质。相反,这种关系更像是两个志同道合的男性文人之间的关系:她更像是他的顾问,而不是他博学的女仆,她对薛的服侍不受女性性别的束缚。这样的女性角色,在唐朝,几乎超越了所有的社会界限。事实上,她应该成为的样子和她被创造的样子之间的差异是如此之大,以至于袁娇最终用前世的手段为他的读者调解了这一差距。他方便地使用佛教的业力概念来解释红线具有男性才能的女性身份,用她自己的声音声称她前世曾经是一名男医生,当时他/她在分娩时不小心杀死了一名孕妇,因此她今生以女性身份生活, 这既是一种惩罚,也是一种赎罪。

In the modern reader’s eyes, Yuan Jiao’s explanation may ironically replace one doubt with another. However, the claim that Red Thread is a male doctor re-incarnated into a female maid nevertheless indicates to an audience in the Tang dynasty that her current female identity is nothing but a transitory disguise for her. The denial of true female identity to Red Thread may excuse her failure to generate any romantic relationship with General Xue in the text. In short, the absence of femininity in the female protagonist forces the Tang literati audience to deal with the loss of the generic expectations of romance in the text of “Red Thread”.
在现代读者眼中,袁娇的解释或许可以讽刺性地用一个疑问代替另一个疑问。然而,红线是男医生转生为女仆的说法,还是向唐朝的观众表明,她现在的女性身份对她来说只不过是一种短暂的伪装。红线否认真正的女性身份,或许可以原谅她在文中未能与薛将军产生任何浪漫关系。简言之,女主角身上女性气质的缺失,迫使唐朝文人观众不得不面对《红线》文本中对浪漫的普遍期待的丧失。

To summarize, Red Silk has the literary talent to design a set of coded puzzles through hand gestures; Red Whisk has the political insight to distinguish a hero from a declining politician; and Red Thread is not only as talented as the other two “Reds” in her literary skills and political strategies, but is also physically endowed with great martial arts abilities so that she can sneak away and surprise her enemy with unbelievable skills. Similarly, the three female protagonists thus created in the Tang tales break down social conventions and embody transformative forces in their narratives. Red Silk is a maid to a general of influential power, but
总而言之,Red Silk 具有通过手势设计出一套编码拼图的文学才华;Red Whisk 具有政治洞察力,可以将英雄与衰落的政治家区分开来;而红线不仅在文学技巧和政治策略上与其他两位“红线”一样才华横溢,而且在身体上还拥有出色的武术能力,可以偷偷溜走,以令人难以置信的技能给敌人一个惊喜。同样,唐故事中由此塑造的三位女主角打破了社会习俗,在她们的叙述中体现了变革的力量。红丝是一位有影响力的将军的侍女,但是

57

she falls in love with a member of the Tang literati and then gains help from a Kunlun slave. She also starts a family life in the face of powerful interference from her influential previous owner. Red Whisk is also a maid high in her master’s favour, but identifying a great mind in Li Jing, she single-handedly helps him subjugate the ambitious and wealthy Curly-Bearded Guest and thus secures political success for Li Jing. And Red Thread might be the most unconventional maid among the three: she assists her master not only through her literary talents, but also through her almost otherworldly martial arts skills, yet at the end of the story, she chooses her own freedom over the confined life of a lady in a man’s world.
她爱上了一位唐朝文人,然后得到了一位昆仑奴的帮助。面对她有影响力的前主人的强大干预,她还开始了家庭生活。红拂也是一位深受主人青睐的女仆,但她在李静身上发现了一个伟大的头脑,她单枪匹马地帮助他征服了野心勃勃、富有的卷胡子客人,从而为李静确保了政治上的成功。而红线可能是三人中最非传统的女仆:她不仅通过她的文学才华,还通过她几乎超凡脱俗的武术技能帮助她的主人,但在故事的最后,她选择了自己的自由,而不是男人世界中女士的封闭生活。

Conclusion: Qi as a Literary Quality in the Tales of Marvels
结论:《奇谭故事》中“气”作为一种文学品质

Many scholars--Chinese and Western, pre-modern and contemporary--agree that qi is a defining characteristic of Tang tales of marvels.63 As to the question what qi is in Tang writing, most scholars turn to its effects on the reader as well as to the writer’s aims in constructing it.64 Chen Wenxin answers the question “what is qi in Tang tales” by what he calls “specific connotations” (juti neihan 具體內涵) in the Tang tales and argues that the core value of qi in these tales is a romantic attitude toward life that does not affect the overarching discourse.65 Later in his research he adds two more characteristics to this definition: the writer’s intent to
许多学者——无论是中国的还是西方的,前现代的还是当代的——都认为气是唐朝奇观故事的一个决定性特征。 63 至于唐文中“气”是什么的问题,大多数学者都转向了它对读者的影响以及作者构建气的目的。 64 陈文新通过唐话中所谓的“特定内涵”(juti neihan 具體内涵)回答了“唐话中什么是气”的问题,并认为唐话中气的核心价值是一种不影响总体话语的浪漫生活态度。 65 在他的研究后期,他为这个定义增加了另外两个特征:作者的意图

63 In addition to pre-modern critics like Hu Yingling and modern critics like Lu Xun, contemporary critics also show much critical interest in the development of the genre of chuanqi. Xue Hongji 薛洪勣’s Chuanqi Xiaoshuoshi 傳奇小說史(A History of chuanqi Fiction)(Hangzhou: Zhejiang guji chubanshe, 1998) provides a panoramic view of the chuanqi genre from before the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty; and yet, due to the very wide span of time his critical work covers and the many pieces of work his textual analysis tries to discuss in under 400 pages, the book becomes more a descriptive survey than a profound analysis of the genre. Xue’s discussion of the qi quality in the Tang tales concludes that the quality leads to certain themes and literary techniques that appear to be “new” in the Tang dynasty narrative writing.
63 除了胡英龄这样的前现代批评家和鲁迅这样的现代批评家外,当代批评家也对传气体裁的发展表现出极大的批评兴趣。薛洪基的《川奇小说史》(杭州:浙江古记出版社,1998年)提供了唐朝以前至清朝川气体裁的全景图;然而,由于他的批评工作涵盖的时间跨度非常广泛,而且他的文本分析试图在不到 400 页的篇幅中讨论许多作品,这本书更像是一种描述性调查,而不是对这一体裁的深入分析。薛对唐故事中气质的讨论得出的结论是,气质导致了某些主题和文学技巧,这些主题和技巧在唐代叙事写作中似乎是“新”的。

64 A reading of anthologies of pre-modern Chinese fiction writers’ prefaces to either their own writing or to their
64 阅读前现代中国小说作家为自己的作品或他们的作品序言的选集

fellow writerswriting would show how much importance the pre-modern writers attach to the aim of amazing their readers. See Huang Qingquan 黃清泉, Zhongguo lidai xiaoshuo xuba jilu 中國歷代小說序跋輯錄 (A Compilation of Prefaces and Colophons of Chinese Xiaoshuo Through the Ages [Wuhan: Huazhong shifan daxue, 1989]).
其他作家的写作将表明前现代作家对让读者惊叹的目标有多么重视。参见《黄清泉:中国防代小說序跋輯錄》 [武汉:华中时代出版社,1989年]。

65 Chen Wenxin, Zhongguo chuanqi xiaoshuo shihua 中國傳奇小說史話 (A Historical Account of Chinese

Chuanqi Fiction [Taipei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1995]).

fabricate, and the poetic devices used in these prose tales. Yet, again, Chen’s research stops at the crucial stage where specific textual analysis is needed to explain how the literary quality of qi is created by “the writer’s intent to fabricate” and “the poetic devices.”
捏造,以及这些散文故事中使用的诗意手法。然而,陈光诚的研究再次停在了关键阶段,在这个阶段,需要具体的文本分析来解释“气”的文学品质是如何由“作家的捏造意图”和“诗意手段”创造的。

In his discussion of Chinese narrative theory, Andrew Plaks also notes that much of the classical fiction tradition is “devoted to the investigation of the unusual, the special, [and] the unique.”66 He then mentions chuanqi as one example of such an unusual narrative and explains briefly the semantic range of the Chinese term qi in the context of Chinese narrative, translating it as patently marvelous. However, his explanation is too brief. Liang Shi makes a chronological account of the term qi in pre-modern Chinese fiction. In his interpretation of qi in the Tang dynasty, he concludes that qi in Tang tales of marvels is defined by the supernatural. His conclusion, however, hardly explains the fact that a good number of the chuanqi tales narrate the worldly romances between members of literati and beauties, and anecdotes of knights-errant, and are still considered qi.67 And Liang Shi mentions little about the literary aspect of qi in Tang chuanqi.
在讨论中国叙事理论时,安德鲁·普拉克斯还指出,古典小说传统的大部分内容都“致力于探索不寻常的、特殊的和独特的事物”。 66 然后,他提到“川气”作为这种不同寻常的叙述的一个例子,并简要解释了中国叙事语境中“气”一词的语义范围,将其翻译为明显的奇妙。然而,他的解释太简短了。梁适按时间顺序对前现代中国小说中的“气”一词进行了描述。在他对唐代气的解释中,他得出结论,唐朝奇迹故事中的气是由超自然现象定义的。然而,他的结论却无法解释这样一个事实,即许多传气故事叙述的是文人和美女之间的世俗浪漫,以及骑士的轶事,并且仍然被认为是气。 67 而梁石在《唐传气》中很少提到气的文学方面。

My discussion of Tang tales is meant to fill in the gaps in textual analysis left by the above-mentioned studies. The literary quality of qi is constructed in Tang tales of marvels and helps these tales win their readers’ attention and appreciation among the literati. The literary quality of qi is therefore essential to the birth and growth of a genre of tales that represents unusual subjects through transformative deployments of generic and literary knowledge. These tales were accepted and appreciated by their immediate readers who shared the concept of you or freedom of roaming with the writers. In the texts of the Tang tales discussed here, the literary
我对唐故事的讨论,就是为了填补上述研究留下的文本分析空白。气的文学品质建构在唐人奇事中,帮助这些故事赢得了读者的关注和文人的欣赏。因此,“气”的文学品质对于一种故事体裁的诞生和发展至关重要,这种故事体裁通过变革性地部署通用知识和文学知识来代表不寻常的主题。这些故事被他们的直接读者接受和欣赏,他们与作家分享了你或漫游自由的概念。在本文讨论的唐故事文本中,文学

quality of qi is skillfully translated into the Tang literati’s concept of you in their writing and
气的品质在他们的文字中被巧妙地转化为唐朝文人的“你”概念,

66 See Andrew H. Plaks, ed., Chinese Narrative: Critical and Theoretical Essays (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977) 350-351.
66 参见Andrew H. Plaks, ed., Chinese Narrative: Critical and Theoretical Essays (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977) 350-351。

67 Liang Shi, Reconstructing the Historical Discourse of Traditional Chinese Fiction (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2002).
67 梁石:《重构中国传统小说的历史话语》(刘易斯顿:埃德温·梅伦出版社,2002年)。

reading. With such freedom, the Tang literati roam across the restrictions of genres like historiographical
读数。有了这样的自由,唐朝文人就可以在史学等体裁的限制中漫游
biography and lyrical
抒情
poetry. This transformative
变革
poetic power started to spread to
tales like “An Explication
解说
of the Lament from Xiang River.” These tales conveyed perceptions inscribed by and for members of the literati in a form more inspirational than the social and political functions more restrictively associated with the source genres borrowed to construct such tales. The literati in the Tang chose to permit and came to relish the transgressive nature of these tales, and to appreciate the transformative and even subversive effect these tales produce through their readings. They even recorded their responses to tales in codas that appear in other tales such as
由文人成员铭刻的观念,其形式比社会和政治功能更具有启发性,与为构建此类故事而借用的原始体裁更紧密地联系在一起。唐代的文人选择允许这些故事,并开始享受这些故事的越界本质,并欣赏这些故事通过阅读产生的变革甚至颠覆性效果。他们甚至用尾声记录了他们对故事的反应,这些故事出现在其他故事中,例如
Yingying’s Story
莹莹的故事
and The Tale of Li Wa.
李华的故事。
The significant shift of focus from the political
焦点从政治的重大转移
and practical
实际
purposes of writing to the literary ones generated, justified, and historically validated thematic changes. Themes of transgressions in such tales of marvels as “The Tale of
经过历史验证的主题变更。诸如“The Tale of
the Curly-Bearded Guest,” “Kunlun Slave,” and “Red Thread” indeed totally break down the strictures of generic biography writing. Instead, they introduce a new form of literature to the reader: a literature that does not present for a person’s eye what has already occurred, but constructs what might be possible, or what might only ever exist in the writer’s mind. These newly expanded qualities of narrative in Tang tales of marvels are enabled by
《卷胡子客》、《昆仑奴》、《红线》确实彻底打破了一般传记写作的束缚。取而代之的是,它们向读者介绍了一种新的文学形式:一种文学,它不是向一个人的眼睛展示已经发生的事情,而是构建可能发生的事情,或者可能只存在于作家脑海中的东西。在唐朝的奇观故事中,这些新扩展的叙事品质是由以下因素实现的
the literary quality of
质量
qi.

The literary quality of qi in Tang chuanqi allows the possibility for a writer to write what is perceived and envisioned in the images the world leaves in one’s mind. For a writer with the emancipated spirit of you, or freedom of roaming, the literary quality of qi is thus translated into a highly skilful application of the sophisticated knowledge of various literary genres and values in constructing such images. It is human fantasy conveyed in literary words.
唐传气中气的文学品质使作家有可能写出世界在一个人脑海中留下的形象中感知和设想的东西。对于一个具有解放精神或自由漫游精神的作家来说,“气”的文学品质因此被转化为对各种文学体裁和价值的复杂知识的高度熟练应用,以构建这样的形象。它是用文学语言传达的人类幻想。

The Tang literati achieved transgressive crossing between prosaic narrative and poetic transformation, inaugurating a literature that represented a new perspective on reality through
唐朝文人实现了平淡无奇的叙事与诗意转换之间的跨界跨越,开创了一种代表现实新视角的文学

words. They sowed the
的话。他们播下了
seeds of qi in the fertile fields of classical Chinese fiction, even as they opened up those fields.
在中国古典小说的沃土上,即使他们开辟了这些领域。
What came next in Chinese literary history, however, drained much of that
然而,中国文学史上接下来发生的事情却耗尽了其中的大部分
open-minded
心胸开阔
literary force and stunted the growth of qi for a long time. In the next chapter, I will briefly summarize a period of time--spanning the imperial period after the Tang dynasty to the early Republican period--in order to show how the literary sophistication which gave so
在这一章中,我将简要总结一段时期——从唐朝以后的帝制时期到民国初期——以说明文学的复杂性如何使得如此
much life and power to Tang
给唐带来了许多生命和力量
chuanqi tales lost its force of transgression. Furthermore, this literary sophistication drained of its force made writing so restrictive that in the literary field of classical Chinese fiction, and even in related genres such as classical Chinese drama, it compromised
故事失去了它的过犯力量。此外,这种文学的复杂性耗尽了它的力量,使得写作变得如此严格,以至于在中国古典小说的文学领域,甚至在中国古典戏剧等相关体裁中,它都妥协了
the literary quality of qi and left only the shell of the genre of chuanqi. Meanwhile, heavily fettered by the new political and social demands of modern time, the umbrella genre
与此同时,受到现代新的政治和社会需求的严重束缚,伞形流派
xiaoshuo returned so as to give more priority to political and practical considerations. And so literary
返回,以便更加优先考虑政治和实际考虑。如此文学
qi became at first overly mannered, then virtually disappeared altogether. Pursuit of genuine
起初变得过于礼貌,然后几乎完全消失了。追求真实
qi is seen only sporadically in a few writers’ efforts over this time. Few as they might
在这段时间里,在少数作家的努力中只是零星地看到。尽可能少
be, they did manage to keep the literary quality of
是的,他们确实设法保持了文学质量
qi alive in their sparse but powerful words.
活在他们稀疏而有力的话语中。

Chapter III

Qi Domesticated and Reduced
气驯化和减少

In the last chapter I discussed how the Tang literati made fantasy possible in words by exploring the literary quality of qi in the writing and reading of tales of marvels. I argued that Tang literati writers made full use of the philosophical concept of you (freedom of roaming) and applied it to generic transgression and then thematic transgression carried out with mature literary sophistication. The vision of Tang society displayed in the Tang tales was accepted and appreciated by fellow members of the Tang literati. Moreover, the expression of this vision
在最后一章中,我讨论了唐朝文人如何通过探索气在写作和阅读奇迹故事中的文学品质,使文字中的幻想成为可能。笔者认为,唐代文人作家充分利用了“你”(“漫游的自由”)的哲学概念,并将其应用于一般的越界,然后以成熟的文学老练进行主题的越界。唐故事中展现的唐社会观,被唐朝文人所接受和赞赏。而且,这一愿景的表达

through new forms of narrative justified the Tang literati’s intensified focus upon the literary and aesthetic purposes of writing rather than the traditional practical and political ones.
通过新的叙事形式,唐朝文人更加关注写作的文学和审美目的,而不是传统的实践和政治目的。

The ripe seeds of literary fantasy thus planted by the Tang literati in classical Chinese literature, however, failed to produce immediate fruits after the Tang dynasty. Instead, while the
唐朝文人在中国古典文学中播下的文学幻想的成熟种子,然而,在唐朝以后,却没有立竿见影的果实。取而代之的是,虽然
chuanqi genre expanded through enhanced formal variety, it lost the transformative vitality
体裁通过增强形式多样性而扩展,它失去了变革的生命力
of qi as it increasingly adopted the more restrictive formal features of classical literature. In modern times, the quality of
随着它越来越多地采用古典文学更具限制性的形式特征。在现代,质量
qi was again relegated to near irrelevance in the field of fiction. In the first half of twentieth century, in fact, social turmoil, national crises, and political controversies consumed
在小说领域再次沦为几乎无关紧要的人物。事实上,在二十世纪上半叶,社会动荡、民族危机和政治争议已经消耗殆尽
so much of modern fiction writers’ attention
注意力
that the literary quality of qi was the least significant and often absent element in their writings. Nevertheless, a few writers managed to contribute essentially to the survival of
在他们的著作中最不重要且经常缺席的元素。尽管如此,还是有一些作家设法为生存做出了实质性的贡献。
qi in fiction writing. In this chapter I outline briefly the domestication of
在小说写作中。在本章中,我简要概述了
qi in classical Chinese literature and the reduction of that quality in modern Chinese fiction in the early
在中国古典文学中,以及早期中国现代小说中这种品质的降低
Republican period. Then I
民国时期。然后我
analyze how the literary legacy of qi from the Tang tales of marvels manages to survive in works like
从唐朝的奇迹故事中设法生存在像这样的作品中
Strange Stories from A Chinese Studio
来自中国工作室的奇怪故事
(聊齋志异
聊斋志异
Liaozhai zhiyi) by Pu Songling
) 文 者 蒲松龄
蒲松齡
蒲松龄
(1640-1715), Border Town (邊城
边城

57

58

Biancheng) by Shen Congwen 沈從文 (1902-1988), and Tales of Marvels (傳奇 Chuanqi) by Zhang Ailing 張愛玲 (aka Eileen Chang, 1920-1995).

Post-Tang Literati in Imperial China
帝制中华的后唐朝文人

Many Tang literati consolidated and developed tales of marvels in their literary groups,
许多唐朝文人在他们的文学团体中巩固和发展了奇迹故事,

but they did face criticism from scholar/officials who were more loyal to the traditional historiographical doctrines.1 Occasionally, these Tang writers of tales of marvels were scorned by fellow members of the literati who followed more traditional routes to political success.2 Nevertheless, most members of the Tang literati who wrote tales of marvels pursued the literary quality of qi with ease, and even with joy. What enabled such easy and even joyful pursuits were the suitable cultural and historical conditions for the Tang literati: unprecedented cultural diversity sparked by social turbulence;3 a chance to seek public and political success while receiving private acclaim from literary minds; and familiarity with previous literary genres—a credit to traditional Chinese education, just to mention a few conditions.
但他们确实面临来自更忠于传统史学学说的学者/官员的批评。 1 偶尔,这些写奇事的唐朝作家会受到文人的鄙视,他们走的是更传统的政治成功之路。 2 然而,大多数写奇事故事的唐朝文人,都对气的文学品质有着轻松的追求,甚至乐在其中。唐朝文人之所以能够如此轻松甚至愉快地追求,是因为唐朝文人所处的适宜的文化和历史条件:社会动荡引发了前所未有的文化多样性; 3 一个寻求公共和政治成功的机会,同时获得文学家的私人赞誉;以及熟悉以前的文学体裁——这是中国传统教育的功劳,仅举几个条件。

After the Tang dynasty, with the rise and fall of ensuing dynasties in imperial China, a series of landmark events occurred in the country’s intellectual sphere. The Song dynasty (960- 1279) saw the popularization of the literary motto “wen yi zai Dao 文以載道” (writing as a
唐朝以后,随着中华帝制后续朝代的兴衰,中国的知识界发生了一系列具有里程碑意义的事件。宋朝(960-1279)见证了文学座右铭“文以載道”温易载道“的普及。

1 See Liu Zhiji 劉知幾 (661-721)’s disapproval of the chuanqi writings or tales of marvels in his Shitong 史通 (Generalities in History). Liu in his discussion of history writing represents this highbrow trend of the critique of the pursuit of the fantastic at the cost of factuality. And yet in his attempt to analyze the causes of the unfortunate occurrence of chuanqi writing, he simultaneously uncovers its intention and purpose: “the literati who are interested in the fantastic supplement what is missing (in official history) 好奇之士,補其所亡.” The intention is to pursue the fantastic, and the purpose, is declared to be supplemental to the official history. In other words, what contributes to the fantastic is not necessarily the factual.
1 参见刘志己(661-721)在他的《史通史通》中对传气著作或奇事故事的不赞成。刘晓波在对历史写作的论述中,代表了这种以牺牲事实为代价对追求奇幻事物的批判高调趋势。然而,在试图分析《传气》写作不幸发生的原因时,他同时揭示了其意图和目的:“对《传气》这部奇妙的补充(在官方历史上)所亡感兴趣的文人,对《传气》一词的缺失感兴趣。其意图是追求奇妙的事物,其目的被宣布为对官方历史的补充。换句话说,促成奇妙的不一定是事实。

2 Han Yu’s communication with Liu Zongyuan might illustrate this paradoxical attitude toward chuanqi writing or tales of marvels in the Tang dynasty.
2 韩愈与刘宗元的交流,或许可以说明唐代对传气文字或奇事故事的这种自相矛盾的态度。

3 The Tang dynasty inherited the unified territory from the previous Sui dynasty (581-618) as well as its comparative openness to cultures other than the centralized Han culture.
3 唐朝继承了上一时期隋朝(581-618)的统一领土,以及对中央集权的汉文化以外的文化的相对开放。

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vehicle for the Dao, or the Way of Confucian moral doctrines),4 and the literary quality of qi was thereby downgraded and reduced to a means to achieve more effective diffusion of Confucian principles. Such a literary belief restored priority to the political and practical function of xiaoshuo writing as a whole, which prevailed until the end of the imperial period, when some Qing dynasty (1644-1911) literati chose to switch back to the earlier genre of zhiguai or “records of the strange” in order to write of other-worldly matters. The concept of freedom of roaming (you) slowly succumbed to the restrictions of social, cultural, and generic norms.
“道”(“道”)的载体,或儒家道德学说之道), 4 “气”的文学质量因此被降低并沦为实现儒家原则更有效传播的手段。这种文学信仰恢复了小朔文字作为一个整体的政治和实践功能的优先权,这种功能一直盛行到帝制时期末期,当时一些清朝(1644-1911)文人选择转回早期的“知传”或“奇异记录”体裁,以书写超凡脱俗的事物。自由漫游(你)的概念慢慢屈服于社会、文化和通用规范的限制。

Alongside the decline of the true spirit of freedom of roaming, the dominance of Confucian principles, or li , in Chinese culture also reduced the prominence of qi. For example, the Song dynasty successfully consolidated the educational foundation of a bureaucratic political system sustained by civil service examinations based on the Confucian classics; and Neo-
除了真正的自由漫游精神的衰落外,儒家原则或李理在中国文化中的主导地位也降低了气的突出地位。例如,宋朝成功地巩固了官僚政治制度的教育基础,该制度由基于儒家经典的公务员考试维持;和 Neo-

Confucianism arose to encompass the literati’s political ambitions, and almost became the group’s form of a personal religion in their everyday lives. The vastly expanded public obligations living a Confucian life entailed, however, constrained the literati’s imagination as a means of breaking through conventions. They became more conservative and more willing to follow political and practical callings as they were increasingly part of a political system that threatened to subsume their private lives. According to Stephen Owen, the Song literati responded to “the demands of state service” and “the unremitting moral seriousness of Neo- Confucian self-examination and self-cultivation” with literati culture, “a space of freedom and sanctioned pleasure.” And yet Stephen Owen also notes that such “a realm of private life and
儒家思想的出现是为了包含文人的政治野心,几乎成为文人日常生活中的个人宗教形式。然而,儒家生活的公共义务大大扩展,这限制了文人的想象力,以此作为突破常规的手段。他们变得更加保守,更愿意遵循政治和实际的召唤,因为他们越来越成为政治体系的一部分,这个体系有可能将他们的私生活纳入其中。根据斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen)的说法,宋代文人以文人文化回应了“国家服务的要求”和“新儒家自我反省和自我修养的不懈道德严肃性”,是“自由和认可的快乐空间”。然而,斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen)也指出,这样的“私人生活和

leisure” was only kept separate from all those demands “to some degree,” that it was not outside, but “within” the intrusive public world, and that consequently the forms of the literati culture
“闲暇”只是“在某种程度上”与所有这些要求分开,即它不是在侵入性的公共世界之外,而是在“内部”,因此是文人文化的形式

4 The term comes from the Song scholar Zhou Dunyi 周敦頤 (1017-1073)’s Tongshu 通書·文辭 (Generalities: Literariness)
4 该术语来自宋代学者周敦頤(1017-1073)的《通书通书》(通述:文学性)
.

72

were supposed to be “approved” by that world.5 In other words, while the Song literati enjoyed the expansion of their role into the public world that the Tang literati craved in vain, public demands for them to follow Confucian ways shaped almost every part of their literary world.
应该得到那个世界的“认可”。 5 换言之,虽然宋朝文人享受着他们向公共世界的扩展,而唐朝文人则徒劳地渴望这种角色,但公众要求他们遵循儒家道路的要求几乎塑造了他们文学世界的每一个部分。

Tasked with conveying only Confucianism in their literature, any expression of otherness had to be contained at the level of form only. In this case, the Song literati achieved formal sophistication in writing their tales, but different from their Tang counterparts who transgressed thematically in their textual and formal experiments, the Song literati lost the transformative force of roaming spirit. Instead, they cultivated an increasingly private realm within the public world and gave in to moral restrictures from increasingly conventional public life.
他们的任务只是在文学中传达儒家思想,任何对他者的表达都必须只包含在形式层面上。在这种情况下,宋朝文人在写故事时取得了形式上的复杂性,但与唐朝文人在他们的文本和形式实验中超越主题不同,宋朝文人失去了漫游精神的变革力量。取而代之的是,他们在公共世界中培养了一个越来越私人的领域,并屈服于日益传统的公共生活的道德限制。

In the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) the path to officialdom was blocked to the literati. The removal of pressure to serve publicly from many of the literati had a profound effect on the course of literature. There was a well-documented explosion of interest in vernacular literature (prose, poetry, and drama), but the variety play (zaju) also came to have a greater literary quality as it received more attention from literati authors.6 The verse play continued into the Ming dynasty, giving rise to a long form of drama known as chuanqi, just at the time that the literati began their significant attempts at producing long vernacular fiction elevated to share many generic similarities with classical fiction, such as subject matter, plot and characterization. The late imperial literati held up the concept of qing , or emotion/sentiment, to form a dichotomy
在元朝(1271-1368年),通往官场的道路对文人来说是被封锁的。许多文人摆脱了公开服务的压力,对文学的进程产生了深远的影响。对乡土文学(散文、诗歌和戏剧)的兴趣有据可查,但综艺剧(zaju)也开始具有更高的文学质量,因为它受到文人作家的更多关注。 6 诗歌剧一直延续到明代,产生了一种被称为“川气”的长篇戏剧,就在文人开始尝试制作长篇白话小说的时候,这些白话小说被提升到与古典小说有许多共同的相似之处,如主题、情节和人物塑造。晚期的帝国文人提出了“清情”或“情感/情感”的概念,以形成二分法

with li (principle). Due to the overwhelming power and influence of Neo-Confucianism, however,
与李(原则)。然而,由于新儒家思想的压倒性力量和影响力,

most transgressions
罪过
in the name of qing in Ming and Qing fiction were domesticated
驯化的
by li in the closure of such narratives.
关闭这种叙述。

5 Stephen Owen ed. and trans., An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 (NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996) 637.
5 斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen)主译,《中国文学选集:1911年的开端》(纽约:W.W.诺顿公司,1996年),第637页。

6 The Song dynasty Confucian scholar Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200)’s compact selection of the Confucian classics was finally assigned as the imperially sanctioned core of the curriculum for the civil service examination in the Ming dynasty, and an advocacy of imitation of the classical prose styles thus heralded in the most boring period of classical literature. Meanwhile, the vernacular literature, aiming at the larger but less elite readership in the lower ranks of society, started to use the classical Tang tales.
6 宋代儒家学者朱习朱熹(1130-1200)的紧凑选集,最终被指定为明代公务员考试课程的核心,并主张模仿古典散文风格,从而预示着古典文学最枯燥时期的模仿。与此同时,白话文学针对社会底层中人数较多但精英较少的读者群,开始使用古典唐故事。

The Tang literati expressed their disagreement with their contemporary world in the complexity
唐朝文人表达了他们对当代世界的复杂性的不满
of their perspectives on the world, their original engagement with the lyrical force of classical Chinese language, and their generic transgressions through new forms of hybridized narrative such as
他们对世界的看法,他们对中国古典语言抒情力量的原始参与,以及他们通过新的混合叙事形式(如
chuanqi. The Song literati started to repress their desire for a different understanding of the world by formally elevating their fiction in order to make themselves more acceptable to a broader public. The Yuan literati redirected their ambitions through new literary inventions in vernacular literature. The Ming literati continued the fascination with vernacular literature but inserted numerous lines of classical poetry and discursive arguments in their vernacular narratives, as if by
.宋朝文人开始压抑他们对世界不同理解的渴望,通过正式提升他们的小说,以使自己更容易被更广泛的公众接受。元朝文人通过在白话文学中的新文学发明来改变他们的野心。明朝文人延续了对白话文学的迷恋,但在他们的白话叙述中插入了大量的古典诗句和话语论点,仿佛是
doing so they
这样做,他们
could realign themselves with the great teachings of Confucian masters even when writing
即使在写作时,也可以与儒家大师的伟大教诲重新保持一致
the lowly form of xiaoshuo. The Qing literati might be the most subversive in their fiction writing: on the one hand, they write about the supernatural with full knowledge that it is a subject of which Confucius disapproved; on the other hand, as if to connect
文人可能是他们小说写作中最具颠覆性的:一方面,他们写超自然现象时,完全知道这是孔子不赞成的主题;另一方面,好像要连接
themselves
他们自己
to the traditional practical
实际
purpose of writing xiaoshuo, they return to zhiguai
芝贵
and its historiographical mode to record the supernatural as though it were simply a faithful record of surface impressions of the world. In general, however, freedom of roaming (
以及它的史学模式,记录超自然现象,就好像它只是对世界表面印象的忠实记录一样。然而,一般来说,漫游自由(
you) was increasingly reduced to a collective yearning for normality among the Chinese literati following the Tang dynasty.
)越来越沦为唐朝以后中国文人对正常生活的集体向往。

Tang chuanqi as a genre had its literary descendants both in its immediate formal follower, Song chuanqi, the Song classical tales of marvels, and in its transformation into plots and themes for the chuanqi drama form, the classical verse plays of romance and marvels that started in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and fully matured and blossomed in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
唐传气作为一种体裁,既有其文学后代,既在其直接形式上的追随者宋传气,即宋传气的经典奇事故事,又在其转化为传气戏剧形式的情节和主题中,始于元朝(1271-1368年),并在明清时期完全成熟和开花。

The energizing, transgressive quality of qi, however, dissipates over time as it is conventionalized and domesticated into more and more clichéd, hollow literary forms. As well, the transformative
然而,随着时间的流逝,随着它被常规化和驯化为越来越陈词滥调、空洞的文学形式,气的活力和越界的品质就会消散。同样,变革性的

lyrical force from poetic genres that were incorporated into Tang tales of marvels declines into mere superficial formal novelties in later writing.
在唐朝的奇观故事中融入的诗歌体裁的抒情力量,在后来的写作中沦为仅仅是肤浅的形式新奇事物。

The Decline of Qi in Post-Tang Classical Chinese Fiction
后唐古典中国小说中气的衰落

As argued in the previous section, the abolishment of the civil service examination system in the Yuan dynasty and its subsequent restoration and elaboration in the Ming and Qing dynasties made the literati more conservative and willing to follow Confucian teachings in their intellectual life. It also affected how they wrote classical fiction. Post-Tang writers and literary critics were aware of the transgressive force of qi in the Tang tales of marvels. As early as the Song dynasty, Hong Mai 洪邁 (1123-1202) states in his Tangren shuohui: Fanli 唐人說薈·範例
正如上一节所论述的,元朝废除了公务员考试制度,随后在明清时期进行了恢复和阐述,使文人的思想生活更加保守,愿意遵循儒家的教诲。这也影响了他们写古典小说的方式。唐后作家和文学评论家都意识到了唐朝奇事中气的超然力量。早在宋代,洪迈洪邁(1123-1202)在他的《唐人说薈·範例》中就指出: 唐人說薈·範例

(Collections of Tang Tales: Examples) that for a member of the literati it is a requirement to be
“(《唐故事集》示例)对于文人来说,必须做到

familiar with Tang tales, for in them one finds that the quality of qi can be discovered even in the smallest details of emotional life.7 Hu Yinglin of the Ming Dynasty credits the incredible force of the Tang tales to their powers of fantasy in his discussion of the dichotomy and interaction of xu , the non-existent and the fabricated, and shi , the existent and the factual, and determines that Tang tales provide readers with an engaging reading experience in crossing the lines between these two worlds.8
熟悉唐故事,因为在唐故事中,人们会发现,即使在情感生活的最小细节中,也可以发现气的质量。 7 明代的胡英林在论述徐虛(不存在与虚构)与“实”(存在与事实)的二分法和相互作用时,将唐故事的惊人力量归功于其幻想的力量,并确定唐故事为读者提供了跨越这两个世界界限的引人入胜的阅读体验。 8

This awareness of the subversive powers of qi led the post-Tang imperial writers in a direction unlike that of their Tang predecessors. The post-Tang imperial writers tried to encage qi
这种对气的颠覆力量的认识,使后唐朝的作家们走上了与唐朝前辈不同的方向。后唐朝的作家们试图捣气

7 唐人小說不可不熟,小小情事,凄惋欲絕,洵有神遇而不自知者,與詩律可稱一代之奇。One should be well versed in the Tang tales. They relate the little matters in love affairs in so poignant and sorrowful ways that the reader is truly touched and inspired by its spirit without knowing it. Hence the tales, together with the Tang regulated poetry, deserved to be called the marvels of the dynasty.
7 唐人小說不可不熟,小小情事,凄惋欲絕,洵有神遇而不自知者,與詩律可稱一代之奇。一个人应该精通唐故事。它们以如此凄美和悲伤的方式讲述爱情事务中的小事,以至于读者在不知不觉中被其精神所感动和启发。因此,这些故事与唐朝规范的诗歌一起,当之无愧地被称为朝代的奇迹。

8 Hu Yinglin points out that the Tang tales may present fantastic events, but that what lies beneath their literary decorations could often have factual prototypes in real life. He uses the example of three popular female characters in the Tang tales, i.e., Red Whisk, Red Silk and Red Thread, to illustrate that they were Tang contemporaries and all came from the houses of famous generals of real names, and yet what is truly factual is that their fantastic quality, impressive as it is, is (like their appearance in the historical record) nonexistent. 紅拂、紅綃、紅綫三女子皆唐
8 胡英林指出,唐童话可能呈现出奇妙的事件,但其文学装饰之下的东西往往在现实生活中有真实的原型。他以唐朝故事中三个受欢迎的女性角色,即红拂、红丝和红线为例,说明她们是唐朝同时代的人,都来自名门将的真名将邃,但真正真实的是,她们的出色品质虽然令人印象深刻,但(就像她们在历史记录中的出现一样)是不存在的。紅拂、紅綃、紅綫三女子皆唐

人,皆見小說,又皆將家,皆姬媵,皆兼氣俠,然實無一信者
人,皆见小说,又皆将家,皆姬媵,皆兼气侠,然实无一信者。

within Confucian doctrines, within “stock situation and predictable plot developments” after the Tang dynasty, and even through a return to the pre-Tang obsession with historical records.9 For example, the Trimmed Lamps collections10 written by Qu You 瞿佑 (1347-1433), which are considered to be the best Ming classical tales of marvels and were held up as a model of fiction with their delicate descriptions and literary allusions,11 slavishly imitate the surface narrative framework of Tang tales but replace the urge to cross the borders that constrain the text with nothing but flowery poems that ornament the narratives but do little to change their course.12
在儒家教义中,在唐朝之后的“存量态势和可预测的情节发展”中,甚至通过回归到唐前对史记载的痴迷。 9 例如,瞿佑(1347-1433)所著的《修剪灯》文集 10 ,被认为是明代最好的古典奇事故事,以其细腻的描写和文学典故被奉为小说的典范, 11 它盲目地模仿唐故事的表面叙事框架,但用华丽的诗歌取代了跨越束缚文本的边界的冲动,这些诗歌装饰了叙事,但几乎没有改变他们的课程。 12

Qu You himself declares clearly in his preface to Trimmed Lamps that his purpose in writing these tales is “to convince the good and condemn the evil, to deplore the impoverished
曲友本人在《修剪的灯》的序言中明确宣称,他写这些故事的目的,是“劝善者,谴责恶者,痛贫者

and lament the wronged.”13 In other words, he writes in order to abide by conventional normality, not to cross boundaries and present a different perspective on the world. As one might expect, his tales bear surface resemblances to Tang tales but differ in their outcomes. For example, in the twenty-two tales collected in his Jiandeng xinhua 剪燈新話 (New Stories from Trimming the Lamp Wick), half of them are about romances that either arouse social disapproval or involve other-worldly elements. They seem to continue the Tang tales’ opposition to social boundaries and they also contain beautifully-composed poems in classical language. However, the
为受委屈的人哀悼。 13 换句话说,他写作是为了遵守传统的常态,而不是跨越界限,呈现出对世界的不同看法。正如人们所预料的那样,他的故事与唐朝故事表面上相似,但结果不同。例如,在他的《修剪灯芯新故事》中收集的二十二个故事中,其中一半是关于引起社会反对或涉及超凡脱俗元素的浪漫故事。它们似乎延续了唐童故事对社会界限的反对,并且还包含了用古典语言创作的优美诗歌。但是,

unconventional relationships never reach fruition and while the texts of the Tang tales often show how poetic lyricism can reshape and redirect the prose narrative, Qu You’s texts deprive the poems of such a transformative force. Take “The Story of Cuicui” (
展现诗意的抒情如何重塑和重新定向散文叙事,曲友的文本剥夺了诗歌的这种变革力量。以《翠翠的故事》(
Cuicui zhuan 翠翠傳
翠翠传
) as an

9 Allan Barr, “The Later Classical Tale”, in Columbia History of Chinese Literature ed. by Victor Mair (New York: Columbia UP, 2001) 679.
9 艾伦·巴尔:《后来的古典故事》,载于《哥伦比亚华人文学史》,维克多·梅尔编(纽约:哥伦比亚大学出版社,2001年),第679页。

10 The Trimmed Lamp collections refer to Jiandeng xinhua 剪燈新話 (New Stories from Trimming the Lampwick), a collection of short tales written in classical Chinese by Qu You, and which triggered a number of sequels by later literati writers, using Jiandeng to indicate the linkage, for example, Jiandeng yuhua 剪燈餘話(Supplementary Tales by the Trimmed Lamp) by Li Zhen 李禎(1376-1452).
10 《修剪灯》系列参考了屈优用古典汉语写成的短篇小说集《修剪灯新话》,并引发了后来文人作家的多部续集,以“修剪灯”来表示联系,例如李禎(1376-1452)的《修剪灯下的补充故事》。

11 Barr 680-681.

12 See Gao Ru 高儒, 1540, Baichuan shuzhi 百川書志 (A Hundred River Book Catalogues [Beijing, Gudian wenxue chubanshe , 1987]) 181. Accoring to Gao, most of the Ming tales of marvels are “composed in imitation of
12 参见《高儒:百川书目》1540:《百川书目〔北京:古店文学出版社,1987〕,第181页。按照高智晟的说法,明朝的大多数奇观故事都是“模仿

Yingying’s Story” (皆本《鶯鶯傳》而作).
Yingying's Story“ (皆本《莺莺传》而作).

13 Qu You, Jiandeng Xinhua (New Stories from Trimming the Lampwick), author’s preface.
13 曲友:《简灯新华》,作者序言。

example: the young scholar Jin Ding and his childhood love Cuicui start as a perfect couple, exchanging poems and enjoying a happy life, but soon they are separated by social disorder. Cuicui is taken by a warlord and becomes his concubine, and Jin Ding, after communicating with her by poetry, meets her disguised as her brother. The newly imposed boundary of their relationship, i.e., brother and sister, blocks their genuine love. In the end, both die heart-broken and remain in the bondage of the brother-and-sister relation. All the poignant poems they have written to and for each other fail to erode the boundaries. Cuicui finally gets buried beside Jin Ding, but only in her false identity as his sister. Compared with such Tang tales as “Kunlun Slave” or “The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest,” where no warlord is powerful enough to
例子:青年学者金鼎和他青梅竹马的初恋翠翠一开始是一对完美的夫妻,互诗互唱,享受着幸福的生活,但很快他们就因社会混乱而分开。翠翠被军阀掳走,成为他的妾室,金定通过诗歌与她交流后,假扮成自己的兄弟遇到了她。他们关系的新界限,即兄弟姐妹,阻碍了他们真正的爱。最后,两人都伤心欲绝地死去,仍然处于兄妹关系的束缚中。他们为彼此写的所有凄美诗歌都未能侵蚀界限。翠翠最终被埋葬在金鼎身边,但只是以他姐姐的假身份。与《昆仑奴》或《卷胡子客的故事》等唐朝故事相比,没有哪个军阀强大到足以

impose an impassable boundary between two truly engaged lovers, or compared with “An
在两个真正订婚的恋人之间强加一个不可逾越的界限,或者比作“一个

Explication of the Lament from Xiang River,” where the lyrical force of literary language is able to break the spell of social boundaries, Qu You’s tale presents a total failure of qi. There are six complete poems exchanged between the two protagonists, and one long letter written in the style of rhymed prose: all are beautiful and touching, but the spirit of freedom of roaming within them is completely surrendered to the impositions of prose narrative; the writer can do nothing with the text but accept what is given by social norms and impotently “lament the wronged.”
《湘江之哀》》中,文学语言的抒情力量能够打破社会界限的魔咒,曲友的故事则呈现出一种气的彻底失败。两位主人公之间有六首完整的诗篇,还有一封以押韵散文风格写成的长信:都是美丽而感人的,但其中自由漫游的精神却完全屈服于散文叙事的强加;作家对文本无能为力,只能接受社会规范赋予的东西,无能为力地“哀悼被冤枉的人”。

A growing Neo-Confucian obsession with xiaoshuo’s historical mission also helped weaken the power of qi in classical fiction after the Tang dynasty. The post-Tang imperial writers returned to the tradition of zhiguai, or records of the strange, to corral anything they perceived in the world that was at odds with Confucian doctrines. Hong Mai’s 洪邁 (1123-1202) Yijian zhi
新儒家对小朔历史使命的日益痴迷也削弱了唐朝以后古典小说中气的力量。后唐朝的作家们又回到了“知传”的传统,即对奇异事物的记录,将他们在世界上感知到的与儒家教义不一致的任何东西都围起来。洪迈洪邁 (1123-1202) Yijian zhi 夷

堅志 (Records of the Listener) was the greatest Song dynasty example of this genre. But it was in
堅志(《听者录》)是这一体裁最伟大的宋代例子。但它在

the Qing dynasty that literary qi in classical fiction almost completely cedes ground to a brief and straightforward plain style of writing that engages the supernatural. For example, Yuan Mei 袁枚 (1716-1797) writes Zi bu yu 子不語 (What the Master Did Not Talk About), a collection of
清朝,古典小说中的文学气几乎完全让位于一种简短而朴素的写作风格,这种写作风格涉及超自然现象。例如,袁枚(1716-1797)写了《子不语》(《大师没有谈论什么》),这是一部

supernatural stories and anecdotes narrated in a very terse style, and Ji Yun 紀昀 (1724-1804), the general editor of Siku quanshu 四庫全書 (The Complete Library of Four Treasures), argues against elevating qi over the moral preaching of Confucian virtues in his Yuewei caotang biji 微草堂筆記 (Sketches from the Cottage for the Contemplation of Subtleties). The quality of qi is
超自然的故事和轶事以非常简洁的风格叙述,《四庫全书》的总编辑纪云紀昀(1724-1804)在他的《四庫全书》中反对将气置于儒家美德的道德说教之上。气的质量是

effaced in the two writers’ literary efforts to avoid a literary celebration of otherworldly or supernatural events in the face of Confucian virtues.
两位作家在面对儒家美德时,为避免对超凡脱俗或超自然事件的文学赞美而做出的文学努力,都消失了。

Domestication of the Literary Quality of Qi in Chuanqi Plays
《传气剧中气》文学品质的驯化

As I discussed previously, the loss of access for the literati to official positions in the Yuan dynasty had a profound effect on the course of literature, and the rise of the verse play in the Yuan dynasty continued into the Ming and Qing dynasty. Post-Tang literati writers started to channel significant efforts into producing great dramatic works with lyrical force. Some of these plays pay homage to the Tang tales of marvels and take inspiration and models directly from the Tang tales of marvels. Even the genre name for one corpus of verse dramas is drawn from the label Tang chuanqi. These plays from the southern part of China developed in the Ming and Qing dynasties, may be called chuanqi drama, literally “dramas of marvels”, but qi failed to be fully translated into the new form. On the contrary, the texts of these plays uniformly constrain the literary quality of qi and domesticate most of the characters and themes from the Tang tales.
正如我前面所讨论的,元代文人失去担任官职的机会对文学的进程产生了深远的影响,元代诗剧的兴起一直持续到明清。后唐代文人作家开始投入大量精力,创作出具有抒情力量的伟大戏剧作品。其中一些戏剧向唐朝的奇迹故事致敬,并直接从唐朝的奇迹故事中汲取灵感和模型。就连一部诗剧的体裁名称,也取自“唐传起”这个标签。这些从中国南方发展起来的明清时期的戏剧,或称川气剧,字面意思是“奇特剧”,但气未能完全转化为新的形式。相反,这些戏剧的文本统一地制约了气的文学品质,并驯化了唐故事中的大部分人物和主题。

Many critics have noticed the generic and intertextual relations between the Tang chuanqi
许多批评家注意到了唐传气之间的通用关系和互文关系

tales and the chuanqi plays of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Both Zheng Zhenduo 鄭振鐸 (1898- 1958) and Lu Xun note that the Tang tales inspired dramas after the Yuan dynasty.14 Wang Pijiang also mentions in his preface to his anthology of the Tang tales that the subject matters
明清时期的故事和传棋剧。郑振铎(1898-1958)和鲁迅都指出,唐朝故事启发了元朝以后的戏剧。 14 王丕江在《唐书选集》序言中也提到,题材很重要

14 Please see Zheng Zhenduo 鄭振鐸, Zheng Zhenduo shuo wenxue 鄭振鐸說俗文學 ( Zheng Zhenduo on Popular Literature) (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2000). And also, Lu Xun 44.
14 请参阅郑振铎鄭振鐸, 郑振多铌说俗文学 ( 郑振多谈通俗文学) (上海:上海古吉出版社,2000年)。还有,鲁迅 44.

therein often provided raw materials for the chuanqi plays of the Ming dynasty. It is not until the turn of twentieth century, however, that a more detailed and solid discussion of the Tang legacy in traditional Chinese dramas (and other literary genres) appears in the criticism. Cheng Guofu
其中常为明代传棋剧提供原料。然而,直到20世纪初,批评界才对中国传统戏剧(和其他文学体裁)中的唐代遗产进行了更详细、更深入的讨论。程国富

程國賦 has completed useful research on how major Tang tales evolved between the Song dynasty and the Qing dynasty, appearing in various genres of writing.15 He discusses the issue of textual evolution in terms of narrative perspectives, principles of plots, the dichotomy of the
程國賦對宋代和清代之間主要唐朝故事如何發展在各種體裁的文字中進行了有益的研究。 15 他从叙事视角、情节原则、文本的二分法等角度讨论了文本演变的问题。

elusive and the factual, and the art of characterization, and he concludes that the “scholar-beauty” (caizi jiaren 才子佳人) pattern of plot, which is prevalent in traditional drama and vernacular xiaoshuo, is in fact a descendant of the classical Tang tales.
难以捉摸的、实事求是的、刻画的艺术,他得出结论,在传统戏剧和白话小书中盛行的“文人美人”情节模式,实际上是古典唐话的后代。

By examining the textual changes from the Tang chuanqi “The Tale of the Curly Bearded Guest” to its adaptation in the mid-Ming chuanqi drama Hongfu ji 紅拂記 (The Tale of Red Whisk) by Zhang Fengyi 張鳳翼 (1527-1613), we can see how qi is lost in making its trans- generic journey.16
通过考察唐传气《卷须客的故事》到张凤仪(1527-1613)的明传气剧《红拂记》改编的文本变化,可以看出气在转世过程中是如何失落的。 16

The major differences between the two texts are immediately apparent. The Tang text is a short piece of classical prose narrative of less than 3,000 Chinese characters, while the Ming text is a long verse drama of almost 30,000 Chinese characters. The short Tang text coherently provides vivid details to justify the three major characters’ personal choices, mainly in quoted dialogues among the three. Also the Tang writer appends a note of 68 Chinese characters at the end of his text which, opens the tale to a discussion among his immediate Tang readers. In
两份案文之间的主要区别一目了然。唐文本是一部不到 3,000 个汉字的古典散文叙事短篇,而明文本是一部近 30,000 个汉字的长篇诗剧。短小的唐文连贯地提供了生动的细节来证明三个主要人物的个人选择,主要是在三人之间的引用对话中。此外,唐代作家在文本末尾附上了68个汉字的注释,这为这个故事开启了唐代读者之间的讨论。在

15 Cheng Guofu 程國賦, Tangdai xiaoshuo shanbian yanjiu 唐代小說嬗變研究 (A Study of the Evolution of xiaoshuo in the Tang Dynasty [Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1997]). Cheng first categorizes the Tang tales into five groups according to the subject matter, i.e., supernatural events, love and marriage, literati anecdotes, Buddhism and Taoism, and knights-errant, and then takes a literary historical approach in following the evolvution of these subjects in the subsequent dynasties; then he devotes the next four chapters to discussing the generic similarities and differences between the Tang tales and other genres like late imperial classical fiction, vernacular fiction, the variety play of the Yuan dynasty, and the dramas in the Ming and Qing dynasties. He obviously shows more interest in the inter-generic relation between the Tang tales and the traditional drama.
15 程国富 程国富, 唐代小說山边燕九研究 (A Study of the Evolution of xiaoshuo in the Tang Dynasty [Guangzhou Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1997]).程志刚首先将唐书按照题材分为灵事、爱情与婚姻、文人轶事、佛与道、骑士与忽悠五类,然后采用文学史的眼法,追踪这些题材在后朝的演变;然后,他在接下来的四章中专门讨论了唐故事与帝国晚期古典小说、乡土小说、元朝综艺剧以及明清戏剧等其他体裁之间的一般异同。他显然对唐故事和传统戏剧之间的通用关系更感兴趣。

16 The text of the drama can be found in Hongfuji pingzhu 紅拂記評注 (Annotation and Comments on The Tale of Red Whisk), ed. by Wang Qiang and Huang Zhusan (Jilin: Jinlin renmin chubanshe, 2001).
16 该剧的文本见于王强、黄竹三合著的《红拂记》注释(吉林:吉林人民出版社,2001年)所著的《红拂记》注释。

contrast, the Ming text is a script for performance, and in order to make the story more dramatic to retain the audience’s interest, it adopts characters from another Tang tale and inserts them into the plot.17 Given the sprawling 34 acts in the drama, the whole structure of the play is very loose.
与此相反,明文是表演用的剧本,为了让故事更具戏剧性,保持观众的兴趣,它采用了另一个唐朝故事中的人物,并将他们插入到情节中。 17 鉴于该剧庞大的34幕,该剧的整个结构非常松散。

Each act itself, however, is neatly framed and complete in structure, having a short opening poem and a short concluding poem that work as the playwright’s comments and a poetic precis of the plot developments in the act.18
然而,每一幕本身都构思整齐,结构完整,有一首简短的开场诗和一首简短的结束诗,作为剧作家的评论和行为中情节发展的诗意序言。 18

At first glance the Ming text is less elliptical in its usage of classical language, which would seemingly afford the playwright more space to present an accesible perspective on the world that connects to the reader/audience’s own everyday reality. However, my reading shows that this is not the case. First, such a neat poetic frame for the plot in each act prevents any interaction with the audience and contains a prepackaged interpretation through which the playwright defines the neat structure. Second, the playwright’s comments function more like a consistent and persistent recapitulation of the plot rather than as a paratextual note inviting the audience to reflect on the status of text. For example, in Act 1, the final poem merely summarizes the whole plot briefly in the following verses:
乍一看,明代文本在使用古典语言方面不那么椭圆,这似乎为剧作家提供了更多的空间来呈现一个与读者/观众自己的日常现实相联系的世界观。然而,我的阅读表明情况并非如此。首先,这种整齐的诗意框架为每一幕中的情节阻止了与观众的任何互动,并包含了一种预先包装的解释,剧作家通过该解释定义了整齐的结构。其次,剧作家的评论更像是对情节的连贯和持续的概括,而不是作为邀请观众反思文本状态的副文本注释。例如,在第一幕中,最后一首诗只是用以下几节简要地总结了整个情节:

打得上情郞紅拂女。Lady Red Whisk pushes her lover upward,
打得上情郞紅拂女。红拂夫人将她的情人向上推,

撇得下愛寵楊司空。Minister Yang casts his adored away with ease,
撇得下愛寵楊司空。杨部长轻而易举地抛弃了他心爱的人,

讓別人江山虬髯客。The Curly-Bearded Guest surrenders all his territory,
讓別人江山虬髯客。卷胡子客人放弃了他所有的领土,

成自己事業李衛公。And Li, Duke of Wei, accomplishes his own great deeds.
成自己事業李衛公。而魏国公李则成就了自己的伟业。

Beneath such a summary lies the Confucian definition of fixed social roles and restricted social values of the major characters in the play. According to Confucian doctrines, ladies are meant to
在这样的概括之下,隐藏着儒家对剧中主要人物固定社会角色的定义和受限的社会价值观。根据儒家的教义,女士们注定要

17 Meng Qi 孟啓 (fl. 841-886), Benshishi 本事詩 (Storied Poems). The story tells how Princess Lechang 樂昌公主 reunites with her husband after the social turmoil. A precise English translation of the story can be found in Graham Sanders’ book Words Well Put, 263.
17 孟奇孟啓(841-886年),本诗诗。故事讲述了乐昌公主如何在社会动荡后与丈夫团聚。这个故事的精确英文翻译可以在格雷厄姆·桑德斯(Graham Sanders)的书《Words Well Put》第263页中找到。

18 As for the structural features of the Ming and Qing chuanqi plays, see Guo Yingde 郭英德, Ming Qing chuanqi xiqu wenti yanjiu 明清傳奇戲曲文體研究 (A Stylistic Study of the Ming and Qing Drama [Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2004]).
18 关于明清传气剧的结构特点,参见郭英德:《明清传气西曲文體研究》[北京:商务印书馆,2004年]。

be meek and submissive at home, supporting and encouraging their husbands to climb up the social ladder, and men should take up their own proper places and make a name outside the home. Hence Red Whisk in this Ming chuanqi drama behaves differently from the character in the Tang tale. She shows her obedience to Li Jing after eloping and she accepts her domestic role once she becomes his wife (Act 22). She even encourages her husband to pursue his political ambitions
在家中温顺顺从,支持和鼓励丈夫在社会阶梯上攀升,男人应该在家庭之外占据自己应有的位置,扬名立万。因此,这部明传气剧中的红拂的行为与唐故事中的人物不同。她在私奔后表现出对李静的服从,一旦她成为李静的妻子,她就接受了她的家庭角色(第 22 幕)。她甚至鼓励她的丈夫追求他的政治抱负

and to leave her behind in this pursuit. Minister Yang prioritizes the state administration above indulgence in sensual pleasures, and he turns away from a femme fatale (Act 20); the Curly- Bearded Guest follows the message from Providence and subjugates himself to the new Tang emperor (Acts 18 and 34), and Li Jing, as a member of the literati, sells his talents to the right emperor for both personal glory and public duty (Acts 27, 28, 33, and 34). Such a poem, written in neatly parallel lines, shows no disagreement with the values dominant in the everyday world; nor does it challenge any of the social opinions popular among the audiences of the mid-Ming dynasty. It offers surface impressions of everyday life that legitimate status quo. Literary language and poetic verses generate no transgression here; instead, they provide a reiteration of the rules, the conventionality, and normality that govern traditional social role-assignments.
并在这份追求中将她抛在后面。杨部长将国家行政置于沉溺于感官享乐之上,他拒绝了蛇蝎美人(第20幕);卷胡子客从天意而来,臣服于新唐皇帝(使徒行传18和34),而李京作为文人的一员,为了个人荣耀和公共职责,将自己的才能出卖给正确的皇帝(使徒行传27、28、33和34)。这样一首诗,以整齐平行的行条写成,与日常生活中占主导地位的价值观没有异议;它也没有挑战任何在明代中期观众中流行的社会观点。它提供了日常生活的表面印象,即合法的现状。文学语言和诗句在这里不会产生任何越界;取而代之的是,它们重申了管理传统社会角色分配的规则、惯例和常态。

The changes in the characterization of Red Whisk in particular display the thematic domestication of qi in Ming chuanqi drama most clearly. Cheng Guofu argues that the Ming text does not change the arrangement of events in its adaptation of the Tang tale, and that the differences are only superficial,19 but many other critics notice the essential discrepancy between the two images of Red Whisk in the Tang text and the Ming text. Xu Dingbao 徐定寶, for
特别是“红拂”人物塑造的变化,最清楚地表明了明传棋剧中“气”的主题化。程国富认为,明代文本在改编唐故事时并没有改变事件的安排,这种差异只是表面的, 19 但许多其他批评家注意到唐代文本和明代文本中“红拂”这两个意象之间存在本质的差异。Xu Dingbao 徐定寶, for

example, clearly points out that Red Whisk of the Tang text is a brave and independent female
例子,明确指出《唐文》的红拂是一位勇敢独立的女性

version of the knight-errant while that of the Ming text is a typically domesticated Ming lady.20
骑士版本-错误,而明文本版本是典型的驯化明朝女士。 20

19 Cheng Guofu 138.

20 Xu Dingbao, “The Changes in Characterization of Red Whisk” (紅拂形象的嬗變) in Yishu baijia 藝術百家 (A Hundred Schools in Arts), 4 (1997).
20 徐定宝,“紅拂形象的嬗變”,载于《艺家百所艺术家》,第4期(1997年)。

Indeed, the marital (rather than martial) life of Red Whisk sustains the major frame narrative of the Ming verse drama. The image of Red Whisk in the Ming text epitomizes female virtues as defined by Neo-Confucianism, among which chastity and conjugal fidelity were most highly valued in Ming and Qing society.21 Acutely aware of the significance of chastity for a lady, the Red Whisk of the Ming play hesitates out of fear of losing it on the night of her elopement. Once married to Li Jing, she applies most of her eloquence to reassuring him that he can trust her conjugal fidelity. Furthermore, in order to keep her chastity in his absence, she conceals her physical beauty and feminine identity, and abides by the social etiquette for a married woman
事实上,红拂的婚姻生活(而非武术生活)支撑了明代诗剧的主要框架叙事。明代文本中的“红拂”形象是新儒家思想所定义的女性美德的缩影,其中贞洁和夫妻忠诚在明清社会最受重视。 21 明朝的《红拂》剧中敏锐地意识到贞操对女士的重要性,由于害怕在她私奔的那天晚上失去贞操,她犹豫不决。嫁给李静后,她用大部分的口才来安抚他,让他相信她对婚姻的忠诚。此外,为了在他不在的时候保持自己的贞操,她隐瞒了自己的外貌和女性身份,并遵守了已婚妇女的社交礼仪

more typical of the Ming dynasty (the time for the verse drama’s composition) than of the Tang dynasty (the time in which the story is set). Red Whisk of the Ming text presents little of the literary quality of qi to her Ming audience. On the contrary, she consolidates social boundaries at the time of crisis among her closest friends. The audience, now kept at a distance by the playwright’s closed literary structure of the play, witnesses transgressions prevented on stage in line with Confucian female virtues.
更典型的明朝(诗剧创作的时间)比唐朝(故事设定的时间)更典型。《明朝的红拂》文本很少向她的明朝读者展示气的文学品质。相反,在危机时刻,她在最亲密的朋友之间巩固了社会界限。现在,观众被剧作家封闭的戏剧文学结构所保持距离,目睹了在舞台上根据儒家女性美德所防止的违法行为。

Compared with the Red Whisk of the Tang text, whom the Curly-Bearded Guest praises as an equal to Li Jing, the one in the Ming text is subordinated to being a beautiful but vulnerable dependent of the male protagonist. The one in the Tang text quotes as a male scholar would from the classic Shijing 詩經, The Book of Poetry, to express herself and demonstrates that she is a
与唐文中的红拂相比,卷须客称赞他为与李京相提并论,明文中的红拂则从属于男主美丽而脆弱的依附。唐文中的那位,作为男性学者从经典的《诗经》中引用,以表达自己,表明她是一个

marvellous woman in a man’s world; by contrast, Red Whisk in the Ming text panders to the
男人世界里了不起的女人;相比之下,《明文》中的“红拂”则迎合了

audience with hundreds of flowery poetic lines describing her physical beauty, her spiritual obedience, and her essential confirmation of the everyday world’s expectations of her. In other words, the former Red Whisk brings forth a powerful force of literary qi through sparse use of literary language and the generic force of poetry in prose narrative; while the latter indulges in
观众用数百句华丽的诗句描述了她的身体美、她的精神服从,以及她对日常生活对她的期望的基本确认。换言之,前者“红拂”通过文学语言的稀疏运用和散文叙事中诗歌的通用力量,展现出强大的文学气力;而后者则沉迷于

21 For the female virtues advocated by Confucianism, see Li Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation (Albany: SUNY P, 2006).
21 关于儒家思想所倡导的女性美德,参见Li Hsiang Lisa Rosenlee, Confucianism and Women: A Philosophical Interpretation (Albany: SUNY P, 2006)。

verbose and flowery literary expressions only to give the audience an unsurprising imitation of everyday life. The simple yet powerful lyrical force of the Tang text fades into a humble homage paid to the everyday world in hollow verses.
冗长而华丽的文学表达,只是为了给观众一种对日常生活的毫不奇怪的模仿。唐文本简单而有力的抒情力量逐渐消退,变成了在空洞的诗句中对日常世界的谦卑致敬。

Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋志异
Liaozhai zhiyi 聊斋志异

Weak as it is, qi dims but does not die in the field of classical Chinese fiction after the Tang dynasty. In fact, before Yuan Mei and Ji Yun returned to the traditionally political and practical purposes of writing xiaoshuo in the zhiguai form, Pu Songling 蒲松齡 (1640-1715) already released some of the literary power of qi in his unique Liaozhai zhiyi 聊齋志异 (Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, called Liaozhai from now on), a collection of mostly short zhiguai accounts written with a literary flaire more in the style of chuanqi.
气虽弱,但在唐朝以后的中国古典小说领域中却不死。事实上,在袁梅和纪云回归到传统的政治和实践目的,以智传形式写小书之前,蒲松龄蒲松齡(1640-1715)在他独特的《聊斋志异》(《中国画室的奇异故事》,从现在起称为《聊斋》)中已经释放了一些气的文学力量,这是一部以短篇智传为主的叙述集,以文学气息为主,更具有传气的风格。

With its 491 tales of various lengths collected in one book, Liaozhai makes for exciting reading; however, it is hard to designate its genres. First circulated in manuscript form during Pu Songling’s life and then published posthumously, the tales are grouped into twelve volumes and follow a historiographical format, often with a postscript note from the writer who styles himself asHistorian of the Strange”, a practice evidently used in homage to the great Han historian Sima Qian 司馬遷 (139 BC-86 BC), who calls himself “The Grand Historian” when providing
《聊斋》将491个不同长度的故事收录在一本书中,读起来令人兴奋;但是,很难指定其流派。这些故事最初在蒲松龄生前以手稿形式流传,然后在死后出版,分为十二卷,并遵循史学格式,通常附有自称为“奇异史家”的作者的后记,这种做法显然是为了向伟大的汉代历史学家司马骞(公元前 139 年至公元前 86 年)致敬, 谁称自己为“大历史学家”,当提供

postscripts to accounts in his masterpiece, Historical Records (Shiji 史記). Pu Songling
他的代表作《史记》中的记载的后记。蒲松龄

superficially engages qi by going back to the tradition of zhiguai, writing down tales about ghosts, fairies, and spirits that are traditionally set apart from factual records of the human world. But his real return to qi occurs in the text’s form. Through writing Liaozhai he acquires a freedom of roaming in poetic language, successfully weaving his literary explorations into the structure of
从表面上看,通过追溯到智传的传统,写下关于鬼魂、仙女和精神的故事,这些故事传统上与人类世界的事实记录不同。但他真正回归气的方式,却是以文本的形式出现的。通过写作《聊斋》,他获得了在诗歌语言中漫游的自由,成功地将他的文学探索编织到《辽寨》的结构中。

his records of the strange. Even in the plots of his narratives, the otherworldly figures are often given more complicated endings than merely being destroyed or domesticated by Confucian
他对奇怪的记录。即使在他的叙述情节中,超凡脱俗的人物也往往被赋予更复杂的结局,而不仅仅是被儒家摧毁或驯化

social codes. In this sense Pu Songling revives the literary quality of qi by tapping into its transformative and transgressive force in the text.
社会准则。从这个意义上说,蒲松龄通过在文本中挖掘气的变革和越界力量,恢复了气的文学品质。

Among all the tales in Liaozhai, those most resembling Tang tales of marvels are romances between female fox-spirits or ghosts and male human scholars. In a time when women were expected to take part in social relations, including emotional affairs, with coyness and passivity, Pu Songling endows his female characters with will, power, and wishes that are alien to the everyday world of female experience.22 The other-worldly identities of these female
在聊斋的所有故事中,最像唐朝的奇观故事是女性狐狸精或鬼魂与男性人类学者之间的浪漫故事。在那个女性被期望以腼腆和被动的方式参与社会关系(包括情感事务)的时代,蒲松龄赋予他的女性角色以与女性经验的日常世界格格不入的意志、力量和愿望。 22 这些女性的超凡脱俗的身份

characters conveniently give them a right to the freedom of roaming in Pu Songling’s texts, and they often take the initiative to cross the boundaries between the human and non-human, between everyday normality and alternative perspectives on life. For example, a fox spirit, Yingning, ignores etiquette by openly smiling at young master Wang at their first meeting in the tale named after her. In another story, “Hsiang-Ju’s Misfortunes,” 23 a fox spirit Hong Yu (Red Jade) transgresses the normal social barriers between a young maid (which is her impersonated identity) and a young widower by crossing the bridging ladder between their neighboring courtyards and sharing her life with him. All these transgressions in social behaviour are made acceptable to
在蒲松龄的文本中,人物方便地赋予了他们自由漫游的权利,他们往往主动跨越人类与非人类之间的界限,跨越日常常态与生活另类视角之间的界限。例如,在以她的名字命名的故事中,狐狸精英宁无视礼仪,在他们第一次见面时公开对王少爷微笑。在另一个故事《湘菊的不幸》中, 23 狐狸精洪宇(红玉饰)越过了年轻女仆(这是她冒充的身份)和年轻鳏夫之间的正常社会障碍,跨越了他们相邻庭院之间的桥梁梯子,并与他分享她的生活。所有这些社会行为中的违法行为都为以下人士所接受

Qing readers because Pu Songling uses the freedom of literary description to render these non- human figures free of social bondage and rich in human feelings other than those allowed by Confucian doctrines. As a result, in the pages of Liaozhai at least, a few other-worldly ladies--and the transformative force represented in their literary representations--avoid being domesticated into human society as a form of closure. Their successful escape from Confucian doctrines reveals the possibility of holding an alternative perspective on the world. The literary quality of qi thus finds a continuation in such escapes by making them possible.
清朝的读者,因为蒲松龄利用文学描写的自由,使这些非人的人物摆脱了社会的束缚,富有了儒家教义所允许的以外的人情。因此,至少在《聊斋》的书页中,一些超凡脱俗的女士——以及她们文学表现中所代表的变革力量——避免被人类社会驯化为一种封闭的形式。他们成功地摆脱了儒家教义,揭示了对世界持有另一种观点的可能性。因此,“气”的文学品质通过使这种逃避成为可能,从而找到了延续。

22 See Susan Mann, Precious Records: Women in China’s Long Eighteenth Century (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1997), for a more historical study of women’s life in the high Qing dynasty.
22 参见苏珊·曼(Susan Mann)的《珍贵的记录:中国漫长的十八世纪中的女性》(斯坦福大学:斯坦福大学出版社,1997年),对清代妇女生活的更多历史研究。

23 Herbert A. Giles, trans., Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Shanghai, Hongkong, Singapore: Kelly & Walsh, Ltd., 1926) 139-146.
23 赫伯特·贾尔斯(Herbert A. Giles)译,《中国工作室的奇异故事》(上海、香港、新加坡:Kelly & Walsh, Ltd.,1926年),第139-146页。

The literary quality of
文学品质
qi in Liaozhai has long appealed to critics. Ever since Lu Xun described it as a historical record of the supernatural written in the vein of literary fantasy, both Western and Chinese critics have accepted this description almost unanimously.
长期以来一直吸引着评论家。自从鲁迅将其描述为以文学幻想的脉络写成的超自然现象的历史记录以来,西方和中国的批评家几乎一致接受了这一描述。
Critics have explored its multiple intertextual and intergeneric relations with both
批评家们探索了它与两者之间的多重互文和类属间关系
zhiguai
芝贵
and chuanqi. Some writers see Pu Songling as more aligned with Ming literary trends. For example, Jaroslav Průšek notices the moral focus in
.一些作家认为蒲松龄更符合明朝文学潮流。例如,雅罗斯拉夫·普鲁谢克(Jaroslav Průšek)注意到《道德焦点》
Liaozhai and thereby identifies Pu Songling as the one who brings Chinese literature in classical language to its peak.
并由此认定蒲松龄是将中国古典文学推向巅峰的人。
24 Such an argument pays less attention to the literary quality of
这样的论点较少关注文学质量。
Liaozhai than to its political and social functions. Judith Zeitlin, however, believes otherwise. In her view, unlike the Ming literati`s concessions to increasingly conservative social values, the stories in
而不是其政治和社会功能。然而,朱迪思·蔡特林(Judith Zeitlin)却不这么认为。在她看来,与明朝文人对日益保守的社会价值观的让步不同,《明朝文人》中的故事
Liaozhai, long or short, reflect a “boundary-crossing” quality: supernatural agents, mostly in the form of female foxes and ghosts, invade the human world, and in the end some of them are domesticated by
无论长短,都反映出一种“越界”的特质:超自然的媒介,大多以雌性狐狸和鬼魂的形式,侵入人类世界,最后其中一些被驯化了。
the human world or finally
人类世界或最终
betrayed and destroyed by the human beings with whom they choose to share their other-worldly values; but others,
被他们选择与之分享超凡脱俗价值观的人类背叛和摧毁;但其他人,
untamed, choose to flee the human world after they see that the human world goes against their
反对他们的
free will.25 Both critics reveal interesting aspects of Liaozhai, and Zeitlin’s interpretations of the difference of these female aliens confirm Pu Songling’s perception of a world other than that prescribed by Confucian doctrine.
这些女性外星人的差异,证实了蒲松龄对儒家教义所规定的世界以外的世界的看法。

In summary, while Pu Songling follows all the other members of the literati in the early Qing period and ostensibly returns to the traditional practical and political mission of writing classical fiction, his individual literary voice of Liaozhai clearly differentiates him from other Qing writers such as Yuan Mei and Ji Yun. He is closer to his Tang predecessors, especially in the longer and more literary romances in Liaozhai. Pu Songling often displays an explicit tone of
总而言之,虽然蒲松龄追随清初文人的所有其他成员,表面上回归到写古典小说的传统实践和政治使命,但他独特的辽寨文学声音使他与袁梅、姬云等其他清代作家明显区分开来。他更接近他的唐朝前辈,尤其是在聊斋篇幅更长、文学性更强的浪漫故事中。蒲松龄经常表现出明确的语气

24 Jaroslave Průšek, “P’u Sung-ling and His Work,” Chinese History and Literature: Collection of Studies
24 Jaroslave Průšek,“P'u Sung-ling and His Work”,《中国历史与文学:研究集》

(Dordrecht: Reidel, 1970) 109-38.
(多德雷赫特:Reidel,1970)109-38。

25 Judith Zeitlin, The Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1993) 17.
25 朱迪思·蔡特林(Judith Zeitlin),《奇异的历史学家:蒲松龄与中国古典故事》。(斯坦福大学:斯坦福大学,1993 年) 17.

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social criticism in his shorter anecdotal stories and tries to restrain the literary quality of qi in them even when they deal with strange topics. However, when he turns to longer romances, mainly about the interactions of female otherworldly beings with human scholars, he is more inclined to construct a supernatural world that is fascinating to his contemporary readers. His language in such stories is not as terse as in the short anecdotal ones; instead, it gains a lyrical force that often breaks through the narrative framework, as occurred in the Tang tales of marvels.
在他较短的轶事故事中进行社会批评,并试图限制其中气的文学品质,即使它们涉及奇怪的话题。然而,当他转向更长的浪漫小说时,主要是关于女性超凡脱俗的人与人类学者的互动,他更倾向于构建一个令当代读者着迷的超自然世界。他在这些故事中的语言不像短篇轶事那样简洁;取而代之的是,它获得了一种抒情的力量,这种力量经常突破叙事框架,就像唐朝的奇迹故事中发生的那样。

The Political Mission of Chinese Xiaoshuo in the Early Twentieth Century
二十世纪初中国小烁的政治使命

The last days of imperial China saw the rapid collapse of centralized government and the rapid ascent of local military powers. At the same time, the influx of Western powers started to
中华帝国的最后几天见证了中央集权政府的迅速崩溃和地方军事力量的迅速崛起。与此同时,西方列强的涌入开始

threaten China’s national identity around the turn of the twentieth century. In many intellectuals’ views, boundaries were much needed, geographically, culturally, and politically, if only to provide an illusion of security for a Chinese populace tormented by contemporary political turmoil. Under the attack of the so-called “New Culture Movement” 新文化運動 (1910s to 1920s), the tenets of traditional pre-modern literature seemed to collapse; however, such an attack
在20世纪初左右威胁着中国的民族认同。在许多知识分子看来,无论在地理上、文化上还是在政治上,边界都是非常必要的,哪怕只是为了给饱受当代政治动荡折磨的中国民众提供一种安全的幻觉。在所谓的“新文化运动”新文化运动(1910年代至1920年代)的抨击下,传统的前现代文学信条似乎崩溃了;然而,这样的攻击

also established new political and social missions for writers in modern China, and these missions were as restrictive and demanding in their owns as the traditional strictures.
也为近代中国作家确立了新的政治使命和社会使命,这些使命本身就与传统的限制一样具有限制性和要求性。

When the imperial political system gave way to the republican system in China in 1911, the literary field was exposed to many new possibilities, especially in the realm of fiction.
1911年,当中国的帝制政治制度让位于共和制度时,文学领域接触到了许多新的可能性,尤其是在小说领域。

Echoing the political revolution, influential critics such as Liang Qichao 梁啓超 (1873-1929) and Chen Duxiu 陳獨秀(1879-1942) unanimously advocated revolution in literary concepts and at the same time welcomed an influx of foreign literature in the name of pursuing a youthful and
梁启超(1873-1929)和陈独秀(1879-1942)等有影响力的批评家与政治革命相呼应,一致主张文学观念的革命,同时以追求青春和青年时期的名义欢迎外国文学的涌入。

modern China.26 Political crisis in the early Republican years and later in the Anti-Japanese War
现代中国。 26 民国初期和抗日战争后期的政治危机

period made “obsession with China 感時憂國” a commanding call for all writers, so commanding that any other voices would be deemed improper at that time.27 For a moment, it seemed that traditional literature would be cast away permanently because it appealed to elite tastes and used archaic language. With the modern promotion of the political and social mission of xiaoshuo, a writerly pursuit of literary quality was depreciated and encaged within a political agenda once more, leading again to the de-prioritization of qi as a literary quality.
时期,“对中国的痴迷”成为对所有作家的号召,如此号召,以至于在当时,任何其他声音都会被认为是不恰当的。 27 有那么一刻,传统文学似乎要被永久抛弃,因为它迎合了精英阶层的口味,使用了古老的语言。随着现代对小朔政治使命和社会使命的推进,作家对文学品质的追求被贬低,并再次被嵌入政治议程,再次导致了气作为一种文学品质的去优先地位。

Literary historians have debated the effect of the New Cultural Movement on the legacy
文学史学家一直在争论新文化运动对遗产的影响

of traditional Chinese literature. Wu Mi 吳宓 (1894-1978) cast the Movement as an absolute break from traditional culture.28 Hu Shih considered the May Fourth period an enlightenment moment, a chance for Chinese intellectuals to challenge traditional Chinese cultural values, and credits the Movement with connecting traditional Chinese literature with the modern period.29 Yu Ying Shih 余英時, however, took a more impassive approach to the period and while he grudgingly agreed with Hu Shih that it was a historical moment of intellectual enlightenment for modern China, he also argued that a significant part of the so-called New Culture Movement was indeed composed of traditional cultural values.30 Yusheng Lin’s arguments push such a view
中国传统文学。吴吳宓(1894-1978)将这场运动视为对传统文化的绝对决裂。 28 胡适认为五四时期是一个启蒙时刻,是中国知识分子挑战中国传统文化价值观的机会,并认为五四运动将中国传统文学与现代时期联系起来。 29 然而,余英时对这一时期采取了更为冷漠的态度,虽然他勉强同意胡适的观点,认为这是现代中国思想启蒙的历史时刻,但他也认为,所谓的新文化运动的很大一部分确实是由传统文化价值观构成的。 30 林玉生的论点推动了这样一种观点

26 See Liang Qichao, “Foreword to the Publication of Political Novels in Translation,” and “On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Government of the People”, and also Chen Duxiu, “On Literary Revolution,” in Kirk Denton, ed., Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945 (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996). 27 See C.T. Hsia, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction: 1917-1957 (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1961). The book is highly controversial and engages a long debate between Hsia and Prusek. Hsia’s description of the literary field, however, is considered precise.
26 参见梁启超:《政治小说译本出版前言》、《论小说与人民政府的关系》,以及陈独秀:《论文学革命》,载于柯克·丹顿主编的《中国现代文学思想:文学著作,1893-1945》(斯坦福:斯坦福大学出版社,1996年)。 27 参见夏崇棠,《中国现代小说史:1917-1957》(纽黑文和伦敦:耶鲁大学出版社,1961年)。这本书极具争议性,并在 Hsia 和 Prusek 之间进行了长时间的辩论。然而,夏氏对文学领域的描述被认为是准确的。

28 Wu Mi’s diary during the period illustrates his disgust with the New Culture Movement and the New Literature. See Wu Mi, Wu Mi Riji 吳宓日記 (The Diary by Wu Mi [Shanghai: Joint Publishing Press, 1998]), vols. 1-3.
28 吴宓在此期间的日记表明了他对新文化运动和新文学的厌恶。参见《吴宓日记》[上海:联合出版出版社,1998年],第1-3卷。

29 Hu Shih’s position can be seen in his speech in Shanghai in 1928 entitled “A Tribute to the May Fourth
29 胡适的立场可以从他1928年在上海发表的题为《向五四时代致敬》的演讲中看出

Movement,” as collected in Hu Shih Zuopin ji (Collected Writings of Hu Shih [Taiwan: Yuanliu Publishing Company, 1986]), vol. 4.
《运动》收录于胡《胡学品集》

30 Yu Ying Shih pays consistent attention to the vicissitudes of the traditional values as epitomized in Confucianism in the early twentieth century, and it is owing to his study that the special Chinese intellectual paradox of tradition and modernity is fully disclosed. For detailed analysis, see his essay entitled “Wusi yundong yu zhongguo
30 余英石始终关注20世纪初儒家思想中体现的传统价值观的变迁,正是由于他的研究,中国传统与现代的特殊知识悖论才得以充分揭示。详细分析见他的论文《无四云东余中国》

chuantong” 五四運動與中國傳統 (The May Fourth Movement and the Chinese Tradition), collected in Yu Ying Shih wenji 《余英時文集》 (Guilin: Guangxi Normal UP, 2004-2006), vol. 2, 82-90. For his more recent views, see his essay “Neither Renaissance nor Enlightenment: A Historian’s Reflections on the May Fourth Movement,”
《五四运动与中国传统》,收录于《余英时代文集》(桂林:广西师范出版社,2004-2006),第2卷,第82-90页。关于他最近的观点,请参阅他的文章“既不是文艺复兴也不是启蒙运动:历史学家对五四运动的反思”。

even further. Lin argued that the “totalistic antitraditonalism” displayed by May Fourth
甚至更进一步。林认为,“五四”所表现出的“极权主义反恐怖主义”

intellectuals is exactly a modern reincarnation of the “intellectualistic cultural approach” that is deeply embedded in Chinese traditional culture. 31 Lin’s views illustrate why Chinese fiction writers of the first half of twentieth century are so politically involved in their fiction. For them, all literature of any era is political.
知识分子正是深深植根于中国传统文化中的“知识分子文化方式”的现代转世。 31 林书豪的观点说明了为什么二十世纪上半叶的中国小说作家在他们的小说中如此政治参与。对他们来说,任何时代的所有文学都是政治性的。

With the traditional political mission of xiaoshuo thus revived in the New Cultural Movement, Western imperialism’s threat to Chinese identity accentuated the political aspect of Chinese literature more than ever. Historically speaking, Western imperialist powers of the early twentieth century never completely colonized China, but they did pose an existential threat to declining traditional native Chinese values. In the 1930s, Chinese national survival was considered to be at stake in the war with Japan, and Chinese writers started writing in a unified voice, and sometimes in unified literary groups, with a clearly-stated political mission. A number of literature associations for writers were highly active in manipulating the contending trends of fiction writing.32
随着小烁的传统政治使命在新文化运动中得以复兴,西方帝国主义对中国身份的威胁比以往任何时候都更加突出了中国文学的政治性。从历史上看,二十世纪初的西方帝国主义列强从未完全殖民过中国,但它们确实对衰落的中国本土传统价值观构成了生存威胁。在1930年代,中国的民族生存被认为在与日本的战争中处于危险之中,中国作家开始以统一的声音写作,有时在统一的文学团体中写作,并明确提出政治使命。一些作家文学协会在操纵小说写作的竞争趋势方面非常活跃。 32

Despite their surface diversity, most writers of these literary groups did share a sense of the social tempo of modern China, and they wrote their fictional works in order to answer the political demands created by a national crisis. Even in individual expressions of the notion of “self,” for example, most modern Chinese writers harboured little space for perspectives other
尽管表面上各不相同,但这些文学团体的大多数作家确实对现代中国的社会节奏有着共同的感觉,他们写虚构作品是为了回应国家危机造成的政治要求。例如,即使在对“自我”概念的个别表达中,大多数现代中国作家也几乎没有空间去思考其他观点。

than those that could satisfy national and political demands. No matter if it were the “expression of the self” claimed by the Chinese Romantics, or the declared purpose of “educating the people”
而不是那些能够满足国家和政治要求的人。无论是中国浪漫主义者所宣称的“自我表达”,还是宣称的“育人”的目的

collected in The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China’s May Fourth Project (Cambridge and Boston: Harvard UP, 2001) 299-320.
收录于《文化资本的挪用:中国的五四工程》(剑桥和波士顿:哈佛大学出版社,2001年),第299-320页。

31 Yu-sheng Lin, The Crisis of Chinese Consciousness: Radical Antitraditionalism in the May Fourth Era (Madison.: U of Wisconsin P, 1979).
31 Yu-sheng Lin,《中国意识的危机:五四时代的激进反传统主义》(麦迪逊:威斯康星大学出版社,1979年)。

32 For example, the Creation Society 創造社,the Literary Research Association 文學批評會, the Crescent Moon Soceity 新月社to name just a few. For a detailed reading on the activities of the modern Chinese literary groups in that period, please read Kirk Denton and Michel Hockx eds, Literary Societies of Republican China (Lanham: Lexiongton Books, 2008).
32 例如,Creation Society 創造社、文学研究会、Crescent Moon Soceity 新月社等。有关那个时期中国现代文学团体活动的详细阅读,请阅读柯克·丹顿和米歇尔·霍克斯主编的《民国中国文学社团》(Lanham: Lexiongton Books, 2008)。

of the Chinese Realists, in the final analysis, “the self” in their fictional works was rendered with the same purpose as in traditional grand narratives conditioned by a Confucian outlook, i.e., exclusively to abide by the contemporary political agenda. The notion of self in modern Chinese Romantic fiction is very different from the notion of the individual in Western Romanticism. It is, according to Hu Shih, a harmonious combination of dawo 大我, the great self or the society
在中国现实主义者中,归根结底,他们虚构作品中的“自我”与传统宏大叙事中呈现的目的相同,这些宏大叙事受儒家观点的制约,即完全遵守当代政治议程。中国现代浪漫主义小说中的自我概念与西方浪漫主义中的个人概念有很大不同。根据胡石的说法,它是“大我”、大我或“伟大的自我”或“社会”的和谐结合

composed of people, and xiaowo 小我, the small self or the individual person. In other words, its
由人组成,而小我,小我,小我或个人。换言之,其

focus is on the individual as a social element, not as an independent entity. In the fictional works of Chinese Realism, however, writers claimed to represent the so-called “real” society, and thus writers of this group aimed to cultivate their interest in the external world almost exclusively, gradually cutting off access to the internal world of the human mind. Under the auspices of either Chinese Romanticism or Chinese Realism, little space is left for fiction writers to portray perspectives on the world other than those that help relieve national, political, and social problems.
关注的是将个人视为一种社会元素,而不是作为一个独立的实体。然而,在中国现实主义的虚构作品中,作家声称自己代表了所谓的“真实”社会,因此这一群体的作家几乎完全致力于培养他们对外部世界的兴趣,逐渐切断了进入人类内心世界的机会。在中国浪漫主义或中国现实主义的支持下,除了那些有助于缓解民族、政治和社会问题的观点外,小说作家几乎没有空间描绘世界观。

Under such historical circumstances, the literary quality of qi was reduced as much as possible in fiction writing. However, it did not die out completely. Instead, it disguised itself in a few writers’ challenges to the dominant political perspectives on everyday life, to the politically necessary belief in the centralizing concepts of Chinese culture, and ultimately, to the
在这样的历史条件下,气的文学品质在小说写作中尽可能地降低。然而,它并没有完全消失。取而代之的是,它把自己伪装成一些作家对日常生活中占主导地位的政治观点的挑战,对中国文化中心化概念的政治必要信念的挑战,并最终对

exclusiveness of a popular “obsession with China.” Shen Congwen and Zhang Ailing are two such writers. Neither of them was a protégé of anyone in any significant literary group in the first half of the twentieth century, and yet they found a loyal, general readership. Contemporary critics’ responses to their fictional works were mixed. When the superficially different literary schools argued over issues like art for nationalism, or art for art’s sake, or even expression of the modern self or representation of a revolutionary social reality, neither of these two writers was mentioned. Both received little attention from literary critics in their own time and even less from
一种流行的“对中国的痴迷”的排他性。沈从文和张爱玲就是这样两位作家。在二十世纪上半叶,他们都不是任何重要文学团体的门徒,但他们还是找到了忠实的普通读者群。当代评论家对他们的虚构作品的反应喜忧参半。当表面上截然不同的文学流派就诸如民族主义的艺术,或为艺术而艺术,甚至现代自我的表达或革命社会现实的表现等问题争论不休时,这两位作家都没有被提及。在他们所处的时代,两者都很少受到文学评论家的关注,更不用说了

communist literary critics after 1949. In fact, both writers only rarely produced any significant writings after 1949. In a narrow sense, we might say, both writers were exclusively writing in and for the socially turbulent China of the 1930s and 1940s in a style that was so individual, and even against the “obsession with China” of their time, that the existence of their writings already contrasted with the dominant mindset of that time.
1949年后的共产主义文学批评家。事实上,这两位作家在1949年之后都很少发表任何重要的著作。我们可以说,从狭义上讲,这两位作家都是在1930年代和1940年代社会动荡的中国写作的,并且为1930年代和1940年代社会动荡的中国写作,其风格如此个人化,甚至反对他们那个时代的“对中国的痴迷”,以至于他们的作品的存在已经与当时的主流思维形成了鲜明的对比。

The rediscovery of Shen Congwen and Zhang Ailing, and their significance in modern Chinese literature, started with an influential and controversial book of literary criticism, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction by C.T. Hsia, in which he applauds Shen Congwen’s fiction writing for encompassing a “rich structure of symbol and feeling,”33 and Zhang Ailing’s for capturing “the sense of desolation inherent in all human hunger and frustration.”34 Two decades later, Jeffrey C. Kinkley’s critical biography of Shen Congwen provided a more comprehensive and more distanced perspective on Shen Congwen’s contribution to the long tradition of Chinese literature, and gave him due credit for evoking “the quintessence of youth and vitality” in the
对沈从文和张爱龄的重新发现,以及它们在现代中国文学中的意义,始于一本有影响力和争议的文学批评著作,夏崇棠的《中国现代小说史》,他在书中称赞沈从文的小说写作包含了“丰富的象征和情感结构” 33 ,并称赞张爱龄的小说捕捉了“所有人类饥饿和挫折中固有的凄凉感”。 34 二十年后,杰弗里·金克利(Jeffrey C. Kinkley)对沈从文的批判性传记为沈从文对中国文学悠久传统的贡献提供了更全面、更远的视角,并给予他应有的赞誉,因为他在《中国文学》中唤起了“青春与活力的精髓”。

“traditional” heritage.35 David Der-wei Wang elaborates on Hsia’s views on the two writers, and his contribution has been of essential importance in accounting for the revival and growth of critical interest in the two writers both in mainland China and in Taiwan.36
“传统”遗产。 35 David Der-wei Wang详细阐述了夏德伟对这两位作家的看法,他的贡献对于解释中国大陆和台湾对这两位作家的批评兴趣的复兴和增长至关重要。 36

Border Town 邊城 (1934) by Shen Congwen

33 C.T. Hsia, A History of Modern Chinese Fiction: 1917-1957, 211. Such a comment might not be unfamiliar to a Western reader of D. H. Lawrence. In the following sections of my textual analysis of Border Town, a similar echo may be heard.
33 夏崇棠:《中国现代小说史:1917-1957》,第211页。这样的评论对于D.H.劳伦斯的西方读者来说可能并不陌生。在我对《边境城镇》的文本分析的以下部分中,可以听到类似的回声。

34 Hsia 395.

35 Jeffrey C. Kinkley, The Odyssey of Shen Congwen (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1987) 7.
35 Jeffrey C. Kinkley,《沈从文的奥德赛》(斯坦福大学:斯坦福大学出版社,1987年) 7.

36 Wang’s critical attention to the two writers has been consistent. He discusses the boundary of the real in Shen and points out that Shen presents a poetics of imaginary nostalgia in his fiction. See Fictional Realism in Twentieth Century China (New York: Columbia UP, 1992) 201-281. He also writes productively on Zhang and actively presents his views on Zhang as a prominent figure in modern Chinese fiction. See Der-Wei Wang, Zhongsheng xuanhua: sanshi niandai dao wushi niandai de zhongguo xiaoshuo 衆聲喧嘩: 30 80 年代的中國小說 (Sounds and Fury: Chinese Fiction from the 1930s to 1980s) (Taipei, Yuanliu Publishing Company, 1988).
36 汪晖对这两位作家的批判性关注是一贯的。他在《沈》中探讨了真实的边界,并指出沈在他的小说中呈现了一种虚构的怀旧诗学。参见《二十世纪中国的虚构现实主义》(纽约:哥伦比亚大学出版社,1992年),第201-281页。他还对张学良进行了富有成效的写作,并积极地将张学良视为中国现代小说中的杰出人物。参见王德伟:《三石年安黛道乌氏年安代德中国民骚嘩:30 到 80 年代的中國小說》(台北:1930 年代至 1980 年代的中国小说)(台北:元流出版社,1988 年)。

Shen Congwen is a legendary figure in the history of modern Chinese fiction. Born of a minority
沈从文是中国现代小说史上的传奇人物。出生于少数民族
family in the southwestern region of China, receiving
在中国西南地区,接收
little regular education, he started to write fiction in 1924 in Beijing after Peking University rejected his application to enrol. He soon gained fame for being a writer of the Peking style. He later defined himself as “a countryman” living in a big city--his physical presence in a big
他几乎没有受过正规教育,1924年在北京北京大学拒绝了他的入学申请后,他开始写小说。他很快因成为北京风格的作家而声名鹊起。后来,他将自己定义为生活在大城市中的“乡下人”——他在大城市中的实际存在
city only sharpens his perception of a remote rural memory.
使他对偏远农村记忆的感知更加敏锐。
37 His writings show a recurring tendency: he uses a typical northern form of written Chinese to narrate stories set against the background of his native southwestern border town. The stories are all from his memory of early childhood, and he injects the lyrical aspect
他的作品显示出一种反复出现的趋势:他使用典型的北方书面中文形式来叙述以他的家乡西南边境城镇为背景的故事。这些故事都来自他幼年的记忆,并注入了抒情的一面
of northern
北方
written Chinese language into his memories of that distant southern
南部
place. The marginal status of his native town is thus subverted by challenging the geographically central position represented in the Chinese language he uses to present the cultural values of a minority
因此,他的家乡的边缘地位通过挑战他用中文来呈现少数民族文化价值观所代表的地理中心地位而被颠覆了
people.

To present his personal memories in the form of fiction to his reading public, Shen Congwen assumes a third-person voice but restores transgressive force in his prose fiction by employing poetic language that engages a lyrical tradition other than Confucianism-centred traditional classical poetry.38 Border Town, a piece of fiction in twenty-one chapters published in 1934, illustrates how Shen Congwen employs a sense of literary qi that enables the personal nostalgic memory of a remote town to infiltrate the consciousness of an urban public readership at a time of national crisis. It tells a tale of two naive young people whose romance is twisted by bad luck in the setting of a lyrically portrayed rural Hunan region in south China. It is also a
沈从文以小说的形式向读者呈现个人记忆,采用第三人称视角,但通过采用诗意的语言,与以儒家思想为中心的传统古典诗歌不同的抒情传统,恢复了散文小说中的越界力量。 38 1934年出版的一部小说《边镇》共二十一章,阐述了沈从文如何运用文学气感,使一个偏远小镇的个人怀旧记忆在民族危机时期渗透到城市公众读者的意识中。它讲述了两个天真的年轻人的故事,他们的浪漫被厄运扭曲,背景是中国南方抒情的湖南农村地区。它也是一个

tragic story about “Grandpa,” the old ferryman who loses his daughter in such a romance and then, when trying to help his granddaughter Cuicui avoid a similar romance, loses his own life.
关于“爷爷”的悲剧故事,老摆渡人在这样的恋情中失去了女儿,然后在试图帮助孙女翠翠避免类似的恋情时,失去了自己的生命。

37 Shen Congwen, Shen Congwen wenji 沈從文文集 (The Shen Congwen Anthology, vol, 11) (Guangzhou: Huacheng chubanshe, 1983)11, 87.

38 For Shen Congwen’s borrowing from the Chu lyrics or Songs of the South, see David Der-wei Wang, Fictional Realism in Twentieth-Century China: Mao Dun, Lao She, Shen Congwen (New York: Columbia UP, 1992) 201-234.
38 关于沈从文借鉴《楚国》歌词或《南方之歌》,参见David Der-wei Wang, Fictional Realism in Twentieth-Century China: 毛盾、老舍、沈从文 (New York: Columbia UP, 1992) 201-234。

Cuicui falls in love with Nuosong, nicknamed No.2, at first sight; however, mistaking No. 2 for his elder brother Tianbao, nicknamed No. 1, she encourages her grandfather’s arrangement with No. 1, to propose to her. When Tianbao finds out the truth that he is in fact not Cuicui’s love, he sadly leaves the border town and later dies in an accident. Nuosong then leaves the border town, too, overcome by a sense of guilt over his brother’s death. Grandpa dies of remorse and Cuicui decides to take Grandpa’s job, waiting for Nuosong to return, though no one knows when or even whether he will come back.
翠翠对绰号二号的诺松一见钟情;然而,她将二号误认为是他的哥哥天宝,绰号一号,鼓励祖父与一号的安排,向她求婚。当天宝发现自己其实并不是翠翠的爱人的真相时,他悲痛地离开了边陲小镇,后来在一次事故中丧生。然后,诺松也离开了这个边境小镇,对他哥哥的死感到内疚。爷爷因懊悔而死,翠翠决定接替爷爷的工作,等待诺松回来,但没人知道他什么时候回来,甚至是否会回来。

Border Town is reminiscent of D. H. Lawrence’s elegiac fiction of a dying rural England.
《边境小镇》让人想起D.H.劳伦斯(D. H. Lawrence)的挽歌小说,描绘了一个垂死的英格兰乡村。

Shen Congwen’s rural Hunan scenery, like that of Lawrence’s pastoral England beset by industrialization, is constantly endangered by the sophisticated central Chinese culture. The old ferryman’s daughter falls in love with a soldier from the outside world. The soldier is ready to give up his military duties and elope with her, yet the girl refuses to leave her primitive hometown. The young soldier commits suicide at her decision, and so does the girl after she gives birth to Cuicui. The otherness of the outside world only leads to destruction for both sides. The soldier, with his implied military power stemming from a central culture ready to conquer rural values, is alien to the local people; and the beautiful local maiden, with all her youthfulness and devotion, is similarly a fantasy of otherness to the soldier. When crushed by reality, both die, and yet they together leave a legacy for the continuation of their fantasy in their baby Cuicui.
沈从文笔下的湖南乡村风光,就像劳伦斯笔下饱受工业化困扰的田园风光一样,不断受到复杂的中国中部文化的威胁。老摆渡人的女儿爱上了一个来自外面世界的士兵。士兵准备放弃军职,与她私奔,但女孩拒绝离开她原始的家乡。年轻的士兵在她的决定下自杀了,女孩在生下翠翠后也自杀了。外部世界的他者性只会导致双方的毁灭。这名士兵的隐含军事力量源于一种随时准备征服农村价值观的中心文化,对当地人来说是陌生的;而美丽的当地少女,带着她所有的青春和奉献精神,对士兵来说同样是一种异类的幻想。当被现实压垮时,两人都死了,但他们一起留下了遗产,在他们的婴儿翠翠身上延续了他们的幻想。

The young parents’ tragic fate seems to foreshadow what Cuicui will go through when she grows up. The competition of the two brothers also displays Shen Congwen’s attitude toward the increasingly structured and hierarchical social values that are representative of central Chinese culture. Tianbao, the older brother, respects hierarchical order and consults the elder’s opinion first. Upon receiving his approval, he proposes to Cuicui. It is a normal, conventional, and socially acceptable proposal. Nuosong, in contrast, acts out of passion and gives romance a true
年轻父母的悲惨命运,似乎预示了翠翠长大后会经历什么。两兄弟的竞争也显示了沈从文对代表中国中央文化的日益结构化和等级化的社会价值观的态度。大哥天宝尊重等级秩序,先征求长辈的意见。在得到他的批准后,他向翠翠求婚。这是一个正常的、约定俗成的、社会可接受的提案。相比之下,诺松的行为是出于激情,并赋予浪漫以真实的

lyrical touch by singing love songs to Cuicui. His approach evidently differs from the principle of restraint that is so valued by Confucianism. Instead, it recalls the shamanistic passion that is commonly seen in the Chu lyrics. If Tianbao’s proposal is what a reader expects to see in real life, then Nuosong’s version is what the writer constructs as a fantasy for his readers, one which cannot end well in the real world.
通过唱情歌给翠翠,抒情的感动。他的做法显然与儒家思想所重视的克制原则不同。相反,它让人想起了楚歌词中常见的萨满教激情。如果说天宝的提议是读者期望在现实生活中看到的,那么诺松的版本就是作家为读者构建的幻想,一个在现实世界中不可能有好结局的幻想。

Whatever her sense of social convention approves of, Cuicui’s primitive desire refuses; and when fate finally takes Tianbo away and when the clan accepts Nuosong as an appropriate lover for Cuicui, Nuosong flees the border town out of an unconscious concession to his elder brother’s choice of social structure. Primitive human desire is sadly defeated by social relations again, and fantasy, after emerging in the literary beauty of Nuosong’s love songs, collapses under the weight of the structures of reality. Human desire and societal strictures stand as adversaries to one another, and the old ferry man and his granddaughter Cuicui come to embody the human suffering that results from the conflict, bearing it with a full dignity sustained by lyrical beauty.
无论她的社会习俗感如何认可,翠翠的原始欲望都拒绝;当命运最终带走了天波,当族人接受诺松作为翠翠的合适情人时,诺松出于对哥哥选择的社会结构的无意识让步,逃离了边境小镇。人类的原始欲望再次被社会关系悲哀地打败,幻想在诺松情歌的文学美中浮现出来后,在现实结构的重压下坍塌了。人类的欲望与社会的狭隘是彼此对立的,老渡人和他的孙女翠翠则以抒情美的尊严,体现了人类因冲突而遭受的苦难。

Throughout the story Shen Congwen maintains a calm, sometimes even cruelly indifferent tone, a tone that sharply contrasts with the disturbing sadness of Cuicui’s fate as an orphan and as a deserted girl. For example, the deaths in the story are presented with a simplicity that shows so much restraint that it evokes powerful sympathy from the reader. Cuicui’s father’s death is briefly narrated in two sentences: “Though they could not join each other in life, nothing could stop them from coming together in death. He took the poison first.”39 Frustration at hopeless love, despair at any possible solution, and the dilemma and paradox in such a choice of death in order to get a living chance for love--all are omitted and yet left for the reader to imagine. Similarly, the old ferry man’s death is presented in an even more distanced tone:
在整个故事中,沈从文保持着一种平静,有时甚至是残酷冷漠的语气,这种语气与翠翠作为孤儿和被遗弃女孩的命运的令人不安的悲伤形成了鲜明的对比。例如,故事中的死亡以一种简单明了的方式呈现,表现出如此多的克制,以至于引起了读者的强烈同情。翠翠父亲的死,用两句话简要叙述:“虽然他们在生前无法团聚,但没有什么能阻止他们在死后走到一起。他先吃了毒药。 39 对无望的爱情的挫败感,对任何可能的解决办法的绝望,以及为了获得爱的活生生的机会而选择死亡的困境和悖论——所有这些都被省略了,但留给读者想象。同样,老摆渡人的死,也以一种更加疏远的语气呈现出来:

39 Shen Congwen, Border Town (1934), trans. Jeffrey C. Kinkley (New York: Harperperenial, 2009) 4.
39 沈从文:《边镇》(1934年),杰弗里·金克利译(纽约:出版社,2009年) 4.

…so she shrilly called out for her grandpa. When Grandpa did not get up or answer her, she ran into the house and shook him back and forth. Still he made no sound. The old man had died as the thunderstorm faded away.
…于是她尖锐地呼唤她的爷爷。爷爷没有起身,也没有回答她,她就跑进屋里,来回摇晃他。他仍然没有发出任何声音。随着雷暴的消退,老人已经死了。

Cuicui began to wail.40
翠翠开始嚎啕大哭。 40

Cuicui’s grief over Grandpa’s death is described in a series of actions as observed and heard from a disinterested perspective, like that of a camera. Her psychological responses are not mentioned at all. The writer seems to withdraw from forming any organic relation with the scene and instead seems to only record externally observed impressions in the text for the reader to receive. This is in fact a skilful way to counteract impressionistic perspectives on such a scene. The death of Grandpa is so profound a reality in Cuicui’s life that to this point, a reader can hardly take the
翠翠对爷爷去世的悲痛,被描述为一系列从无私的角度观察和听到的行动,就像相机一样。根本没有提到她的心理反应。作者似乎没有与场景形成任何有机关系,而是似乎只在文本中记录外部观察到的印象供读者接收。事实上,这是一种巧妙的方法,可以抵消对这样一个场景的印象派观点。爷爷的去世在翠翠的一生中是一个如此深刻的现实,以至于到现在为止,读者几乎无法接受

writer’s surface perspective to be deliberately superficial. Instead, the effect of such a disguise of disinterestedness works against its appearance. All are presented as if a nightmare is replayed, with no clue provided to the viewer. Yet more meanings and a stronger emotional impact are concealed in such a seemingly withdrawn writer’s tone, awaiting decoding and affective response by the reader. Cuicui’s emotional reliance on old Grandpa, her helplessness, her despair at the silence of her only relative, and her burst of fear, grief, and final acknowledgement of the old
作家的表面视角要刻意肤浅。相反,这种无私的伪装的影响与它的表象背道而驰。所有的画面都像一场噩梦重播一样呈现,没有向观众提供任何线索。然而,在这样一种看似孤僻的作家语气中,隐藏着更多的意义和更强烈的情感冲击,等待着读者的解读和情感反应。翠翠在情感上对老爷爷的依赖,她的无助,她对唯一亲人的沉默的绝望,以及她对旧爷爷的恐惧、悲痛和最后的承认

man’s death are all there for observation. The writer’s seemingly objective record of her actions gives the scene an uncanny qi-like atmosphere at first reading, as though the actions are being witnessed in a dream, yet the tangibility of Cuicui’s actions convinces the reader of their actuality. The imagination of the reader steals into the reality of depiction in such a reading experience and thus the literary quality of qi emerges in unexpected ways.
人类的死亡都是为了观察。作者看似客观地记录了自己的行为,乍一读,给现场带来了一种诡异的气息,仿佛这些行为是在梦中被目睹的,但翠翠行为的有形性却让读者相信它们的真实性。在这样的阅读体验中,读者的想象力悄悄地渗透到描绘的真实性中,因此,“气”的文学品质以意想不到的方式显现出来。

Shen Congwen also engages the lyrical force of poetic language to create a sense of fantasy to transgress the seemingly impassable boundary of brutal reality in his prose narrative in
沈从文也运用诗意语言的抒情力量,营造出一种奇幻感,超越了残酷现实看似不可逾越的边界,在他的散文叙事中

40 Shen 151.

Border Town. He imposes a poetic rhythm to his ostensibly disinterested tone in prose, particularly when he describes the rural scenery where all these tragedies take place. It is evident from the first paragraph of the first chapter:
边境小镇。他在散文中表面上无私的语气中强加了一种诗意的节奏,尤其是当他描述所有这些悲剧发生的乡村风光时。从第一章的第一段可以明显看出:

An old imperial highway running east from Sichuan into Hunan province leads, after reaching the West Hunan border, to a little mountain town called Chadong. By a narrow stream on the way to town was a little white pagoda, below which once lived a solitary family: an old man, a girl, and a yellow dog.41
一条古老的皇家公路从四川向东延伸到湖南省,在到达西湘边境后,通向一个名叫查东的小山城。在去镇上的路上,在一条狭窄的小溪旁有一座白色的小塔,塔下曾经住着一个孤零零的家庭:一个老人,一个女孩和一条黄色的狗。 41

Kinkley’s English translation faithfully conveys Shen Congwen’s literary style and poetic rhythm. Yet to illustrate my point, here is the Chinese version for a comparative reading:
金克利的英译本忠实地传达了沈从文的文学风格和诗意韵律。然而,为了说明我的观点,以下是比较阅读的中文版本:

由四川過湖南去, 靠東有一條官路。 這官路將近湘西邊境到了一個地方名爲 茶峒的小山城時,有一小溪,溪邊有座白色小塔,塔下住了一戶單獨的人家。這人家只一個老人,一個女孩子,一隻黃狗。
由四川过湖南去, 靠东有一条官路。 这官路将近湘西边境到了一个地方名为 “茶峒”的小山城时,有一小溪,溪边有座白色小塔,塔下住了一户单独的人家。 这人家只一个老人,一个女孩子,一只黄狗。

The first two sentences would remind an educated Chinese reader of travelogue prose by Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元 (773-819) in the Tang dynasty, not only in its attention to physical detail but also in its special rhythm of syllables--7-7-24 and then 4-8-11--which presents a short-short-long pattern. The pattern is not only pleasant to the ear but almost soothing to the eye. The last
前两句话会让受过教育的中国读者想起唐代柳宗元(Liu Zongyuan 柳宗元,773-819)的游记散文,不仅在于它对物理细节的关注,还在于其特殊的音节节奏——7-7-24,然后是4-8-11——呈现出短-短-长的模式。这种模式不仅令人耳目一新,而且几乎令人眼前舒缓。最后

sentence, in order to create a repetitive rhythm, deliberately engages a number-plus-measure- word structure three times consistently and without any connecting words, even though this technique is more often used in poetry than in modern Chinese prose. For the reader, such formal poetic power provides an other-worldly perspective on the border town. In contrast with the seemingly emotionless description of actions to follow in the text, it is almost a lyrical effort to mitigate the stark reality.
句子,为了创造一种重复的节奏,故意连续三次地使用数字加度量词结构,没有任何连接词,尽管这种技巧在诗歌中比在现代中国散文中更常用。对于读者来说,这种正式的诗意力量为这个边境小镇提供了一个超凡脱俗的视角。与文本中看似毫无感情的行动描述形成鲜明对比的是,这几乎是一种抒情的努力,以减轻严酷的现实。

41 Shen 1.

I have mentioned above that in Border Town Shen Congwen borrows from the tradition of Chu lyrics. He also uses simple but beautiful folk ballads to display his preference for the primitive, simple power of desire over sophisticated, structured social reality. In the conversation between the local folks, he deliberately manipulates the vernacular language and imparts to it a rhythm and a compact force that belongs to folk ballads, as when Cuicui sings a complete ballad extolling the idyllic spirit of rural beauty.
歌词。他还使用简单而优美的民谣来表达他对原始、简单的欲望力量的偏爱,而不是复杂、结构化的社会现实。在乡亲们的对话中,他刻意操纵乡土语言,赋予其属于民间歌谣的节奏感和紧凑的力量,就像翠翠唱出一首完整的歌谣,歌颂乡村美的田园风光。
42 Cuicui’s idealistic lover, Nuosong, is said to be a supreme singer, and wins Cuicui’s heart by singing for her at night. Nuosong’s poetic power is also shown in his special way of speaking: his lines in conversation are always short and simply structured, and from time to time he talks as if he were singing a ballad, simple, straightforward, and full of powerful lyrical force. Nuosong’s chat with Tianbao in chapter 12, for instance, clearly
据说翠翠的理想主义情人诺松是一位至高无上的歌唱家,并通过在晚上为她唱歌赢得了翠翠的心。诺松的诗意力量还体现在他独特的说话方式上:他谈话中的台词总是短小精悍,结构简单,时不时地像唱歌谣一样说话,简单、直截了当,充满了强大的抒情力。例如,在第十二章中,诺松与天宝的聊天就清楚地表明了这一点
distinguishes him as the more poetic one and Tianbao as the more prosaic of the two. The difference
将他区分为更富有诗意的一个,而天宝则是两者中更平淡无奇的一个。区别
is also displayed in their choices of style in courting Cuicui.43 Nuosong’s lyrical words strongly contrast with Tianbao’s prose narration, breaking down Tianbao’s well-established frame of discourse. Shen Congwen engages the lyrical power of poetic language to interrupt the easy flow of everyday life.
抒情的文字与天宝的散文叙述形成了强烈的对比,打破了天宝既定的话语框架。沈从文运用诗意语言的抒情力量,打断日常生活的轻松流动。

In short, while mainstream writers overtly but clumsily express their anxiety or ecstasy over the collapse of old central cultural values, Shen Congwen’s subtle opposition to geographical centralism by his choice of subjects provides a different perspective on his time. Unlike his contemporaries, who are eager to impress upon the reader a simple assertive narrative tone, he veils his artistic complexity by appearing to withdraw his presence from the narrative
简言之,当主流作家公开而笨拙地表达他们对旧有中心文化价值观崩溃的焦虑或狂喜时,沈从文通过选题对地理中心主义的微妙反对,为他的时代提供了不同的视角。与他的同时代人不同,他渴望给读者留下简单而自信的叙述基调,他通过似乎将自己的存在从叙述中抽离出来,掩盖了自己的艺术复杂性

text. Furthermore, his trust of his reader’s recognition and appreciation of poetic language leads him to confidently produce a type of text that constructs fantasy out of the vague memory of a
发短信。此外,他对读者对诗歌语言的认可和欣赏的信任使他自信地创作出一种文本,这种文本从模糊的记忆中构建出幻想。

42 Shen 64-65.

43 Shen 98-100.

remote region that is lyrical enough to unsettle everyday reality. It is a subtle use of literary qi, one that subverts the dominant discourse of the centre even as it must succumb to its power.
偏远地区,抒情到足以扰乱日常现实。这是对文学之气的一种微妙运用,它颠覆了中央的主导话语,即使它必须屈服于它的权力。

Chuanqi 傳奇(1947) by Zhang Ailing

Zhang Ailing explores equally subtle ways to employ literary qi in her fiction. In her collection of short stories Chuanqi, she selects the seemingly boring parts of life to write about, giving her readers a unique perspective on them. She ingeniously develops a way to make that perspective accessible to her readers by an original usage of narrative language. Meng Yue’s “Chinese Literary Modernity and Zhang Ailing” provides a solid analysis of the element of qi in Zhang’s fiction and connects it with the Tang tales of marvels for the first time.44 Chen Jianhua follows Meng Yue’s argument that Zhang Ailing reveals an aspect of qi in everyday life in terms of time, space and imagery, and discusses Zhang’s presentation of qi in narrative texts in more detail.45 This vein of research surpasses the criticism that treats Zhang more as a writer of triviality, and frees the reader from a purely feminist reading of her work.46
张爱玲在她的小说中探索了同样微妙的运用文学气的方法。在她的短篇小说集《传气》中,她选择了生活中看似无聊的部分来写,让读者对它们有了独特的视角。她巧妙地开发了一种方法,通过原创的叙述语言使用,使读者能够理解这种观点。孟月的《中国文学现代性与张爱玲》对张爱玲小说中的气元素进行了扎实的分析,并首次将其与唐朝的奇观故事联系起来。 44 陈建华沿袭了孟月的论点,即张爱玲从时间、空间和意象的角度揭示了日常生活中气的一个方面,并更详细地讨论了张爱玲在叙事文本中对气的呈现。 45 这种研究的脉络超越了将张艺谋更多地视为琐碎作家的批评,并将读者从对她作品的纯粹女权主义解读中解放出来。 46

Zhang’s attention to the literary quality of qi is first shown in the title she uses for her collection of stories: Chuanqi, or Tales of Marvels, which she glosses in the first edition of 1944 as the location of the everyday in fantasy and the fantasy in the everyday.47 It is the key she provides for the reader to approach the stories in this book. When the 1944 collection was revised,
张艺谋对“气”文学品质的关注首先体现在她为自己的小说集《传气》或《奇迹的故事》所使用的标题上,她在1944年的第一版中将其描述为幻想中的日常和日常生活中的幻想。 47 这是她为读者提供的关键,让读者能够理解这本书中的故事。当 1944 年的收藏被修订时,

44 Meng Yue, Ren, lishi, jiayuan:wenhua piping sandiao ·歷史·家園:文化批評三調 (Mankind, History, and Home: a Trio-melody in Cultural Criticism) (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2006) 339-362.
44 孟月,任,利士,嘉媛:文华管三刨 人歷史家園:文化批評三調 (Mankind History, and Home: a Trio-melody in Cultural Criticism) (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 2006) 339-362.

45 Chen Jianhua, “Zhiyi lixing, fanfeng ziwo: Zhang Ailing chuanqi yu qihuan xiaoshuo xiandaixing” 質疑理性,反諷自我:張愛玲《傳奇》與奇幻小說現代性 (Questioning Reason and Problematizing the Self: Eileen Chang’s Chuanqi and the Modernity of Fantastic Fiction), in Chung Wai Wenxue 中外文學 (Chung Wai Literary Monthly)

35.3 (August 2006): 109-139.

46 Such a feminist reading reveals the special values of Zhang Ailing as a female writer in the 1930s and gives credit to her significance to a complete picture in modern Chinese literature; however, it also endangers her literary contribution in a discourse too narrowly focused on her identity as a female writer. See Ray Chow, Women and Chinese Modernity (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1991).
46 这种女性主义的解读揭示了张爱玲作为1930年代女性作家的特殊价值,并赋予了她在中国现代文学中完整图景的意义;然而,这也危及了她的文学贡献,因为她的话语过于狭隘地关注她作为女性作家的身份。参见Ray Chow,《女性与中国现代性》(明尼阿波利斯:明尼苏达大学出版社,1991年)。

47書名叫《傳奇》, 目的是在傳奇裏面尋找普通人,在普通人裏尋找傳奇。Zhang Ailing, Chuanqi
47 “书名叫《传奇》, 目的是在传奇里面寻找普通人,在普通人里寻找传奇。” Zhang Ailing, Chuanqi

(Shanghai: Shanghai zazhishe, 1944).

enriched, and republished in 1946, she changed the title to
充实并于 1946 年再版,她将书名改为
Xin chuanqi 新傳奇
新传奇
or New Tales of Marvels,
新的奇迹故事,
partly in order to further explain her intertextual references to the archetypal concept of
为了进一步解释她对原型概念的互文引用
qi in her fiction. She also asked her friend Fatima Ohideen (
在她的小说中。她还问她的朋友法蒂玛·奥希丁(
炎櫻
炎樱
1920-1997) to design a new cover for the book, and painstakingly colored her friend’s sketch herself. The cover is a picture showing
1920-1997)为这本书设计了新的封面,并亲自为她朋友的素描煞费苦心地着色。封面是一张图片,显示
a late Qing lady playing a game of leisure, with a nanny holding her child. It is a homely picture of a homely
温馨的家常图片
life, except for a figure placed at the margin of the picture and obviously
生活,除了一个人物放在图片的边缘,显然
out of proportion in every sense: a modern person with her face covered gazing into the pre-modern
在各种意义上都是不成比例的:一个蒙着脸的现代人凝视着前现代
scene:

Fig. 1 Front Cover of Zhang Ailing, Chuanqi (Shanghai: Shanhe tushu company, 1947)

Meng Yue interprets such a design as “the encountering [of] gazes and the meeting of two experiences”.48 The daily life of the Qing lady becomes a fantasy in the curious (unseen) eye of the modern person. With the faceless figure as a vague and ambiguous perspective on everyday life of the past, the picture straddles the territories of factual and fictional, past and present, creating a new fantasy world. Pre-modern or modern, facial features shown or concealed, the ladies inside the picture offer multi-layered interpretations awaiting discovery by the reader. In
孟玥将这样的设计解读为“凝视的相遇和两种体验的相遇”。 48 清夫人的日常生活在现代人好奇(看不见)的眼中变成了幻想。以这个不露面的人物对过去的日常生活进行模糊而模糊的视角,这幅画跨越了事实与虚构、过去与现在的领域,创造了一个新的幻想世界。无论是前现代还是现代,面部特征被展示或隐藏,图片中的女士们提供了多层次的解释,等待读者发现。在

48 Meng Yue 354.

combining two sets of cultural codes of different periods into one picture, Zhang Ailing and her friend preserve the codes while also transforming them for further interpretation. The figure of the modern lady appears to represent many roles--the writer, the reader, or the character in the stories--but the meaning is up to each individual reader to decipher. Zhang Ailing, the writer, in the act of filling in the figure with her favourite aquamarine color, also establishes an intertextual relation with the reader/viewer. In this sense, this specially designed cover picture becomes part of the whole text. The writer’s perspective participates in constructing a fantasy in the everyday world from cover to cover and invites her reader to join her in doing the same.
张爱玲和她的朋友将两套不同时期的文化密码结合成一幅图画,在保留这些密码的同时,也将它们进行了改造以供进一步解释。现代女士的形象似乎代表了许多角色——作家、读者或故事中的人物——但其含义取决于每个读者来解读。作家张爱玲在用她最喜欢的海蓝宝石色填充人物的行为中,也与读者/观众建立了互文关系。从这个意义上说,这张特别设计的封面图片成为整个文本的一部分。作家的视角从头到尾参与了在日常生活中构建一个幻想,并邀请她的读者与她一起做同样的事情。

Meng Yue avers that the stories collected in Zhang Ailing’s
孟玥认为,张爱玲的《张爱玲》中收集的故事
Chuanqi share a cyclical structure
共享周期性结构
that begins with the protagonists’
这要从主角们的
flight from the bondage
逃离束缚
of tedious everyday
乏味的日常
life into a world of “fantasy” which often leads to fatal disaster. It is true that the adventure in Zhang Ailing’s fantasy often ends in a surface return to plain or even squalid everyday life; however, I would claim that it is not a return to the old life in the end. Instead, it is more like going beyond that life with the legacy of fantasy. For example, in “Love in a Fallen City”, the female protagonist Liusu dates the male protagonist Liuyuan out of ennui caused by her repressive family. When going
进入一个“幻想”的世界,往往导致致命的灾难。诚然,张爱玲幻想中的冒险,往往以表面回归平淡甚至肮脏的日常生活而告终;但是,我会声称这最终不是回到旧生活。相反,它更像是带着幻想的遗产超越了那种生活。比如在《陨落之城之恋》中,女主刘素与男主刘媛约会,是出于家庭压抑引发的不满。去的时候
for a date in Hong
在香港约会
Kong, both witness the fall of Hong
孔,都见证了洪的陨落
Kong under Japanese bombing. At the crucial moment, both experience an emotional change that reveals a different aspect
日本轰炸。在关键时刻,两人都经历了情绪变化,揭示了不同的一面
of their feelings that survives even the most brutal destruction
破坏
of a city. After that moment, however, the two get back to their routine life: a sense of ennui engulfs their highly routine everyday activities, and it seems that neither of these two bored protagonists changes essentially. They
然而,当那一刻,两人又回到了他们的日常生活中:一种厌恶感笼罩着他们高度常规的日常活动,似乎这两个无聊的主角都没有本质上的变化。他们
are married
已婚
and live together, yet
在一起,然而
it seems that they live their old lives once more. However, the reader, who has followed the entire narrative, can tell the difference between the two types of ennui before and after their exhausting adventures. Before, Liuyuan may easily
然而,跟随整个叙述的读者可以分辨出这两种类型的 ennui 在他们疲惫的冒险之前和之后之间的区别。以前,柳源可能很容易
break away from Liusu if being bored, but after, the two are connected forever with their common experience of
如果感到无聊,可以脱离刘素,但之后,两人以他们共同的经历永远联系在一起。

life and death. So long as the moon shines over everyday life as it did on that unforgettable night before the fall of Hong Kong and the epiphany of their love, the couple will always find a way back to each other. The apparent similarities lie on either side of the moment of transgression, which gives a different perspective on their routine life, which lets the literary quality of qi steal into even the dullest aspects of life.
生与死。只要月亮照耀着日常生活,就像在香港沦陷和爱情顿悟前的那个难忘的夜晚一样,这对夫妇总会找到回到彼此身边的路。明显的相似之处在于违法的那一刻,这为他们的日常生活提供了不同的视角,这使得气的文学品质甚至渗透到生活最沉闷的方面。

Another good example is “Red Rose, White Rose” which follows the same narrative pattern, describing how a model family man Zhenbao, tired of his boring wife Yanli, falls passionately for a married young lady Jiaorui. Yet after the controversial affair, he returns to his family and becomes a model family man again, at least in appearance. It almost appears to be a case of much ado about nothing, yet Zhang Ailing successfully creates a new perspective on this clichéd situation by crystallizing the common flow of time into a lyrical expansion of moments. One of the original literary techniques she uses to provide such a perspective is “uneven contrast,” or cenci 參差, to borrow her own label. Indeed, the uneven contrast actually takes
另一个很好的例子是《红玫瑰,白玫瑰》,它遵循同样的叙事模式,描述了一个模范家庭男人珍宝如何厌倦了他无聊的妻子艳丽,如何热情地爱上一个已婚的年轻女士娇瑞。然而,在那次有争议的婚外情之后,他又回到了自己的家庭,再次成为一个模范的家庭男人,至少在外表上是这样。这几乎似乎是一个无所事事的案例,但张爱玲通过将时间的共同流动具体化为瞬间的抒情扩展,成功地为这种陈词滥调的情况创造了一种新的视角。她用来提供这种视角的原始文学技巧之一是“不均匀对比”,或借用她自己的标签。事实上,这种不均匀的对比实际上需要

place more explicitly in the reader’s response to the text, when the reader is offered Zhang
在读者对文本的反应中更明确地放置,当向读者提供张

Ailing’s literary description of the moment of transgression. In her text, the brief moment of transgression is portrayed in expansive detail, while the long but tedious duration of everyday life is often described in brisk, brief sentences. For example, in order to portray Jiaorui’s
艾玲对犯罪时刻的文学描述。在她的文字中,短暂的过犯时刻被描绘得非常详细,而日常生活的漫长而乏味的持续时间往往用轻快、简短的句子来描述。例如,为了刻画娇瑞的

transgressive appeal to Zhenbao, the writer interrupts the narrative flow of time and spends a long, poetic paragraph describing the posture of Jiaorui as she picks up the phone. The actual action of Jiaorui might take only a few seconds, but the writer successfully shows through her elaborate style that the moment has become an eternal image that is pressed onto Zhengbao’s mind.
作家对珍宝的越界诉求,打断了时间的叙述流逝,用了一段长而诗意的段落来描述焦瑞拿起电话时的姿势。焦瑞的实际行动可能只需要几秒钟,但作家通过她精心设计的风格成功地表明,那一刻已经成为压在正宝脑海中的永恒形象。

Another display of such “uneven contrast” happens at the end of the story, where three long paragraphs relating a quarrel between Zhenbao and his wife proceed in a fast pace. But then Zhang concludes the whole story in one line: “The next day Zhenbao rose and reformed his ways.
这种“不平衡的对比”的另一种表现发生在故事的结尾,其中关于珍宝和他的妻子之间争吵的三个长段落以快速的节奏进行。但随后张学良用一句话总结了整个故事:“第二天,振宝起来,改过自新。

He made a fresh start and went back to being a good man.”49 It is as if after the moment of transgression in Zhenbao’s perception of time and life, his life with his wife is only endurable as a sweeping statement at the end of the story. He is still the good man, but in the eye of the knowing reader who has been affected by Zhang Ailing’s “uneven contrast,” he is not the same as before. A literary quality of qi is thus produced in the narrative through the participation of the reader.
他重新开始,重新成为一个好人。 49 仿佛在珍宝对时间和生命认知的越界那一刻之后,他与妻子的生活,只有在故事的结尾,才被当作一个笼统的陈述来忍受。他依然是个好人,但在被张爱玲“对比不均”所影响的知情读者眼中,他已经不如以前了。因此,通过读者的参与,在叙述中产生了气的文学品质。

Considering the overwhelming political demands on xiaoshuo writing in 1940s, it is no wonder then that after the publication of these stories, Zhang received some negative comments for her lack of “themes” in her writing. Out of self-justification, she published “My Own Writing” in 1944, in which she explains her views on life and writing. She acknowledges different ways of writing extant in and before her time, and she claims that her own writing aims to grasp the solid basis underneath the surface excitement. She believes that “uneven contrast” is closer to the real exactly because she is aware of her time being such a “troubled era.” As for her choice of so trivial a subject matter as love affairs over political revolution, she argues that by nature they are the same: irrational and violent. When facing the charge of lacking “main
考虑到1940年代小朔写作面临的压倒性的政治要求,难怪在这些故事出版后,张学艺因写作中缺乏“主题”而受到一些负面评价。出于自我辩解,她于1944年出版了《我自己的写作》,在书中阐述了她对生活和写作的看法。她承认在她所处的时代和之前存在的不同写作方式,她声称她自己的写作旨在抓住表面兴奋之下的坚实基础。她认为,“不均匀的对比”更接近真实,正是因为她意识到自己的时代是一个如此“动荡的时代”。至于她选择爱情而不是政治革命这样一个微不足道的主题,她认为它们本质上是相同的:非理性和暴力。当面临缺乏“主要”的指控时

themes,” she argues with great force and clarity:
主题,“她以极大的力量和清晰地论证:

…Therefore, the main theme of my works sometimes isn’t clear. But I feel that we should perhaps move beyond the notion that literary works should have “main
…因此,我作品的主题有时并不明确。但我觉得,我们或许应该超越文学作品应该具有“主要”的概念。

themes.” Fiction should involve a story, and the story should be allowed to make
主题。小说应该涉及一个故事,而这个故事应该被允许制造

itself clear, which is better than concocting a story around a main theme….It may be that the difference between modern literature and past literature lies right here: we no
这比围绕一个主题编造一个故事要好......也许现代文学和过去文学的区别就在这里:我们没有

49 Eileen Chang, “Red Rose, White Rose” Love in a Fallen City, trans. Karen S. Kingsbury and Eileen Chang (New York: New York Review Books, 2007) 312.
49 张爱玲,《红玫瑰白玫瑰》《爱情在堕落的城市》中。Karen S. Kingsbury 和 Eileen Chang(纽约:纽约评论出版社,2007 年)312。

longer emphasize a main theme but allow the story to give what it can and the reader to take whatever is available.50
更长的强调一个主题,但允许故事提供它能提供的东西,让读者拿走任何可用的东西。 50

What is revealed here is, I believe, a modern expression of the traditional literary quality of qi: it is the writer’s individual fantasy about life distinct from what is registered by the eye. This might be something calm that the writer sees in a time of political unrest and social turmoil, just as it could be something irrational that the writer sees in a well-arranged family life. Zhang’s modern touch added to the literary tradition of writing qi in her fiction indeed reveals her quest for a perception of the true essence underneath the fragmentary, vague impressions of life.
我相信,这里揭示的是传统文学品质“气”的现代表达:它是作家对生活的个人幻想,与眼睛所记录的截然不同。这可能是作者在政治动荡和社会动荡时期看到的平静的东西,就像作者在安排良好的家庭生活中看到的可能是非理性的东西一样。在她的小说中,张艺谋在书气的文学传统中加入了现代的手法,这确实揭示了她在零碎、模糊的生活印象下对真正本质的感知的追求。

As for engaging literary techniques to help fix a sense of the moment within the flow of time, Zhang Ailing finds answers in the potential of the Chinese language’s long history. She describes her own style of language as follows:
至于如何运用文学技巧来帮助在时间的流动中固定当下的感觉,张爱玲在汉语悠久的历史潜力中找到了答案。她这样描述自己的语言风格:

[It is the] Chinese in the fiction of Pearl Buck speaking with the flavour of British literary speech--everything is borrowed. My intent at the time was this: there is already a great distance between me and my descriptions of the romantic atmosphere Hong Kong evoked in the heart of someone from Shanghai, and in the Hong Kong of fifty years ago, the weighty distance of time is even greater. So I used a kind of outdated vocabulary to represent this immense distance.51
[它是]《珍珠报》小说中的中国人,用英国文学演讲的味道说话——一切都是借来的。我当时的意图是这样的:我和我在上海人心中唤起的香港浪漫气氛的描述之间已经有很大的距离,而在五十年前的香港,时间的沉重距离甚至更大。所以我用了一种过时的词汇来表示这个巨大的距离。 51

The complexity of language styles in providing different perspectives on life is here based on the concept of temporal distance: while Pearl Buck uses her British speech to add an orientalized flavor to her writings about modern China, Zhang Ailing goes back to native Chinese classical language and gives it a twist from her modern time. Her language is thereby also borrowed—not from another country, but from an alien past of her own culture, thus making it very suitable for
语言风格在提供不同生活视角方面的复杂性,是建立在时间距离概念的基础上的:赛珍珠用她的英国语言为她关于现代中国的写作增添了东方化的气息,而张爱玲则回到了中国本土的古典语言,并赋予了它与她现代时代之间的转折。因此,她的语言也是借来的——不是从另一个国家借来的,而是从她自己文化的陌生过去借来的,因此非常适合

representing a distanced and seemingly outdated reality as perceived by the writer. Such a
代表了作者所感知的疏远且看似过时的现实。这样的

50 Zhang Ailing, “My Own Writing,” in Kirk Denton ed., Modern Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature, 1893-1945, 440.
50 张爱玲:《我自己的写作》,载柯克·丹顿编:《中国现代文学思想:文学著作,1893-1945》,第440页。

51 Zhang 442.

perception, fantasy as it is, may not be aligned with the so-called “main theme” of her contemporary moment, and could be paradoxically truer to human experience in the long run. All that is tangible in her fantasy is her desire to put down in words what is already distanced from her. Once the words harden into the text, the writer can do nothing but see her work through the eye of her reader, and the reader can only take whatever is available to him/her at the moment when he/she encounters the text. The text is then the locus where perspectives on life other than
感知,即幻想,可能与她当代时刻的所谓“主题”不一致,从长远来看,它可能更真实于人类的经验。在她的幻想中,所有有形的都是她渴望用语言写下已经与她疏远的东西。一旦文字在文本中硬化,作者就只能通过读者的眼睛来看待她的作品,而读者只有在他/她遇到文本的那一刻才能拿走他/她所能得到的任何东西。因此,文本是对生活以外的生活的看法的场所

the “main theme” are fully justified as acceptable. Readers living in the natural and factual flow of time are privileged to share a moment of fantasy when they read Zhang Ailing’s fiction, as a result of the workings of qi.
“主题”是完全有理由接受的。生活在时间的自然和事实流动中的读者,在阅读张爱玲的小说时,有幸分享一个幻想的时刻,这是气的运作的结果。

Conclusion: Survival of Qi
结论:气的生存

The literary quality of qi did not thrive after the Tang dynasty, and the tendency to contain fiction writing within the boundaries of political and social demands became more urgent at a time of social and national turmoil in modern times. The literary quality of
在近代社会和民族动荡的时代,将小说写作置于政治和社会要求的边界内,显得尤为迫切。文学品质
qi in Chinese fiction was reduced in prestige in imperial China, and in Republican period it was suppressed by more immediate and urgent political and social needs, as most fiction writers were politically
在中国小说中,帝制中国的声望下降了,而在民国时期,它被更直接、更紧迫的政治和社会需求所压制,因为大多数小说作家都是政治性的
motivated rather than literarily and aesthetically. In short, the practical and political mission of
动机,而不是文学和审美。简而言之,实践和政治使命
xiaoshuo again dominated the writing and reading of fiction after the Tang dynasty. The literary quality of
在唐代以后再次主导了小说的写作和阅读。文学品质
qi survives in sporadic expressions in works such as
在以下作品中以零星的表达形式存在,例如
Liaozhai, Border Town, and Chuanqi; and it continues to display
它继续显示
its transformative power and vitality
它的变革力量和活力
in work by
在工作 by
writers who would show to their readers their perceptions of the world rather than merely convey surface impressions.
作家会向读者展示他们对世界的看法,而不仅仅是传达表面的印象。
These rare but powerful
expressions
表达 式
add to the possible forms literary qi may take in Chinese fiction after the Tang.
在唐朝以后的中国小说中。

The literary quality of qi was dimmed in pre-modern literature as writers gradually lost sight of the power of transgression via freedom of roaming and become more and more obsessed with setting up and elaborating upon the formal requirements of old genres such as chuanqi tales and chuanqi plays. Pu Songling did produce a genuine quality of qi in his tales, which were written in apparent formal similarity to zhiguai but with buried elements of literary experimentations that altered the narrative outcomes of his tales in unconventional ways. His confirmation of other-worldly values, as represented by the autonomy of female fox and ghost spirits in his his longer romantic tales, breathes a quality of qi in literature.
在前现代文学中,随着作家逐渐忽视了通过自由漫游而产生的越界力量,并越来越痴迷于设置和阐述传气故事和传气剧等旧体裁的形式要求,气的文学品质变得黯淡。蒲松龄在他的故事中确实产生了真正的气的品质,这些故事在形式上与智贵明显相似,但隐藏了文学实验的元素,以非常规的方式改变了他的故事的叙述结果。他在长篇浪漫故事中对超凡脱俗的价值观的确认,正如女狐狸和鬼魂的自主性所代表的那样,在文学中注入了一种气质。

In the 1930s and 1940s, Shen Congwen and Zhang Ailing challenged the dominant worldview of their time and managed to restore the transgressive force of qi to Chinese fiction. In Border Town, Shen challenges the Han-Chinese concept of central China that is represented as a well-organized structure of hierarchy. His narratives memorialize a geographically marginal Hunan province that transgresses the standard Northern Chinese written language. Zhang Ailing uses her knowledge of everyday life and ingeniously presents a different perspective on life that crosses the borders of time. Her experimentation with language is more advanced than Shen Congwen’s in that she discovers a transgressive power in “unbalanced contrasts” embedded in Chinese language. In works by these two writers, qi finds its connection with modern Chinese fiction.
在1930年代和1940年代,沈从文和张爱龄挑战了他们那个时代的主流世界观,并成功地将气的越界力量恢复到中国小说中。在《边城》中,沈挑战了汉族-汉族的中央概念,这种概念被表现为组织良好的等级结构。他的叙述纪念了一个地理上处于边缘的湖南省份,它违反了中国北方的标准书面语言。张爱玲运用自己对日常生活的了解,巧妙地呈现出一种跨越时间边界的与众不同的生活视角。她对语言的实验比沈从文更高级,因为她发现了中国语言中嵌入的“不平衡对比”中的越界力量。在这两位作家的作品中,“气”找到了它与现代中国小说的联系。

In the next chapter, I will discuss how after half a century’s bondage to the spell of politics, qi gives new power to Chinese fiction in the 1980s and 1990s. When writers resume their search for qi, they rediscover freedom of roaming and use their fiction to cross all kinds of barriers that divide subjects politically, socially, and culturally. Step by step, qi achieves subversive power through literary transgression in the contemporary age.
在下一章中,我将讨论在被政治咒语束缚了半个世纪之后,“气”如何在1980年代和1990年代为中国小说赋予新的力量。当作家重新寻找气质时,他们重新发现了漫游的自由,并用他们的小说跨越了在政治、社会和文化上划分主题的各种障碍。一步一步,气在当代通过文学的越界,获得了颠覆的力量。

Chapter IV

Breaking the Bondage: Qi in Chinese Fiction of the 1980s and 1990s
打破束缚:1980年代和1990年代中国小说中的气

In the last chapter I described the decline of qi in Chinese fiction after the Tang dynasty and explored social, political, and cultural causes for such a decline. I argued that with social, political, and cultural demands for clearer boundaries in fiction, the literary desire for qi fell by the wayside in narrative texts. The transgressive power of qi was either deprived of its essence of freedom of roaming, or overwhelmed by the contemporary demands made upon the modern Chinese fiction writer to meet the political needs of national crisis above all. The vital force of transgression in literary fiction became the last consideration in writing xiaoshuo.
在最后一章中,我描述了唐朝以后中国小说中气的衰落,并探讨了造成这种衰落的社会、政治和文化原因。我认为,随着社会、政治和文化要求在小说中更清晰地界限,文学对气的渴望在叙事文本中被搁置了。“气”的越界力量,要么是被剥夺了其自由漫游的本质,要么是被当代对现代中国小说作家提出的首先要满足民族危机的政治需要的要求所压倒。文学小说中越界的生命力,成为写小书最后的考虑因素。

The literary quality of qi, however, survived in fiction by a few rare writers after the Tang, both pre-modern and modern. As we have seen, Pu Songling of the Qing dynasty successfully preserved the power of transgression in qi in his long tales depicting romances between fox/ghost spirits and human scholars in his zhiguai collection Liaozhai. In Border Town, Shen Congwen challenged central Confucian conventionalism with the quality of qi by intertwining his personal memories of a marginal local culture with the mainstream northern Chinese written language. He also explores the generic transformative power of Chu lyrics and Hunan regional folklore. In a sense, the literary quality of qi is clearly revealed in the poetic discrepancy between the lyrical language and the prosaic life described in such a language, as well as between the prosaic language and the intensity of tragic human fate portrayed in it.
然而,气的文学品质在唐朝之后的少数作家的小说中幸存下来,无论是前现代还是现代。正如我们所看到的,清代的蒲松龄在他的智取集《辽寨》中描绘了狐鬼与人类学者之间的浪漫故事,成功地保留了气中的越界之力。在《边城》中,沈从文将自己对边缘地方文化的记忆与中国北方主流的书面语言交织在一起,以气的品质挑战了中央儒家的传统观念。他还探讨了楚族歌词和湖南地域民间传说的一般变革力量。从某种意义上说,“气”的文学品质,在抒情语言与这种语言所描述的平淡生活之间的诗意差异中,以及在平淡的语言与其中描绘的人类悲剧命运的强度之间的诗意差异中,都清楚地显露出来。

Zhang Ailing’s purely female narrative perspective in her Chuanqi has a transgressive purpose too evident to ignore. The cover, the stories, and the language style in her Chuanqi are thoroughly invested with her pursuit of qi.
张爱玲在她的《传气》中纯粹的女性叙事视角,有一个不容忽视的越界目的。她的《传气》的封面、故事、语言风格,都与她对气的追求有着彻底的投入。

92

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93

Despiste their innovations (or perhaps because of them), Zhang Ailing and Shen Congwen were not given much attention from so-called mainstream literary critics in the first half of the twentieth century in China. Their best writings were even banned in both mainland China and Taiwan after 1949, when politics generated more fierce censorship on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In mainland China of the 1980s and 1990s, however, the quality of literary qi in their writings found an eager audience in many young Chinese writers. In this period of modern Chinese literature the pursuit of qi expands in more forms and with more subtlety in works of fiction. In this chapter I will examine several Chinese fiction writers and their major contributions to reviving and developing the literary quality of qi in the 1980s and 1990s.
张爱玲和沈从文鄙视他们的创新(或许正因为如此),在二十世纪上半叶的中国,他们并没有得到所谓的主流文学批评家的太多关注。1949年后,他们最好的作品甚至在中国大陆和台湾都被禁,当时政治在台湾海峡两岸产生了更严格的审查制度。然而,在1980年代和1990年代的中国大陆,他们作品中的文学气质在许多中国年轻作家中找到了热切的读者。在中国现代文学的这一时期,对气的追求在小说作品中以更多的形式和更微妙的方式扩展。在本章中,我将考察几位中国小说作家,以及他们在1980年代和1990年代对复兴和发展气文学品质的主要贡献。

Decades of Silence and the Contested Field of Chinese Fiction from the 1980s to 1990s
1980-1990年代的几十年沉默与中国小说的争议领域

If the political demands of the early Republican period controlled literary fiction’s cultural status, then Mao Zedong’s 1943 talk in Yan’an on the political function of literature officially extinguished the last glimmering of qi for the next 40 years.1 Mao and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) annulled the literary pursuit of qi in the name of “revolutionary
如果说民国初期的政治诉求支配了文学小说的文化地位,那么毛泽东1943年在延安关于文学的政治功能的谈话,正式熄灭了未来40年的最后一丝气。 1 毛和中国共产党(CCP)以“革命”的名义废除了对气的文学追求

literature,” i.e., literature in service of the political agenda of the CCP. Any fiction writers’ efforts to display a perspective other than the Party’s line were thus designated as anti- revolutionary and banned. As a result, between 1949 and 1978 few non-Party voices in literature were heard in mainland Chinese fiction. The silencing of other literary voices in fiction was often achieved at the cost of the deprivation of personal freedom and the physical destruction of lives.
文学“,即为中共政治议程服务的文学。因此,任何小说作家试图展示党的路线之外的观点,都被定性为反革命,被禁止。因此,从1949年到1978年,中国大陆小说中很少听到文学界非党的声音。小说中其他文学声音的沉默往往是以剥夺个人自由和生命遭受物理破坏为代价的。

1 Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an Conference on Literature and Art": A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary, trans. Bonnie S. McDougall (Michigan: U of Michigan P, 1980).
1 毛泽东《延安文艺会议谈话录:1943年文本译本及评论》,邦妮·麦克杜格尔译(密歇根:密歇根大学出版社,1980年)。

Even though it was hailed as “revolutionary”, the single monotonous narrative voice from 1949 to 1978 ironically supported the values of a long tradition of grand narrative in Chinese literary history. In the premodern era, Confucian principles require a writer to harmonize the world through compromises--if the function of literature is to convey the Confucian way (wen yi zai dao 文以載道), then the form of literature must be subordinated to that mission. Similarly in the modern era, the Socialist standard for a “good” Chinese fiction
尽管它被誉为“革命性的”,但从1949年到1978年,单一单调的叙事声音讽刺地支持了中国文学史上悠久的宏大叙事传统的价值观。在前现代,儒家原则要求作家通过妥协来协调世界——如果文学的功能是传达儒家方式(温一在道),那么文学的形式必须服从于这一使命。同样在现代,社会主义标准是一部“好”的中国小说

writer insists that a writer should bend his or her self and writing completely and unconditionally to the demands of the CCP. Premodern mainstream literature forbid any doubt against texts that conveyed Confucian principles; and the modern Socialist writers are literally ordered to present “typical characters” to their readers. Of course, typicality in socialist fiction was defined directly by the political demands of the CCP.
作家坚持认为,作家应该屈服于自己的自我,完全无条件地按照中共的要求进行写作。前现代主流文学禁止对传达儒家原则的文本提出任何质疑;现代社会主义作家从字面上被命令向读者呈现“典型人物”。当然,社会主义小说中的典型性是由中共的政治要求直接定义的。

The literary field in mainland China after 1949, therefore, had little to offer to amaze its readers until 1978. In 1978, along with economic reform, the CCP officially granted the “freedom to create” to “literary workers” and as happened before, sometimes to their detriment, Chinese intellectuals took such a granting of freedom seriously. Fortunately, they were right this time.2 And by the year 1985 there seems to be a dividing line in mainland contemporary Chinese fiction. Before, it was a virtual dark age of monotonous propaganda in the name of
因此,1949年以后的中国大陆文学界,直到1978年才让读者感到惊讶。1978年,随着经济改革,中共正式授予“文学工作者”“创作自由”,正如以前发生的那样,有时对他们不利,中国知识分子认真对待这种自由。幸运的是,这次他们是对的。 2 到了1985年,中国大陆当代小说似乎有了一条分界线。以前,这是一个以

“revolutionary literature”; after, a booming period rich with a variety of literary experiments, an emergence of individual expression, and a search for new ways to represent the diverse contemporary perceptions of a China caught in an increasingly globalized world.
《革命文学》;之后,这是一个蓬勃发展的时期,充满了各种文学实验,个人表达的出现,以及寻找新的方式来代表一个陷入日益全球化的世界的中国的多样化当代观念。

2 Similar promises to Chinese intellectuals from the CCP were not uncommon in the short history of the government, yet more often resulted in subsequent punishment for those who took such liberties. For example, the Anti-Rightist Movement immediately follows the “Hundred Flowers” period, and many writers who expressed
2 在中共短暂的政府历史中,中共对中国知识分子的类似承诺并不少见,但更多时候,那些剥夺这种自由的人随后会受到惩罚。例如,反右运动紧随“百花齐放”时期之后,许多作家表示

other voices than the monotonous Party line were labelled as “Rightist” and sent to the camps.
除了单调的党的路线之外,其他声音被贴上了“右派”的标签,并被送往集中营。

Indeed, the mainland Chinese literary field of the last two decades of the twentieth century saw not only a newly regained sense of possible survival, but also a stronger awareness of individuality after ten years of the destructive “Great Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976). In
事实上,在20世纪最后二十年的中国大陆文学界,在经历了十年的破坏性“文化大革命”(1966-1976年)之后,不仅重新获得了一种新的生存意识,而且对个性的认识也更加强烈。在

those ten years of darkness, all sounds of dissent were silenced, yet writersimaginations soared high despite the nightmare conditions.3 Once the repression lifted, in the early half of the 1980s, almost all writers became eager to produce new innovative literature: literary journals, such as Harvest 收穫, October 十月, and Beijing Literature 北京文學, were widely published and eagerly received; and a kaleidoscope of literary “schools” led to many literary experiments,
那十年的黑暗,所有异议的声音都被压制了,然而,尽管在噩梦般的条件下,作家的想象力却飞得很高。 3 1980年代初,一旦镇压解除,几乎所有作家都热衷于创作新的创新文学:文学期刊,如《收获》、《十月十月》和《北京文学》等,被广泛出版并受到热烈欢迎;而万花筒般的文学“流派”,引来了许多文学实验,

including a revival of interest in the literary qualities of qi.4 The booming literary diversity was so robust that even the notorious June 4th political event in 1989 failed to crush it. In fact, in the few years after 1989, when intellectual debate and cultural ferment were quashed by government censors, the literary pursuit of qi continued, and even became stronger, adopting a surface-level apolitical tone to avoid censorship. And yet it proved to be subversive to the political power of the CCP at a profound level.
包括对气的文学品质的兴趣的恢复。 4 蓬勃发展的文学多样性如此强大,以至于即使是1989年臭名昭著的6月4日 th 政治事件也未能粉碎它。事实上,在1989年之后的几年里,当知识分子的辩论和文化骚动被政府审查机构压制时,对气的文学追求仍在继续,甚至变得更加强烈,采取一种表面的非政治语气来逃避审查。然而,事实证明,它在深层次上颠覆了中共的政治权力。

When studying writers like Ah Cheng 阿城 (b.1949), Han Shaogong 韓少功 (b. 1953), Mo Yan 莫言 (b. 1955), Ma Yuan 馬原 (b. 1953), Su Tong 蘇童 (b. 1962), Yu Hua 餘華 (b. 1960), and Ge Fei 格非 (b. 1964), critics tend to divide them into two different schools of fiction writing--“roots-searching” and “avant-garde” schools.5 Categorizing writers into
在研究阿城(生于1949年)、韩少功(生于1953年)、莫言(生于1955年)、马元马原(生于1953年)、苏彤蘇童(生于1962年)、于华华(生于1960年)和葛飞格非(生于1964年)等作家时,评论家倾向于将他们分为两个不同的小说写作流派——“寻根”和“先锋派”。 5 将作家分类为

3 Indeed, there are a dozen underground shouchao ben xiaoshuo 手抄本小說 (hand-copied texts of fiction)
3 的确,有十几个地下守读本小說(手抄小说文本)

circulating among youthful readers during the ten years of “Great Cultural Revolution.” Due to the lack of archives and critical neglect, these texts remain to be studied. However, from extant materials it could be said that literary
在“文化大革命”十年期间在青年读者中流传。由于缺乏档案和严重的忽视,这些文本仍有待研究。然而,从现存的材料来看,可以说文学

fantasy works very much into these texts. Inge Neilson discusses some of these texts in “Prized Pulp Fiction: Hand- copied Literature from the Cultural Revolution,” published in China Review International, 9.2 (Fall 2002), 344-356. 4 The legacy of the New Literature in the literature of 1980s has been discussed by many critics. See Milena
幻想在这些文本中发挥了很大的作用。英格·尼尔森(Inge Neilson)在《中国评论国际》(China Review International)9.2(2002年秋季)第344-356页的《珍贵的低俗小说:文化大革命的手抄文学》一文中讨论了其中的一些文本。 4 新文学在1980年代文学中的遗产已被许多评论家讨论过。见米莱娜

Doleželová-Velingerová, Oldrich Král and Graham Sanders, eds., The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China’s May Fourth Movement (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Asia Center, 2001).
Doleželová-Velingerová, Oldrich Král and Graham Sanders, eds., The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China's May Fourth Movement(马萨诸塞州剑桥:哈佛大学亚洲中心,2001年)。

5 See Henry Zhao, “The River Fans Out: Chinese Fiction Since Late 1970s,” European Review, 11.2 (May 2003) 193-208. Zhao provides a chronological survey of the development of fiction writing from the 1980s to 1990s. He
5 参见Henry Zhao,“The River Fan Out: Chinese Fiction Since Late 1970s”,《欧洲评论》,11.2(2003年5月),第193-208页。赵教授对1980年代至1990年代小说写作的发展进行了时间顺序的梳理。他

“schools” helps correlate the “schools” with cultural, political, and social contexts in the study
“学校”有助于将“学校”与研究中的文化、政治和社会背景联系起来
of contemporary China. According to most critics, the roots-searching trend starts in the mid- 1980s
当代中国。根据大多数评论家的说法,寻根趋势始于 1980 年代中期
and is so named from an essay by Han
Shaogong, one of its major members.6 The mission of this group of writers is to locate cultural roots that are different from the hegemonic official ideology of contemporary China. Some opt for classical Chinese philosophies, like Ah Cheng; and some opt for regional and minority cultures, like Han Shaogong and Mo Yan. The avant- garde
这群作家的使命是找到与当代中国霸权主义官方意识形态不同的文化根源。有些人选择中国古典哲学,如阿成;有些人选择地域和少数民族文化,如韩少公和莫言。前卫艺术
fiction writers, in contrast, come into full bloom around 1987 and soon overwhelm readers with a more radical dismissal of overtly political agendas.
读者对公开的政治议程进行了更激进的驳回。
The dominant political agenda, common in official narratives from 1949 to 1976, still remains discernible in the roots-searching fiction, but writers of the avant-garde group, like Ma Yuan, Su Tong, Yu Hua, and Ge Fei, surprise
在1949年至1976年的官方叙事中常见的占主导地位的政治议程,在寻根小说中仍然清晰可见,但马原、苏通、于华和葛飞等先锋派作家却感到惊讶
their readers with their narrative labyrinths, experiments with Chinese literary language, and an explicit erasure of overtly political agendas in their writings.
语言,并明确抹去他们著作中公开的政治议程。

Most Western critics accept the division of the two schools tacitly, and move directly to exploring their differences further. For example, according to Jing Wang, the differences between the two groups of writers seem to be shaped by the positions they take toward history. In Wang’s opinion, the roots-searching writers are influenced by post-Mao cultural fever and are thereby still burdened with a drive for writing or restoring the rationality of history. On the other hand, the avant-garde writers are radically subversive in defining human subjects as drifting in history, and history itself as a form of the imaginary, directly reflecting “the epochal
大多数西方批评家默认了两学派的分裂,并直接转向进一步探讨它们的差异。例如,根据王靖的说法,这两组作家之间的差异似乎是由他们对历史的立场所塑造的。在汪晖看来,寻根作家受到后毛文化热的影响,因此仍然背负着书写或恢复历史合理性的动力。另一方面,先锋派作家在将人类主体定义为历史的漂泊者,将历史本身定义为想象的一种形式,直接反映了“时代”,具有根本性的颠覆性。

categorizes fiction writers into different groups based on their political attitudes toward the CCP government and politics in this article. Before this survey essay, Zhao also provides studies of individual writers such as Gao
本文根据小说作者对中共政府和政治的政治态度,将小说作者分为不同的群体。在这篇调查论文之前,赵教授还提供了对高智晟等个别作家的研究

Xingjian and Ma Yuan, and he explores how narratives help shape themes in the two writers’ texts. See Henry Zhao, “Ma Yuan the Chinese Fabricator,” World Literature Today, 69.2 (Spring 1995). Similarly, Lu Tonglin takes the perspective of gender study to read a group of so-called “experimental” fiction writers, among which such writers
邢健和马元,他探讨了叙事如何帮助塑造两位作家文本中的主题。参见亨利·赵,“中国制造者马元”,《今日世界文学》,69.2(1995年春)。同样,陆同林也以性别研究的视角,阅读了一批所谓的“实验性”小说作家,其中就有这样的作家

as Mo Yan, Can Xue, Zhaxi Dawa and Su Tong are read in the context of a historically patriarchal Chinese society. See Lu Tonglin, Misogyny, Cultural Nihilism, and Oppositional Politics: Contemporary Chinese Experimental Fiction (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995).
作为莫言、薛灿、扎西达瓦和苏彤,是在历史上父权制的中国社会的背景下解读的。参见陆同林:《厌女症、文化虚无主义与对立政治:当代中国实验小说》(斯坦福:斯坦福大学出版社,1995年)。

6 Han Shaogong, “Wenxue de gen文学的根 (The Root of Literature), speech at Hangzhou Meeting, Dec 1984.
6 韩少功,“文学的根”,1984年12月在杭州会议上的讲话。

disillusionment with humanism and heroism.”7 In fact, prior to compiling an anthology of Chinese avant-garde fiction, Jing Wang discussed in detail the “roots-searching” literature in High Culture Fever: Politics, Aesthetics, and Ideology in Deng’s China,8 in which she
对人文主义和英雄主义的幻灭。 7 事实上,在编纂中国先锋派小说选集之前,王静在《文化热:邓笔下的中国 8 的政治、美学和意识形态》一书中详细讨论了“寻根”文学,她在书中

associates “roots-searching” with the tradition of “teleological and utopian” visions. In contrast, she sees the avant-garde narratives in contemporary China as “devoid of memory,” which
将“寻根”与“目的论和乌托邦”愿景的传统联系在一起。与此相反,她认为当代中国的先锋派叙事是“缺乏记忆的”,这种

allows them to open “dangerous narrative space.” She points out that avant-garde writers have “come a long way since the May Fourth period.”
让他们打开了“危险的叙事空间”。她指出,先锋派作家“自五四以来已经走了很长一段路”。

In 2001 Catherine Vance Yeh argued otherwise. She states that there is an identifiable connection between May Fourth and roots-searching literature, which she translates into English as “root literature.” Her survey of the “root literature” writers reveals several major
2001年,凯瑟琳·万斯·叶(Catherine Vance Yeh)提出了不同的观点。她指出,“五四”与寻根文学之间存在着明显的联系,她将其翻译成英文为“寻根文学”。她对“根文学”作家的调查揭示了几个主要

characteristics of this literary movement: root literature moves away from “personal voice,” from “the highly moral stance,” toward a tie with “lost traditional culture”; it expresses revulsion towards the linguistically impoverished “Mao style”; it also explores and experiments with “regional dialects, mystic language used in folklore, oral narratives, and religious
这场文学运动的特点:根源文学从“个人的声音”转向“高度道德的立场”,走向与“失落的传统文化”的联系;它表达了对语言贫乏的“毛风格”的厌恶;它还探索和实验了“地方方言、民间传说中使用的神秘语言、口头叙述和宗教

ceremonies in an attempt to revive and reinvent the rich narrative traditions of the past.”9
仪式,试图复兴和重塑过去丰富的叙事传统。 9

It seems that the same texts evoke two sharply different interpretations in the above- mentioned critics. Are the two groups of writers so distinctive from each other or are they de facto reviving the same tradition of qi in Chinese fiction that has always worked with an undaunted vitality to erode boundaries in both form and content? Chang Hsu-Tung, a literary
似乎同样的文本在上述批评家中引起了两种截然不同的解释。这两组作家是否如此不同,或者他们实际上是在复兴中国小说中的同一传统“气”,这种传统始终以无畏的生命力侵蚀形式和内容的界限?张旭东,文学家

7 Wang Jing, “Introduction,” China’s Avant-Garde Fiction: An Anthology (Durham and London: Duke UP, 1998) 3.
7 王静:《引言》,《中国先锋派小说选集》(杜伦和伦敦:杜克大学出版社,1998年) 3.

8 Wang Jing, High Culture Fever: Politics, Aesthetics and Ideology in Deng’s China (Berkely and Los Angeles: U of California P, 1996). See chapter 4 and 5.
8 王静,《文化热:邓时代的中国的政治、美学和意识形态》(伯克利和洛杉矶:加利福尼亚大学出版社,1996年)。请参阅第 4 章和第 5 章。

9 Catherine Vance Yeh, “Root Literature of the 1980s: May Fourth as a Double Burden,” in The Appropriation of Cultural Capital: China’s May Fourth Project, eds. Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, Oldrich Král and Graham Sanders (Cambridge and London: Harvard UP, 2001) 229-256.
9 叶嘉莹:《1980年代的根源文学:五四作为双重负担》,载于《文化资本的挪用:中国的五四工程》,Milena Doleželová-Velingerová、Oldrich Král和Graham Sanders编(剑桥和伦敦:哈佛大学出版社,2001年),第229-256页。

critic who personally witnessed the ups and downs of literature in mainland China in the last twenty years of the twentieth century, presents an insider’s view of these two groups of writers:
这位亲身目睹了20世纪最后二十年中国大陆文学起起落落的批评家,以内行人的视角呈现了这两类作家的视角:

It is not surprising to see a series of social crises evoking a group invention of a national cultural genealogy. In this sense Search-for-Roots fiction represents a transitional modernism, a project to be completed by a new mode of cultural production that is ideologically and culturally alien to it. The root-searchers seemed to view the avant-garde in precisely this light.10
看到一系列社会危机唤起了民族文化谱系的集体发明,这并不奇怪。从这个意义上说,《寻根小说》代表了一种过渡性的现代主义,一个由一种在意识形态和文化上与它格格不入的新文化生产模式来完成的工程。寻根者似乎正是从这个角度来看待前卫艺术的。 10

In other words, instead of contrasting the two schools of fiction writing that appear on the literary stage one after another, Chang considers the two as constructive forces with escalating yet similarly subversive political potential within one single project of modernism in Chinese literature: what the roots-searchers fail to complete is fully completed in the avant-garde writers’ bold and sometimes reckless experiments.
换言之,张艺谋没有将两个小说写作流派一个接一个地呈现在文学舞台上,而是将两者视为一种具有不断升级但同样具有颠覆性政治潜力的建设性力量:寻根者未能完成的事情,在先锋派作家大胆而有时鲁莽的实验中完全完成。

All these studies contribute to our comprehension of the diversity of the literary field of the 1980s. The categorizing act of literary criticism also helps correlate the different literary “schools” with changing cultural, political, and social contexts in contemporary China. However, these categories also build up boundaries in critical reception at the same time. Readers, as assisted by critics, are paradoxically led to a limited reading experience if they take these
所有这些研究都有助于我们理解1980年代文学领域的多样性。文学批评的分类行为也有助于将不同的文学“流派”与当代中国不断变化的文化、政治和社会语境联系起来。然而,这些类别也同时在批评接收中建立了界限。在批评家的协助下,如果读者接受这些,他们就会矛盾地获得有限的阅读体验

categories as defining elements, in spite of the categories’ ultimately external and subsequent position in relation to the texts. And so my focus of discussion in the next section, by contrast, is not upon categorizing fiction, but rather upon the writers’ literary thoughts in relation to their common pursuit of qi in their texts without reference to their “school” affiliation.
类别作为定义要素,尽管类别最终与文本相关的外部和随后的位置。因此,与此相反,我在下一节中讨论的重点不是对小说的分类,而是作家的文学思想与他们在文本中共同追求气的关系,而不涉及他们的“学校”从属关系。

Out of the Bondage of “Schools” and “Groups”: Writers on Their Own Writing
摆脱“学校”和“团体”的束缚:作家们独自写作

10 Chang Hsu-Tung, Chinese Modernism in the Era of Reforms (Durham and London: Duke UP, 1997) 141-142.
10 Chang Hsu-Tung,《改革时代的中国现代主义》(达勒姆和伦敦:杜克大学出版社,1997年),第141-142页。

Relatively speaking, of all the above-mentioned critics’ views, Chang’s critique is closest to the writers’ respective self-images. The self-images, in spite of all the writers’ biographical differences, have two things in common: a haunting memory of the Cultural
相对而言,在上述所有批评家的观点中,张艺谋的批评最接近作家们各自的自我形象。尽管作者的传记存在差异,但这些自我形象有两个共同点:对文化的难以忘怀的记忆

Revolution and an intrinsic love of the aesthetic beauty of fiction writing. These two similarities help us to see the seemingly separate clusters of writers as one. They both revive the marginalized tradition of qi in their works as a suppressed desire for aesthetics is fully released in these writers’ imaginations. In this section I will discuss how the writers themselves are
革命和对小说写作审美的内在热爱。这两个相似之处有助于我们将看似独立的作家集群视为一个整体。他们都在他们的作品中恢复了被边缘化的气传统,因为被压抑的审美欲望在这些作家的想象中得到了充分释放。在本节中,我将讨论作家本身的情况

reluctant to accept the “group” labels imposed by literary critics. Indeed, reading their “self- defensive” literary thoughts on why and how they write fiction, we will see their common yearning for qi.
不愿意接受文学批评家强加的“群体”标签。的确,读他们关于自己为什么写小说、怎么写小说的“自卫”文学思考,就会看到他们对气的共同向往。

Ah Cheng’s response to his assigned position as the forerunner of the roots-searchers is expressed in his essays published in 1994, in which he makes three major points: first, the so- called roots-searching school of fiction is a failure in the aesthetic sense as it starts to show a certain stylization (qiang ) in writing; second, the search for cultural roots should occur in the field of academic research, for fiction is instead based on writers’ imaginations; and third, the
阿诚在1994年发表的文章中表达了对自己“寻根派”先行者地位的回应,他提出了三个主要观点:第一,所谓的寻根派小说派在审美意义上是失败的,因为它在写作中开始表现出一定的风格化(qiang 腔);第二,对文化根源的追寻应该发生在学术研究的领域,因为小说不是建立在作家的想象之上的;第三,

literary contribution of roots-searching fiction lies in the fact that it opens for readers a door to fantasy worlds in the everyday world.11 The first point speaks to the negative effects upon readers and writers of explicitly labelling a “roots-searching” school of writing, as such categorizing contains, shapes, and fixes fiction writing. The second point dismisses the practical and social priority assigned to fiction writing. The third point argues that qi is precisely what makes fiction matter in everyday life. Indeed in his essay, Ah Cheng values most the
寻根小说的文学贡献在于,它为读者打开了一扇通向日常生活中幻想世界的大门。 11 第一点谈到了明确地给读者和作家贴上“寻根”的标签的写作流派的负面影响,因为这种分类包含、塑造和固定了小说写作。第二点否定了小说写作在实践和社会方面的优先地位。第三点认为,气正是使小说在日常生活中变得重要的原因。的确,在他的文章中,阿诚最看重的是

11 Ah Cheng, Xianhua xianshuo: zhongguo shisu yu zhongguo xiaoshuo 閑話閑說:中國世俗與中國小說 Idle Words Idly Said: Chinese Everyday World and Chinese Fiction(Taipei: The Time Press, 1994) 197-205.

transgressive function of fiction in Chinese literature, and he identifies poetic force in prose narratives as its key medium.
小说在中国文学中的超越功能,他将散文叙事中的诗意力量确定为其主要媒介。

Similarly, after publishing his landmark essay, “The Roots of Literature,” in 1985 and encouraging his fellow writers to look to local cultural norms for inspiration, Han Shaogong continues
同样,在1985年发表具有里程碑意义的论文《文学的根源》并鼓励他的作家伙伴们从当地的文化规范中寻找灵感后,韩少功继续说道
modifying his position
他的位置
in almost all his later interviews.12 He later considers his initial formulation of roots-searching fiction as “premature,”
最初将寻根小说表述为“为时过早”,
13 and he accepts part of another contemporary
他接受了另一个当代人的一部分
literary critic’s (Li Tuo) views about roots-searching fiction, i.e., that these works are characterized by local flavour.
批评家(李拓)对寻根小说的看法,即这些作品具有地方风味的特点。
14 His definition of “roots” is expanded to combine local culture
他对“根”的定义被扩大到结合当地文化
with an awareness of a global existence.
具有全球存在意识。
15 In his interview
在他的采访中
with Cui Weiping
替换为 Cui Weiping
in 1999, he explicitly bases his evaluation of good fiction on its openness in structure, on its poetic essence in the form of prose, and on its writer’s inevitable yet artistically restrained presence in texts.
他对优秀小说的评价基于其结构的开放性,其散文形式的诗意本质,以及作家在文本中不可避免的但艺术上克制的存在。
16 In other words, it is not roots, but subtle communication to/with the readers, that fiction writers seek; and the
换言之,小说作家寻求的不是根源,而是与读者的微妙交流;以及
bridge between the two parties is mainly
双方之间主要是
composed of an openness in literary
由文学上的开放性组成
texts and a poetic presence in prose that is made not only accessible but also acceptable to readers.
文本和散文中的诗意存在,不仅使读者易于理解,而且使读者能够接受。

Mo Yan, another writer whom many critics consider a typical roots-searcher in fiction writing, also provides a self-defensive articulation of his literary thoughts in his interview with critics. He emphasizes the importance of writing from the perspective of the common folk in fiction writing.17 Yet his interpretation of this perspective reveals more about how to construct
另一位被许多评论家视为小说写作中典型寻根者的作家莫言,在接受评论家采访时,他也对自己的文学思想进行了自我防御的阐述。他强调了在小说写作中从普通民众的角度进行写作的重要性。 17 然而,他对这一观点的解释揭示了更多关于如何构建的信息

12 See his interviews with Lin Weiping 林偉平 published in Shanghai Literature, 11(1986), and his interview with Cui Weiping 崔衛平 on Aug 13, 1999, in Haikou, which later was published in Zuojia (Authors), 4 (2000). All these interviews are collected in Wu Yiqin ed., Han Shaogong yanjiu ziliao 韓少功研究資料 (Research Materials on Han Shaogong) (Jinan: Shandong Wenyi Press, 2006) 26-66.
12 参见他在《上海文学》1986年第11期发表的《林伟平访谈录》,以及1999年8月13日在海口发表的《崔卫平访谈录》,后来发表于《左家(作者)》第4期(2000年)。本文均收录于吴一琴主编:《韩少功研究资料》(济南:山东文艺出版社,2006年),第26-66页。

13 Wu 26.

14 Wu 33.

15 Wu 36.

16 Wu 64-65.

17 See Yang Yang ed, Mo Yan yanjiu ziliao 莫言研究資料 (Research Materials on Mo Yan) (Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe, 2005). “Primary Sources for Literary Creation from Common Folks: A Speech in Suzhou University” on October 24, 2001. 67.
17 参见:杨洋编,《莫言研究資料》(天津:天津人民出版社,2005年)。2001年10月24日《来自普通人文学创作的原始资料——在苏州大学的一次演讲》。67.

rather than to search for such roots. In his eye, it is more important to write as a member of the common folk than for common folks. According to him, to write as a member of the common
而不是寻找这样的根源。在他眼中,作为普通人的一员写作比为普通人写作更重要。据他说,作为普通人的一员写作

folk is de facto to write about one’s self in one’s own way (寫自我的自我寫作) so as to differentiate oneself from any other individual.18 In his self-evaluation, he envisions himself contributing the most to contemporary fiction insofar as he presents a special narrative voice that can connect the past to the present.19 He is also proud to be able to connect his style in
民间实际上是以自己的方式写自我(寫自我的自我寫作),以便将自己与任何其他个体区分开来。 18 在他的自我评价中,他设想自己对当代小说的贡献最大,因为他提出了一种特殊的叙述声音,可以将过去与现在联系起来。 19 他也为能够将自己的风格联系起来而感到自豪。

fiction to other forms of art, for example, local folk opera.20 Indeed, given the fact that he successfully makes readers transgress time as well as formal borders through such a narrative voice, he deserves the Nobel Prize committee’s praise that “with hallucinatory realism” he
小说到其他形式的艺术,例如,当地的民间歌剧。 20 事实上,鉴于他通过这样的叙述声音成功地让读者超越了时间和正式的边界,他应该得到诺贝尔奖委员会的称赞,即“以幻觉般的现实主义”,他

“merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.”21 Personal fantasies out of his past memories enter into the imagination of his reading public, and the readers cross temporal limits in his texts through the use of hallucinatory realistic details.
“融合了民间故事、历史和当代。” 21 他从过去的记忆中产生的个人幻想进入了他的读者的想象,读者通过使用幻觉般的现实细节,在他的文本中跨越了时间限制。

As for younger avant-garde writers like Su Tong and Yu Hua, they dissolve personal memories into impersonal representations of individual experiences in the public domain. Both like to recall their poignant and confused childhood and adolescent years during the Cultural Revolution in their essays and interviews, and both successfully translate these hallucinatory feelings into their fiction.22 Besides, both, like Shen Congwen, were born in the southern part of China and speak a dialect distinctly different from standard modern Chinese, and both finally achieve a peaceful blend of music and poetry in filling in the linguistic discrepancy between the
至于像苏通和于华这样的年轻先锋派作家,他们将个人记忆溶解在公共领域中对个人经历的非个人表现。两人都喜欢在散文和访谈中回忆自己在文革期间凄美而迷茫的童年和青少年时期,并成功地将这些幻觉转化为小说。 22 此外,两人都和沈从文一样,都出生在中国南方,说的方言与标准的现代汉语截然不同,最终都实现了音乐与诗歌的和平融合,填补了现代汉语之间的语言差异。

18 See “Interview with Wang Yao in 2003,” in Yang Yang ed., Mo Yan yanjiu ziliao 100.

19 See Yang 68.
19 见杨 68.

20 See Yang 102-103.
20 见杨102-103。

21 "The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 - Press Release." Nobelprize.org. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2012/press.html
21 “2012年诺贝尔文学奖 - 新闻稿。” Nobelprize.org.http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2012/press.html

22 The perspective on the Cultural Revolution from a puzzled and poignant child or young person as displayed in the two writers’ early works has been adequately unearthed by many critics. For the most recent critique, see Hua Li, Contemporary Chinese Fiction by Su Tong and Yu Hua: Coming of Age in Troubled Times (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2011).
22 两位作家早期作品中所展示的从一个困惑和辛酸的儿童或年轻人的角度来看文化大革命,已被许多评论家充分挖掘出来。关于最新的评论,参见李华华,《苏通和于华的当代中国小说:乱世中的成长》(莱顿/波士顿:布里尔出版社,2011年)。

languages they use in everyday life and in their writing. These two avant-garde writers’ efforts in terms of musicality in their fiction writing are as anxious as they are remarkable. For
他们在日常生活和写作中使用的语言。这两位先锋派作家在小说创作的音乐性方面所做的努力,既令人焦虑,又令人瞩目。为

example, Su Tong’s writing in My Life as an Emperor 我的帝王生涯 (1993) is reminiscent of Suzhou pingtan 蘇州評彈, a form of local performance art that mixes story-telling with singing.23 Yu Hua states that “Old Black Joe”, an American folk song, inspired him to write To Live 活著 (first published in the significant literary journal Harvest in 1992). Yu Hua also mentions that he imitates the structure that belongs to the fugues by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) in The Chronicle of a Blood Merchant 許三觀賣血記 (first published in Harvest in 1995).24 For assistance in how to interpret these writers’ efforts to cultivate musical features in their fiction, perhaps Su Tong’s words provide the best assessment:
例如,苏桐在《我的帝王生涯》(1993)中的写作,让人联想到苏州平潭蘇州評彈,这是一种将讲故事与唱歌相结合的本土行为艺术形式。 23 余华表示,美国民歌《老黑乔》启发了他写《活著》(1992年首次发表在重要文学杂志《丰收》上)。于华还提到,他模仿了约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫(Johann Sebastian Bach,1685-1750)在《血商记》一书中属于赋格曲的结构(1995年首次发表在《收获》杂志上)。 24 对于如何解读这些作家在小说中培养音乐特征的努力,或许苏桐的话提供了最好的评价:

Some still follow a habitual pattern when thinking about fiction, i.e., to differentiate it from all other forms of art. [They believe that] to write fiction one must use the language that we speak everyday, and therefore must record social events and human relationships in that everyday language, etc. An ambiguity is therein embedded. Actually a fiction writer, nonetheless, is identical to a painter or a musician, in terms of inner spirit. A new form of art is considered to have contributed a new form of human meditation on the world, and no one faults it for not paying attention to social reality, yet a fiction writer is often so accused.25
有些人在思考小说时仍然遵循一种习惯性模式,即将其与所有其他形式的艺术区分开来。[他们认为]要写小说,就必须使用我们每天说的语言,因此必须用这种日常语言等记录社会事件和人际关系。其中嵌入了一种模棱两可之处。实际上,就内在精神而言,小说作家与画家或音乐家是相同的。一种新的艺术形式被认为为人类对世界提供了一种新的冥想形式,没有人责怪它不关注社会现实,但小说作家却经常受到这样的指责。 25

23 See Kong Fanjun and Shi Zhanjun eds., Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 蘇童研究資料 (Research Materials on Su Tong) (Jinan: Shandong wenyi chubanshe, 2006). “Interview of Su Tong by Zhou Xinmin” on October 24, 2001. 67.
23 参见孔凡军、史占军主编:《苏童研究材料》(济南:山东文义出版社,2006年)。2001年10月24日《周新民对苏通的访谈》。67.

24 Yu Hua repeatedly makes a note of all these musical connections of his writing, both in interviews and in his essays. These points are especially made clear and explicit in his interview with Mr. Yang Shaobin, another Chinese writer, in Hangzhou on Oct 22, 1998, collected in Yu Hua yanjiu ziliao 余華研究資料(Research Materials on Yu Hua) (Jinan: Shandong wenyi chubanshe , 2006) 25-40.
24 于华在采访和散文中反复提到了他写作中的所有这些音乐联系。1998年10月22日,他在杭州与另一位中国作家杨少斌先生的访谈中,特别明确和明确地阐述了这些观点,收录于《余华华研究资料》(济南:山东文义出版社,2006年),第25-40页。

25 Su Tong yanjiu ziliao, 28. The Chineset text reads as follows : 我們現在一些人考慮小說,仍有這麽一種習慣的思維模式,就是想將小說從藝術中分開。小說因爲用語言說話,它必須記載社會事件、人際關係等等,這就引起歧義,實際上一個小說家跟一個畫家、一個音樂家在內在精神聯繫上是一致的。一種新的音樂會
25 Su Tong yanjiu ziliao28The Chneset text reads as follows 我们现在一些人考虑小说,仍有这么一种习惯的思维模式,就是想将小说从艺术中分开。 小说因为用语言说话,它必须记载社会事件、人际关系等等,这就引起歧义,实际上一个小说家跟一个画家、一个音乐家在内在精神联系上是一致的。 一种新的音乐会

This may be the boldest complaint from a Chinese fiction writer against all the social and political expectations imposed on fiction by literary traditions, critics, and readers. Contrary to the many Chinese fiction writers in both the premodern and modern eras, Su Tong resolutely rejects the historical mission that earlier writers accepted with humbleness and eagerness. In addition to this rejection, he explicitly shifts literary values toward the long marginalized end of the dichotomy between the pragmatic and the aesthetic, the educational and the entertaining, the factual and the fantastic.
这可能是中国小说作家对文学传统、批评家和读者对小说的所有社会和政治期望的最大胆的抱怨。与许多前现代和现代的中国小说作家相反,苏桐坚决拒绝早期作家以谦卑和热切的态度接受的历史使命。除了这种拒绝之外,他还明确地将文学价值转向了实用与审美、教育与娱乐、事实与幻想之间的长期边缘化的一端。

In short, the same tendency to prioritize aesthetic pursuits over obedience to political agendas joins both groups of writers (the root-searchers and the avant-garde) into one single force to create literary works that move beyond a slavish representation of life. These writers use various forms of qi in their fiction to challenge grand narratives and official discourses, and they clearly present their different perspectives on what they see through different forms of literary transgressions in their texts.
简言之,将审美追求置于对政治议程的服从之上的同样倾向,将两类作家(寻根者和先锋派)结合在一起,形成一股力量,创作出超越对生活的奴性表现的文学作品。这些作家在小说中使用各种形式的气来挑战宏大叙事和官方话语,他们通过文本中不同形式的文学越界,清楚地呈现了他们对所见之物的不同观点。

The King of Chess 棋王 (1984) by Ah Cheng

Published in 1984, The King of Chess written by Ah Cheng is considered by
考虑者
many critics as one of the landmark early roots-searching novellas. It is told by a first-person narrator, and the titular protagonist Wang Yisheng (
评论家们被誉为具有里程碑意义的早期寻根中篇小说之一。它由第一人称叙述者讲述,名义上的主角王以生(
王一生) is presented to the reader through the point-of- view of a number of characters, including the narrator, a youth named Ni Bin (
)通过多个人物的视角呈现给读者,包括叙述者,一个名叫倪斌的青年(
倪斌) (also known by his nickname, Legballs [
) (也以他的绰号而闻名,Legballs [
jiaoluan 脚卵]) and Wang Yisheng himself. The story takes place during the Cultural Revolution, when the narrator, from a culturally
])和王益生本人。故事发生在文化大革命期间,当时叙述者从一个文化上
upper-class family, is sent to the countryside along with many other young people to become “rusticated youth.” He
上流社会家庭,被送到农村,和许多其他年轻人一起成为“质朴的青年”。他

被認爲創造了對世界的沉思默想的新的形式,沒有人指責它對社會不關注,而這樣的指責却每每落到小說家頭上。
被认为创造了对世界的沉思默想的新的形式,没有人指责它对社会不关注,而这样的指责却每每落到小说家头上。

comes to know Wang Yisheng during his long journey away from home. Wang’s addiction to chess games and his genius at playing the game attract the narrator and later earn respect and devotion from Ni Bin, who is also from a culturally elite family. When Wang Yisheng is rejected by a chess tournament due to bureaucratic errors, Ni Bin wants to bribe the committee with his own heirloom of an antique chess set in order to secure a place for Wang. Wang refuses such a costly means of acquiring the opportunity. Instead, he single-handedly challenges nine chess masters, among whom are the top three winners of the tournament. He wins eight games and calls it a draw with the tournament champion. The tournament champion is an aged hermit, and he sees hope for China’s chess future in Wang. Wang retreats to his rusticated youth group after the overwhelming victory.
在王毅生离家的漫长旅途中认识了他。王对国际象棋游戏的沉迷和他下棋的天才吸引了叙述者,后来赢得了同样来自文化精英家庭的倪斌的尊重和奉献。当王毅胜因官僚主义失误被国际象棋比赛拒绝时,倪斌想用自己的传家宝一套古董棋套贿赂委员会,以确保王毅胜的一席之地。汪晖拒绝了这种代价高昂的获取机会的手段。取而代之的是,他单枪匹马地挑战了九位国际象棋大师,其中包括比赛的前三名获胜者。他赢得了八场比赛,并称这是与锦标赛冠军的平局。这位锦标赛冠军是一位年迈的隐士,他在王健林身上看到了中国国际象棋未来的希望。在压倒性的胜利之后,王回到了他质朴的青年团体。

The literary quality of qi in The King of Chess is mainly presented through the mysterious connection between Wang Yisheng and the game of chess he plays; the text’s representation of this connection is steeped in the traditional philosophy of Taoism. The
《棋王》中气的文学品质,主要通过王义生与他所下棋的棋局之间的神秘联系来呈现;文本对这种联系的表述深深植根于传统的道教哲学中。这

language used in the novella is also different from that of most contemporary fiction, in which the dryness and stiffness of the so-called “Maoist” style continued to dominate. Bonnie S. McDougall, one English translator of The King of Chess, argues that the book appeals to critics, both at home and abroad, because “the complex vocabulary” gives “bones and sinew to the apparently artless style,” because it is rich in “linguistic borrowings from traditional Chinese novels,” and because a reader can appreciate “the references to Taoist philosophy” throughout.26
这部中篇小说中使用的语言也与大多数当代小说的语言不同,在这些小说中,所谓的“毛主义”风格的干涩和僵硬继续占主导地位。《国际象棋之王》的英文译者邦妮·S·麦克杜格尔(Bonnie S. McDougall)认为,这本书对国内外评论家都很有吸引力,因为“复杂的词汇”给“看似毫无艺术气息的风格注入了骨头和筋骨”,因为它充满了“对中国传统小说的语言借鉴”,还因为读者可以欣赏到“对道家哲学的引用”。 26

Ah Cheng later hints in his essays that he uses diverse literary and generic elements in
阿成后来在他的文章中暗示,他在《圣经》中使用了多样化的文学和通用元素。

The King of Chess, claiming that such elements are drawn from “tales of marvels and heroes”
国际象棋之王,声称这些元素来自“奇迹和英雄的故事”

(英雄傳奇 yingxiong chuanqi), “elaborated records from reality” (現實演義 xianshi yanyi), and
(英雄傳奇 Yingxiong Chuanqi)、“Elaborated Records from Reality”(現實演義 Xianshi Yanyi),以及

26 Bonnie S. McDougall, “Afterword” to Ah Cheng, The King of Trees, trans. Bonnie S. McDougall (New York: The New Directions Press, 2010) 187.
26 邦妮·麦克杜格尔(Bonnie S. McDougall),《树之王》给阿成的“后记”。Bonnie S. McDougall(纽约:新方向出版社,2010 年)187。

even romances (言情 yanqing).27 He confesses that his literary language in the book is indeed a staged variant of huaben 話本, a type of traditional Chinese vernacular xiaoshuo popular in the Song and Yuan dynasties. He admits that he adapts in his own writing details and plots that appear repeatedly in the tradition of Ming and Qing vernacular xiaoshuo. He also mentions that images and metaphors from significant works of pre-modern classical prose provided inspiration to him in writing the book.28
甚至浪漫(言情,Yanqing)。 27 他承认,他在书中的文学语言确实是“花本”的舞台化变体,“话本”是宋元时期流行的一种中国传统白话小书。他承认,他在自己的写作中采用了明清白话小书传统中反复出现的细节和情节。他还提到,前现代古典散文的重要作品中的图像和隐喻为他写这本书提供了灵感。 28

If these self-explanations are read side by side with the narrative text of The King of Chess, they connect Ah Cheng with the Tang literati who wrote tales of marvels with their literary knowledge and taste for generic experimentation. Through a mosaic of lively language and an intricate narrative structure, multiple layers of reality as perceived by the writer are revealed through diverse literary forms. The text’s poetic strain resides in Wang Yisheng’s persistent hope to escape a hard life through the chessboard; and even though the rusticated youth suffers from physical and spiritual hunger most of waking hours, his vital connection with a literary past of Taoism reaches the reader through the narrator’s text.
如果把这些自我解释与《国际象棋之王》的叙述文本放在一起阅读,它们就会把阿诚与唐朝文人联系起来,唐朝文人用自己的文学知识和对一般实验的品味写出奇迹故事。通过生动的语言和错综复杂的叙事结构,通过多样化的文学形式揭示了作家所感知的多层次现实。文本的诗意压力在于王一生对通过棋盘逃避艰苦生活的执着希望;尽管这个质朴的年轻人在醒着的大部分时间里都遭受着身体和精神上的饥饿,但他与道教文学历史的重要联系通过叙述者的文字传达给了读者。

The four chapters of this book of 28,000 words develop momentum through a plot that displays many transgressions of life’s restrictions. Chapter One narrates the journey away from home and the acquaintance of Wang Yisheng with the narrator; Chapter Two tells of Wang’s visit to the narrator’s quarters and Wang’s acquaintance with Ni Bin through chess games. The first two chapters are equally long and equally rich in prosaic descriptions of everyday details, such as how to cook a snake or how to enjoy every morsel of food. Chapter Three, however, takes a more lyrical turn in its language. The group of rusticated youths set out from their
这本 28,000 字的书的四个章节通过一个情节发展了动力,展示了许多违反生活限制的行为。第一章叙述了王毅胜离家出走的旅程,以及与叙述者相识的故事;第二章讲述了王某访问叙述者的住处,以及王某通过国际象棋游戏结识倪斌的故事。前两章同样冗长,同样丰富了对日常细节的平淡无奇的描述,例如如何烹饪蛇或如何享受每一口食物。然而,第三章在语言上采取了更加抒情的转变。这群质朴的青年从他们的

27 Ah Cheng, Xianhua xianshuo: zhongguo shisu yu zhongguo xiaoshuo 閑話閑說:中國世俗與中國小說 Idle Words Idly Said: Chinese Everyday World and Chinese Fiction(Taipei: The Time Press, 1994) 210.

28 Ah Cheng 211.

squalid quarters for the chess tournament as though they were soldiers leaving for the battlefield. It is a short but brisk chapter with intense lyric force. For example, the artist in town who hosts the youths provides an occasion for the narrator and his fellows to voice their long suppressed aesthetic yearnings. The scene in which the rusticated youths bathe themselves in the river after their long journey is written with a beauty that is rich in symbolism. Short as the lyrical chapter is, it successfully transgresses the prosaic frame of life of the young men, and brings out the vitality and beauty of their youth. Chapter Four concerns Wang Yisheng’s chess battle against the nine masters. The climax comes when Wang cries out for his dead mother at the moment of victory, and yet this climax is immediately followed by the narrator’s short summary of the moral lessons the narrator himself has learned from all these events.
国际象棋比赛的肮脏宿舍,仿佛他们是前往战场的士兵。这是一个简短而轻快的章节,具有强烈的抒情力量。例如,镇上接待年轻人的艺术家为叙述者和他的伙伴们提供了一个机会,表达他们长期被压抑的审美渴望。质朴的青年在长途跋涉后在河中沐浴的场景,书写得具有丰富的象征意义。尽管抒情篇章很短,但它成功地突破了年轻人平淡无奇的生活框架,展现了他们青春的活力和美好。第四章讲述的是王一生与九大大师的棋战。高潮出现在王在胜利的那一刻为他死去的母亲哭泣时,然而在这个高潮之后,叙述者立即简短地总结了叙述者本人从所有这些事件中学到的道德教训。

This narrative relates more than events to the reader. In other words, it is more lyrical than prosaic. Even though Ah Cheng himself claims Ming and Qing vernacular novels as his prototypes for writing, his difference from the Ming literati is essential. In the first two chapters, Ah Cheng seems to imitate the emphasis on the verisimilitude of a depicted Confucian hierarchical order that was typical of the prose narratives of the Ming and Qing vernacular novel. He constructs a conventional frame that confines and defines Wang Yisheng as a common rusticated youth, who comes from a humble family, suffers from hunger, and loves chess games.
这种叙述与读者的联系不仅仅是事件。换句话说,它比平淡无奇更抒情。尽管阿诚本人声称明清白话小说是他的写作原型,但他与明朝文人的区别是必不可少的。在前两章中,阿诚似乎模仿了明清白话小说散文叙事中对所描绘的儒家等级秩序的真实性的强调。他建构了一个传统的框架,将王毅胜限制并定义为一个普通的乡村青年,他来自一个卑微的家庭,饱受饥饿的折磨,热爱国际象棋游戏。

However, the last two chapters break that traditional frame into pieces with a lyrical discovery of the youth’s power of transgression. Wang Yisheng’s final compromise to call a draw with the aged champion does not mean any concession to the world that confines him. Rather, it constitutes a gesture of his newfound confidence, which shows the world his perspective on it, and grants him the freedom to travel between it and his own inner world. Through narrative innovation, Ah Cheng thus brings the quality of qi to the old genre of the vernacular novel.
然而,最后两章将这个传统的框架分解成碎片,抒情地发现了年轻人的越界力量。王毅胜最终妥协,与这位年迈的冠军打成平局,并不意味着对限制他的世界做出任何让步。相反,它构成了他新获得的自信的一种姿态,它向世界展示了他对它的看法,并赋予他在它和他自己的内心世界之间旅行的自由。通过叙事创新,阿诚从而将气的品质带入了白话小说这一老体裁。

The other generic source that Ah Cheng claims to use in
Ah Cheng 声称用于的另一个通用来源
The King of Chess
国际象棋之王
is the Yuan and Ming
是元和明
huaben. A look at Ah
看着啊
Cheng’s use of language, however, shows how he
然而,语言表明他是如何
transforms it. Traditionally
改变它。传统
huaben uses vernacular language for conversations and literary language for its introductory parts.
使用白话语言进行对话,使用文学语言进行介绍部分。
The King of Chess,
国际象棋之王,
however, assigns new functions to these language styles. Wang Yisheng speaks in colloquial Chinese when he talks about his childhood, and yet his language becomes more lyrical and literary whenever he utters his views on how to play chess. In contrast, the first-person narrator’s language remains unchanged throughout the book and therefore provides a sense of consistency within the narrative frame that contains the lyrical force. In this sense, the first-person narrator’s short concluding summary of the moral lessons comes across as weak. It is weakness in comparison with the operations of
但是,会为这些语言样式分配新功能。王毅生在讲述自己的童年时会说口语,但每当他发表对如何下棋的看法时,他的语言就变得更加抒情和文学化。相比之下,第一人称叙述者的语言在整本书中保持不变,因此在包含抒情力量的叙述框架中提供了一种连贯感。从这个意义上说,第一人称叙述者对道德教训的简短总结给人以软弱无力的感觉。与以下公司的运营相比,这是弱点
qi in the book. The weakness evinces the destruction of the narrator’s impression of the world, which no longer sound convincing. Wang Yisheng’s otherness--his otherworldly chess skill in particular--in this world alters the flow of the narrative and shifts the reader’s trust away from the narrator to the source
在书中。这种弱点表明了叙述者对世界的印象遭到破坏,这听起来不再令人信服。王一生在这个世界上的他者性——尤其是他超凡脱俗的棋法——改变了叙述的流程,将读者的信任从叙述者转移到了源头
of qi in the story. The textual irony thus formed between the narrator and the tale reminds the reader of some Tang writers’ works, such as
让读者想起一些唐代作家的作品,比如
Yingying’s Story
莹莹的故事
and “The Tale of the Curly- Bearded Guest,” where the immediate reader’s response to
以及《卷发胡子客人的故事》(The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest),读者对
qi is even faithfully recorded and becomes part of the frame narrative.
甚至被忠实地记录下来,并成为框架叙事的一部分。

Ah Cheng’s literary quality of qi is also manifested through the contrast of two major traditional philosophies, i.e., Confucianism that traditionally secured the hierarchical order of society through constraints upon the individual, and Taoism that traditionally favored a freedom of roaming and spontaneity in art. For example, both the first-person narrator and Ni Bin come from culturally elite families and believe in Confucian values like social obligations and hierarchical order. The narrator’s efforts to sustain boundaries become evident in the narrative
阿诚的“气”文学品质还体现在两大传统哲学的对比上,即儒家思想和道家思想,前者传统上通过对个人的约束来维护社会的等级秩序,后者传统上主张艺术中的自由漫游和自发性。例如,第一人称叙述者和倪斌都来自文化精英家庭,并信奉社会义务和等级秩序等儒家价值观。叙述者为维持界限所做的努力在叙述中变得明显

frame. Ni Bin consolidates one such boundary both in his very name and in his behaviour. His name Bin, or 斌,is composed of two Chinese characters, wen and wu , and therefore implies a wish for influence in both traditional spheres of literary and military feats. Ni Bin also demonstrates two cardinal Confucian virtues, i.e., essential humanity ren 仁)and sympathetic brotherhood (yi ) when he sacrifices his heirloom in order to secure a place for Wang Yisheng at the chess tournament. All these traditional boundaries, however, are transgressed by Wang Yisheng. His name yisheng 一生 comes from the first chapter of the Taoist canonical text the Daode jing (Classic of the Way and Its Power) and represents the
框架。倪斌在他的名字和行为上都巩固了这样一个界限。他的名字“斌”或“斌”由两个汉字温和武武组成,因此暗示着希望在传统的文学和军事壮举领域产生影响。倪斌还展示了儒家的两种基本美德,即任仁和同情的兄弟情谊,当他牺牲自己的传家宝以确保王毅胜在国际象棋比赛中的位置时。然而,所有这些传统的界限都被王义胜所突破。他的名字“一生”来自道教经典《道经》的第一章《道德经》(《道经及其力量》),代表

starting point of all things, literally meaning “out of one is born.” With a Taoist-inflected viewpoint he
万物的起点,字面意思是“从一而生”。他以道家式的视角,带着一种观点
refutes the first-person narrator’s mundane
驳斥了第一人称叙述者的世俗
views on eating and reflects instead on the essence of hunger so as to illustrate the importance of eating. As for Ni Bin’s false “justice” gained through bribery, he refuses to accept it. Instead, he transgresses the boundaries of the tournament
而是反思饥饿的本质,以说明饮食的重要性。对于倪斌通过行贿获得的虚假“正义”,他却不肯接受。相反,他超越了锦标赛的界限
and challenges all with a true spirit of freedom. Wang Yisheng seldom speaks aloud in the narrative, and his conversation with the narrator is almost the only outlet for his self- declarations. The implicit Confucian values set up the narrative frame like a net that tries to contain, twist, and bend the Taoist beliefs in freedom and spontaneity represented by Wang Yisheng; yet Wang’s straightforward expressions and undaunted actions break through, transcend, and
在叙述中大声朗读,他与叙述者的对话几乎是他自我宣告的唯一出口。隐含的儒家价值观,将叙事框架设置得像一张网,试图遏制、扭曲和弯曲以王一生为代表的道家自由和自发的信仰;然而,汪晖直率的表情和无畏的行动,却突破、超越了、
even transform the quotidian narrative frame. The reader is left with a sense that Wang Yisheng’s potential to revitalize the world of Chinese chess stems not so much from his otherworldly skill as his willingness to transgress traditional boundaries.
王毅胜振兴中国国际象棋世界的潜力与其说源于他超凡脱俗的技巧,不如说源于他愿意超越传统界限。

Ah Cheng enhances literary qi with his knowledge of and experimentation with traditional narrative genres. The prosaic narrative frame set up in service of the narrator’s strongly Confucian social values is pierced time after time by the protagonist’s poetic simplicity
阿诚通过对传统叙事体裁的了解和实验,提升了文学气息。为服务于叙述者强烈的儒家社会价值观而建立的平淡无奇的叙事框架,一次又一次地被主人公的诗意朴素所刺穿

and freedom in his action and speech; Wang Yisheng’s outcry with his ultimate victory mortally weakens the narrator’s effort to sustain his deeply conservative framework.
以及行动和言论的自由;王一胜对自己最终胜利的呐喊,致命地削弱了叙述者维持其极度保守框架的努力。

Red Sorghum 紅高粱 (1986) by Mo Yan

In March, 1986, Mo Yan published Red Sorghum in People’s Literature (人民文學 Renmin wenxue), a well-known literary journal that generally only published “mainstream” literary works. Naturally the novella aroused fierce critical responses. Red Sorghum centers its narration on the Anti-Japanese War in Gaomi, a remote Shandong village. In official historical
1986年3月,莫言出版了《人民文学》一书,这是一本著名的文学期刊,一般只刊登“主流”文学作品。自然而然地,这部中篇小说引起了激烈的批评反应。《红高粱》的叙述主要讲述了山东偏远村庄高密的抗日战争。在官方 历史的

narratives as well as most mainstream fiction in Communist China, the War of Resistance is indisputably portrayed as a victorious one led mainly by the CCP and its members; however, it was not represented as such in Mo Yan’s fiction. Even though more and more alternative narratives of the War had come to people’s knowledge in the 1980s, many of the official narratives remained unchallenged. Mo Yan’s fiction alerts his readers to other perspectives on
在叙事上,以及共产主义中国的大多数主流小说,抗战无可争议地被描绘成一场主要由中共及其党员领导的胜利战争;然而,在莫言的小说中却没有这样的表现。尽管在 1980 年代人们了解了越来越多的关于战争的替代叙述,但许多官方叙述仍然没有受到挑战。莫言的小说提醒他的读者注意其他观点

war and national crisis. He narrates a different War of Resistance against Japan, waged by local heroes and heroines who know little or even nothing about Communism and who--unlike the simplistically characterized proletariat heroes with nerves of steel in typical fiction--are full of primal passion for life and love. In addition, instead of criticizing his grandparents’ ignorance and lack of “communist ideals,” the first-person narrator laments the lost past and deplores his own dimished present state that hardly projects a bright future.29
战争和国家危机。他叙述了一场不同的抗日战争,由当地的英雄和女英雄发动,他们对共产主义知之甚少,甚至一无所知,与典型小说中简单描述的具有钢铁般神经的无产阶级英雄不同,她们对生活和爱情充满了原始的热情。此外,第一人称叙述者没有批评祖父母的无知和缺乏“共产主义理想”,而是哀悼失去的过去,并对自己渺淡的现状感到遗憾,这种状态几乎没有预测出光明的未来。 29

Truly, as he himself says, Mo Yan invents a first-person narrator in Red Sorghum who
的确,正如他自己所说,莫言在《红高粱》中发明了一个第一人称叙述者,他

builds a bridge between past and present. The first-person narrator intrudes upon the past with
在过去和现在之间架起一座桥梁。第一人称叙述者以

29 Mo Yan’s play with the concept of time through his usage of the narrator in Red Soghum is thoroughly explored in G.Andrew Stuckey’s Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Memory - tradition - history: Ties to the past in modern Chinese fiction” (UCLA, 2005). Chapter 5, “Memory or Phantasy: Honggaoliang’s Narrator,” discusses how the first-person narrator adopts and appropriates other peoples’ memory as his own via vividness in detail (111-136) and how by experimenting with the order of events a sense of control over the past is achieved in the present.
29 莫言在《红索姆》中对叙述者的运用对时间概念的博弈“在G.Andrew Stuckey的博士论文《记忆-传统-历史:现代中国小说中与过去的联系》(加州大学洛杉矶分校,2005年)中得到了深入探讨。第五章“记忆还是幻觉:洪高良的叙述者”,讨论了第一人称叙述者如何通过生动的细节(111-136)将他人的记忆作为自己的记忆来采用和挪用,以及如何通过对事件顺序的实验,在当下实现对过去的控制感。

self-deprecation and satirizes himself when he talks about the future. The first-person narrator’s self-deprecation is displayed overtly in the text; and yet his irony toward his external world is shown exclusively in a self-reflexive elaboration of voices and language styles. He travels freely back and forth between the past and the future, and between the world he sees in his eyes and the world he feels and experiences in his mind.
当他谈论未来时,自嘲和讽刺自己。第一人称叙述者的自嘲在文本中公开地表现出来;然而,他对外部世界的讽刺完全体现在对声音和语言风格的自我反思阐述上。他在过去和未来之间自由地来回穿梭,在他眼中看到的世界和他在脑海中感受和体验的世界之间自由地穿梭。

The nine sections of the story relate two major events: a love affair between “My Grandma” and Commander Yu, and a pyrrhic victory at the ambush against the Japanese army at the Black Water River by Commander Yu. Both events are narrated several times by the first- person narrator from various angles, all borrowed and retold by him from other people’s memories. His perspective is thus removed from the immediate impressions of these events and defamiliarized by his personal connection with the past. He is biologically connected to the protagonists in the events, yet physically removed from them by time and narrative perspectives. The resulting prism of perspectives formed in the first-person narrator thus complicates the reader’s reading and comprehension of these events. The first-person narrator takes on a transgressive role that presents a dialogical, multivalent image of the past.
故事的九个部分讲述了两件大事:“我的奶奶”和虞司令之间的恋情,以及虞司令在黑水河伏击日军的惨败。这两件事都由第一人称叙述者从不同角度多次叙述,都是他从其他人的记忆中借用和复述的。因此,他的观点脱离了这些事件的直接印象,并因他与过去的个人联系而陌生化。他与事件中的主角在生物学上有着联系,但由于时间和叙事视角而与他们物理上脱节。因此,在第一人称叙述者中形成的视角棱镜使读者对这些事件的阅读和理解变得复杂。第一人称叙述者扮演着一个越界的角色,呈现出对过去的对话式、多价的形象。

At the same time, as if to make up for the lack of linguistic richness in the Maoist language that dominated Mo Yan’s adolescent years, the writer deploys lyrical phrases and highly symbolic expressions. Mo Yan’s experiments with the modern Chinese language are complicated and self-reflexive. He gives the first-person narrator a distinctively modern voice while also exposing the narrator to other voices from historical and cultural pasts. In the first- person narrator’s attempt to incorporate others’ memories into his own experience of the past, the writer produces a poetic power that adds layers of self-reflexive irony to the narrative. The narrator also incorporates uncertainty into his narrative as to whether he is speaking from a
同时,仿佛是为了弥补莫言青少年时期毛泽东语言语言丰富性的不足,作家运用了抒情的短语和高度象征性的表达方式。莫言对现代汉语的实验是复杂的,也是自我反省的。他为第一人称叙述者赋予了独特的现代声音,同时也使叙述者接触到来自历史和文化过去的其他声音。在第一人称叙述者试图将他人的记忆融入自己对过去的经历中时,作家产生了一种诗意的力量,为叙述增添了自我反省的讽刺层次。叙述者还在他的叙述中融入了不确定性,即他是否是从

present reality or just a fantasy of the past. The reader comprehends this ambiguity thanks to the literary quality of qi present in the narrator’s own voice. For example, the beginning of Red Sorghum starts with a historical date, a fragmentary phrase that introduces the identity of “my father,” and then a brief summary of “my father’s” career as a “bandit” and an anti-Japanese hero. Such a beginning recalls the formal traditional biographical style. However, this imitation is immediately interrupted by a short conversation between “Grandma” and Commander Yu with all the colloquial style of Shandong dialect faithfully preserved in the text.30 After the conversation is a long paragraph in which the narrator shifts to a lyrical description of what “my father” sees as he walks along with “my” biological Grandpa Commander Yu:
现在的现实或只是过去的幻想。由于叙述者自己的声音中存在的气的文学品质,读者能够理解这种模糊性。比如《红高粱》的开头就从一个历史日期开始,一个零碎的短语,介绍了“我父亲”的身份,然后简要概括了“我父亲”作为“土匪”和抗日英雄的职业生涯。这样的开头让人想起正式的传统传记风格。然而,这种模仿立即被“奶奶”和虞司令之间的简短对话打断,所有山东方言的口语风格都忠实地保留在文本中。 30 在谈话之后是一段很长的段落,叙述者转向抒情地描述“我的父亲”与“我的”亲生祖父余指挥官一起行走时所看到的:

天地混沌 (dun),景物影影綽綽 (chuo),隊伍的雜沓脚步聲己響出很遠
天地混沌 (dun),景物影影绰绰 (chuo),队伍的杂沓脚步声己响出很远

(yuan)。父親眼前挂著藍白色的霧幔 (man),擋住他的視綫 (xian),只聞隊伍脚步聲 (sheng),不見隊伍形和影 (ying)。父親緊緊扯住余司令的衣角 (jiao),雙腿快速挪動 (dong)。奶奶像岸愈離愈遠 (yuan),霧像海水愈近愈汹涌 (yong),父親抓住余司令 (ling),就像抓住一條船舷 (xian)31
(yuan)。 父亲眼前挂着蓝白色的雾幔 (man),挡住他的视线 (xian),只闻队伍脚步声 (sheng),不见队伍形和影 (ying)。 父亲紧紧扯住余司令的衣角(jiao),双腿快速挪动 (dong)。 奶奶像岸愈离愈远 (yuan),雾像海水愈近愈汹涌 (yong),父亲抓住余司令 (ling),就像抓住一条船舷 (xian)。 31

Howard Goldblatt’s English translation is almost as beautiful as the Chinese text I quote here: Heaven and earth were in turmoil, the view was blurred. By then the soldiers’ muffled footsteps had moved far down the road. Father could still hear them, but a curtain of blue mist obscured the men themselves. Gripping tightly to Commander Yu’s coat, he nearly flew down the path on churning legs. Grandma receded like a
霍华德·戈德布拉特(Howard Goldblatt)的英文译本几乎和我在这里引用的中文文本一样美丽:天地动荡,视线模糊。这时,士兵们低沉的脚步声已经走得很远了。父亲仍然能听到他们的声音,但一团蓝色的雾气遮住了这些人。他紧紧抓住余司令的外套,双腿翻腾得差点飞快地飞下小路。奶奶像个

30 Unfortunately, the local color of style is often difficult to render in translation.
30 遗憾的是,样式的本地颜色通常难以在翻译中呈现。

31 The phonetic symbol in brackets following each last character in each sentence is provided by me. I would like to indicate the rhyming pattern that Mo Yan intends in his prose, which, considering the time he writes, is uncommonly unrealistic and poetic in the traditional sense.
31 每个句子中最后一个字符后面括号中的语音符号是我提供的。我想指出莫言在他的散文中打算的押韵模式,考虑到他写作的时间,这在传统意义上是异常不切实际和诗意的。

distant shore as the approaching sea of mist grew more tempestuous; holding on to Commander Yu was like clinging to the railing of a boat.32
远处的海岸,随着即将到来的雾海变得更加暴风雨;紧紧抓住虞司令,就像紧紧抓住船的栏杆一样。 32

In this sensual description the narrator speaks in the first-person’s voice, but the perceptions of things in his speech belong to the senses of his father, i.e., “my Father.” The views, sounds, and feelings of the third-person “my father” therefore cross the boundaries of time and sense, deepening
在这种感性的描述中,叙述者以第一人称的声音说话,但他说话中对事物的感知属于他父亲的感官,即“我的父亲”。因此,第三人称“我的父亲”的观点、声音和感情跨越了时间和感官的界限,不断加深
his relation with the voice of his biological son in the future, “me.” When the narrator enters into the private senses of his “father” he violates the limits of regular first-person narration. And so the reading of this paragraph invites the reader to make a choice: either one accepts
叙述者进入了他“父亲”的私人感觉,他打破了常规第一人称叙述的限制。因此,阅读这一段邀请读者做出选择:任何一个接受
Mo Yan’s transgression
海侵
of narrating voice and accepts the narrative as a journey into the past; or one refuses to accept this transgression and then rejects the veracity of all that is to follow
往事;或者一个人拒绝接受这种过犯,然后拒绝所有将要遵循的真实性
in the book. If the reader accepts such a transgression,
海侵
then it welcomes a blend of voices and subjects that materialize in the first-person narrator’s poetic imagination of the memory of his father, ultimately enabling him to incorporate the father’s perception of the past into the narrator’s present.
在第一人称叙述者对父亲记忆的诗意想象中实现的声音和主题,最终使他能够将父亲对过去的感知融入叙述者的现在。

A look at the Chinese text of this passage also shows that the narrator’s sentences are of uneven yet rhythmic lengths, and that the group of sentences with their ending rhyming vowels make the prose more like verse. The uneven yet rhythmic lines look familiar to a sophisticated Chinese reader who is familiar with the form of Song lyrics 宋詞 songci. It is a poetic genre that gives poets more space to express individual feelings than the classical regulated poetry form,
看一下这段话的中文文本也可以看出,叙述者的句子长度不均匀但有节奏,而这组句子及其结尾押韵的元音使散文更像诗歌。对于熟悉宋詞 songci 形式的老练的中国读者来说,这些不均匀而有节奏的线条看起来很熟悉。它是一种诗歌体裁,比古典规范的诗歌形式赋予诗人更多的空间来表达个人情感,

and has gained popularity especially among common readers because of its musicality. This structure is an ideal generic element for Mo Yan to use in presenting his highly private
并因其音乐性而在普通读者中尤其受欢迎。这种结构是莫言用来展示他高度私密性的理想通用元素

32 Mo Yan, Red Soghum: A Novel of China, trans. Howard Goldblatt (New York: Viking, 1993) 3.
32 莫言:《红苏坤族:中国传》一部小说。霍华德·戈德布拉特(纽约:维京,1993 年) 3.

133

perception of the War of Resistance to readers who possess the knowledge and willingness to accept his vision.
对拥有知识和愿意接受他的愿景的读者的抵抗战争的看法。

To achieve the literary quality of qi, Mo Yan projects his first-person narrator’s personal present onto the past through the narrator’s paradoxical self-portrayal: on one hand, the narrator self-deprecatingly describes himself as one of an “unfilial generation” that is plagued with “a nagging sense of our species’ regression”; on the other hand, the narrator nevertheless leaves an ineradicable mark, unique to himself and his own generation, upon his narration, upon historiographical writing, and upon the language in the narrative text. This complex narration by such a multivalent and resourceful first-person narrator creates a reading space where the present transgresses the boundary with the past and vice versa; and the reader, by following such a journey, is given the autonomy to interpret any possible messages buried therein.
为了达到气的文学品质,莫言通过叙述者矛盾的自我刻画,将第一人称叙述者的个人现在投射到过去:一方面,叙述者自嘲地将自己描述为“不孝的一代”中的一员,被“我们物种倒退的唠叨感”所困扰;另一方面,叙述者在他的叙述中,在史学写作中,在叙述文本中的语言上,留下了无法磨灭的印记,这是他自己和他这一代人所独有的。这样一个多元而足智多谋的第一人称叙述者的这种复杂叙述创造了一个阅读空间,现在超越了与过去的界限,反之亦然;而读者,通过遵循这样的旅程,被赋予了解释其中任何可能的信息的自主权。

Mo Yan elaborates a linguistic incongruity between classical elegance and contemporary tediousness through the first-person narrator’s use of modern Chinese language (especially that of the Maoist style) in his narration. On one hand, the first-person narrator is given a mature voice that echoes the past nostalgically and sometimes almost elegiacally; on the other hand, the first-person narrator is ready to recalibrate the reader’s response at any time with a typically contemporary voice that can only belong to a Chinese educated in Maoist discourses. For example, the first-person narrator recalls his feelings for his hometown Gaomi in a typical Maoist style. He uses bureaucratic terms such as “extremely” (極端 jiduan), “passionate love
莫言通过第一人称叙述者在叙述中使用现代中国语言(尤其是毛泽东风格的语言)来阐述古典优雅与当代乏味之间的语言不协调。一方面,第一人称叙述者被赋予了一种成熟的声音,以一种怀旧的方式呼应过去,有时几乎是挽歌式的;另一方面,第一人称叙述者随时准备用典型的现代声音重新调整读者的反应,这种声音只能属于受过毛泽东主义话语教育的中国人。例如,第一人称叙述者以典型的毛泽东风格回忆起他对家乡高密的感情。他使用官僚主义的术语,如“极度”(極端 jiduan)、“热烈的爱”

(熱愛 re’ai)”,rival hate (仇恨 chouhen)”, and clichéd sentence patterns like “I study hard to
(熱愛 re'ai)“、”rival hate (仇恨 chouhen)“,以及”我努力学习“等陈词滥调的句型

gain the knowledge of Marxism when I grow up (長大後努力學習馬克思主義)” , which were commonly used in propaganda by the CCP government in the 1960s and 1970s (and even continue to be used today). It might be hard for the reader to decide if the narrator is speaking
长大后学习马克思主义知识“,这是中共政府在1960年代和1970年代宣传中常用的(甚至今天仍在使用)。读者可能很难确定叙述者是否在说话

satirically or sincerely, but the incongruity of language styles in the same narration is drastic enough to alert the reader to the need for a more sophisticated reading.
讽刺或真诚,但同一叙述中语言风格的不协调足以引起读者对更复杂阅读的需求。

Similar examples of linguistic incongruity can be found throughout
类似的语言不协调的例子随处可见
Red Sorghum. The incongruities accumulate to create a sense of
.这些不协调因素累积起来,形成了一种
qi in the reader’s comprehension. Take the portrayal
在读者的理解中。接受描绘
of a minor character, Arhat Liu, for example. The first-person
第一人称
narrator borrows heavily from “Father’s” memory and the villagers’ rumours. When re-telling the details of those memories and rumours, the narrator’s language abounds in local accents. At some points, when describing “Father’s” retrospections on scenes of the past, it seems that the first-person narrator has completely merged his own voice with his “Father’s” voice. However, the reader is not always provided with such seamless and complete returns to the past in the text. From time to time, the first-person narrator interrupts the narration of a past conversation, a past event, or a revelation of “Father’s” inner mind to insert a line about Arhat Liu’s background. These intrusive lines are written in an obviously contemporary Maoist style. For example, after narrating how Arhat Liu accompanied “Father” on a wonderful and idyllic adventure to catch crabs under the starry night sky, the following sentence occurs: “Uncle Arhat had been overseeing
很大程度上来自“父亲”的记忆和村民的谣言。在重述那些记忆和谣言的细节时,叙述者的语言充满了当地口音。在某些时候,在描述“父亲”对过去场景的回顾时,第一人称叙述者似乎已经将自己的声音与“父亲”的声音完全融合在一起。然而,在文本中,读者并不总是能得到如此无缝和完整的对过去的回归。第一人称叙述者时不时地打断对过去对话、过去事件的叙述,或对“父亲”内心心灵的揭示,插入一句关于刘罗汉背景的台词。这些侵入性的台词是以明显的当代毛主义风格写成的。例如,在叙述了罗汉刘如何陪伴“父亲”在繁星点点的夜空下进行一次美妙而田园诗般的冒险捉螃蟹后,出现了以下句子:“罗汉叔叔一直在监督
the work of the family distillery for decades (劉羅漢大爺在我家工作了幾十年,負
刘罗汉大爷在我家工作了几十年,负

責著我家燒酒作坊的全面工作).33 The Chinese sentence structure echoes a pattern that has
责着我家烧酒作坊的全面工作). 33 The Chinese sentence structure echoes a pattern that has

been used to introduce Communist cadre officials in government reports since 1949: ……工作了…….年,負責…...全面工作 (have been overseeing the work ...for...years). It sharply contrasts with the earlier idyllic descriptions of the night sky that contain colourful associations with implied myths. In another instance, after a lively paragraph in colloquial Chinese that relates how Grandma seduces Uncle Arhat, the first-person narrator abruptly changes his
自1949年以来,一直被用来在政府报告中介绍共产党干部: 在......工作了…….年,負責…...全面工作 (have been superseeing the work ...为。。。年)。它与早期田园诗般的夜空描述形成鲜明对比,这些夜空包含着与隐含神话的丰富多彩的联系。在另一个例子中,在一段生动的口语段落讲述了奶奶如何勾引罗汉叔叔之后,第一人称叙述者突然改变了他的

33 Mo Yan 7.

narrative tone and dryly concludes: “Uncle Arhat didn’t leave at all. Instead, he became our foreman 羅漢大爺沒走,一直在我家擔任業務領導.”34 The reader is thus reminded of the existence of disjunctions only made possible by literary transgressions in the narrative, especially the disjunction between past and present memories, emphasized by the discrepancy
叙述的语气,干巴巴地总结道:“罗汉叔叔根本没有离开。反而,他成了我们的工头 羅漢大爺沒走,一直在我家擔任業務領導.” 34 因此,读者被提醒,只有通过叙述中的文学越界,特别是过去和现在的记忆之间的脱节,才能存在脱节,而这种脱节则通过这种差异得到强调

between the linguistic pleasure of the narrator’s imitation of a lyrical past and the implied hollowness of his narration of a superficial and tedious present. A unique sense of irony arises from such literary transgression for most mainland Chinese readers, one that is echoed in their everyday lives when they read government reports or official announcements that are still written in the Maoist style.
在叙述者对抒情过去的模仿的语言快感和他对肤浅而乏味的现在的叙述所隐含的空洞之间。对于大多数中国大陆读者来说,这种文学上的越界产生了一种独特的讽刺感,当他们阅读仍然以毛泽东风格写成的政府报告或官方公告时,这种讽刺感在他们的日常生活中得到了回响。

To summarize, Mo Yan mainly achieves
归纳起来,莫言主要做到的
qi in Red Sorghum through his invention of a first-person narrator who connects present and past, and exists only
通过他发明了一个第一人称叙述者,他将现在和过去联系起来,并且只存在
in the liminal zone between the two planes of experience. The
在两个经验平面之间的阈限区域。这
liminal status of the narrator is both created by
叙述者的阈限状态都是由
and figured in the intertextual relations between contemporary styles of writing and pre-modern literary traditions through imitation, adaptation, and transformation of the lyrical force of the Chinese language.
并通过对汉语抒情力量的模仿、改编和转化,体现在当代写作风格与前现代文学传统的互文关系中。
Mo Yan’s ironic and subversive use of the Maoist style is instrumental in producing a sense of qi for the reader. By insistently
对于读者。通过坚持
imposing his first-person narrator’s own contemporary voice incompletely upon the retelling of the past--which has the power to return and shape that contemporary
将他的第一人称叙述者自己的当代声音不完全地强加于对过去的重述上——这种重述具有回归和塑造那个当代的力量
voice--Mo Yan uses irony to miraculously
奇迹 般 地
transform the tedium and ugliness of
丑陋的
a barren contemporary literary landscape into one rich with potential for a marvellous reading of everyday reality.
一个贫瘠的当代文学景观变成了一个富有潜力的对日常现实进行奇妙解读的景观。

34 Mo Yan 7. Howard Goldblatt’s English translation is generally faithful to Mo Yan’s Chinese text here. However, the ironic edge is unfortunately lost. A literal translation of Mo Yan’s sentence may sound as stiff and dry as a Communist government report to English readers: Uncle Arhat did not leave. He stayed to become a leading cadre in business at my home.
34 莫言 7.霍华德·戈德布拉特(Howard Goldblatt)的英文翻译在这里大体上忠实于莫言的中文文本。然而,不幸的是,讽刺的边缘消失了。莫言这句话的直译可能听起来像共产党政府向英文读者报告一样僵硬和枯燥:罗汉叔叔没有离开。他留下来,在我家做生意的领导干部。

“Classical Love古典愛情 (1989) by Yu Hua

Yu Hua personally experienced the culturally devastating decade of the Cultural Revolution while a neglected younger child of an intellectual family. He received his first education in Chinese writing from the aggressive propaganda he encountered in “Big-Character Posters” (大字報 dazibao). Literary critics of 1980s’ China almost universally recognized and applauded his challenging experimentalism and, without hesitation, they designated his youthful style as avant-garde. These same critics were disturbed, though, by some of his early short
于华亲身经历了文化大革命的文化毁灭性的十年,当时他是一个知识分子家庭被忽视的小孩。他从《大字报》中遇到的咄咄逼人的宣传中接受了第一次中文写作教育。1980年代中国的文学评论家几乎普遍认可并赞扬他具有挑战性的实验主义,他们毫不犹豫地将他的年轻风格称为前卫风格。然而,这些评论家对他早期的一些短片感到不安

stories, where he tends to fragment modern Chinese language and uses excessively violent images.35 However, his first novel, To Live, presents a drastic change in style from his early short stories. Most critics in China applaud it as a return to mainstream “realist” writing. Some Western critics, like McDougall, argue that Yu Hua’s pre-1989 stories are more like political allegories, while in contrast his post-1989 fiction, such as To Live, is less surreal in presentation and the violence is less graphic.36 As mercurial as his unpredictable styles are, Yu Hua’s short story “Classical Love,” written in the pivotal year 1989, reveals much about his contribution to the literary tradition of qi in contemporary fiction.
故事,他倾向于将现代汉语碎片化,并使用过度暴力的图像。 35 然而,他的第一部小说《活着》与他早期的短篇小说相比,在风格上发生了翻天覆地的变化。中国的大多数评论家都称赞它,认为这是对主流“现实主义”写作的回归。一些西方评论家,如麦克杜格尔,认为于华在1989年之前的故事更像是政治寓言,而与他1989年后的小说相比,如《To Live》在表现形式上不那么超现实,暴力也不那么生动。 36 余华的短篇小说《古典之爱》写于关键的1989年,尽管他的风格变幻莫测,但揭示了他对当代小说中气的文学传统的贡献。

Yu Hua fully displays in “Classical Love” his understanding of qi exerting the subversive power of irony. The story was first published in Beijing Literature in 1989 and transplants the clichéd scholar-beauty motif of traditional Chinese literature into a bizarrely brutal context. As the story’s English translator Andrew F. Jones says, the story is “a prime example” of how Yu Hua experiments with traditional Chinese narratives.37 Howard Y. F. Choy
余华在《古典之爱》中充分展示了他对气的理解,发挥了反讽的颠覆性力量。这个故事于1989年首次发表在《北京文学》上,将中国传统文学中陈词滥调的学者美女主题移植到一个离奇残酷的语境中。正如这个故事的英文翻译安德鲁·琼斯(Andrew F. Jones)所说,这个故事是于华如何尝试中国传统叙事的“一个典型例子”。 37 霍华德·蔡(Howard Y. F. Choy)

35 See Cai Yongchun, “The Aesthetics of Linguistic Divergence: Defamiliarization in Contemporary Chinese Avant-Garde Fiction,” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 52.3 (2011) 332-347.
35 参见蔡永春:《语言发散的美学:当代中国先锋派小说中的陌生化》,《批评:当代小说研究》,52.3(2011):332-347。

36 Bonnie S. McDougall, Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century(Hong Kong: The Chinese UP, 2003) 253.
36 Bonnie S. McDougall:《虚构的作者,想象的受众:二十世纪的现代中国文学》(香港:华人出版社,2003年),第253页。

37 Andrew F. Jones, “Translator’s Postscript” to The Past and Punishments by Yu Hua, trans. Andrew F. Jones (Honolulu: U of Hawai’i P, 1996) 265.
37 安德鲁·琼斯:《过去与惩罚》的“译者后记”,余华著,安德鲁·琼斯译(檀香山:夏威夷大学出版社,1996年),第265页。

agrees with Jones and considers it apastiche of the traditional popular romance of ‘scholar and the beauty’ (caizi jiaren 才子佳人)” that ends in “a quasi-ghost story.”38 On its surface
同意琼斯的观点,并认为这是“传统的流行浪漫故事《书生与美女》的翻版”,以“准鬼故事”结尾。 38 在它的表面上

“Classical Love” imitates many aspects of the cliché of “scholar-beauty”--in its frame narrative,
《古典爱情》在其框架叙事中模仿了“书生美女”的陈词滥调的许多方面,

characterizations, motif, and even language. Beneath the surface imitation, however, Yu Hua produces a subversive parody of such love stories: he destroys the traditional happy endings of these stories with literary weapons ironically borrowed from a variety of traditional narratives.
人物塑造、主题,甚至语言。然而,在表面的模仿之下,于华对这种爱情故事进行了颠覆性的模仿:他用讽刺性地借鉴各种传统叙事的文学武器摧毁了这些故事的传统大团圆结局。

“Classical Lovenarrates how a pre-modern young scholar named Liu (Willow) falls in love with a maiden named Hui (Boat Orchid, or Faber Cymbidium) in the Spring on his way to take a civil service examination in the Capital. In Autumn, on his way back home after failing the exam, he finds Hui’s grand residence in ruins. Three years later, when famine strikes the area, Liu returns to seek Hui. He is then shocked by a massacre scene in which a mother and a daughter are taken as food by a starving mob. As if foreshadowed by this latter scene, the next
《古典之恋》讲述了一位名叫柳柳(柳树)的前现代年轻学者在春天去首都参加公务员考试的路上,爱上了一位名叫惠蕙(船兰花或Faber Cymbidium)的少女。秋天,他在考试不及格回家的路上,发现许家的大宅已成废墟。三年后,当饥荒袭击该地区时,刘回来寻找回族。然后,他被一个大屠杀场面震惊了,在这个场景中,一对母亲和一个女儿被饥饿的暴徒当作食物。仿佛预示着后一幕,下一幕

afternoon Liu finally finds the body of Hui, whose leg has been cut off to prepare a dish for travellers. Liu buries Hui out of love for her. Disillusioned, he goes back to his hometown to have a frugal and fruitless life. A few years later, he comes back again to Hui’s town and finds Hui’s residence restored to its grandeur. Haunted by a strong sense of déjà vu, he decides to settle down near the tomb of Hui. After a few days, he wakes up from a weird dream and sees Hui’s ghost. Just as the scholar in Peony Pavilion did (whose last name is also Liu and whose love affair with a ghost girl revives her), he digs up Hui’s corpse. But his untimely disinterring
下午,刘终于找到了许的尸体,他的腿被割掉了,以便为旅行者准备一道菜。刘出于对她的爱而埋葬了惠。幻想破灭的他回到家乡,过着节俭无功的生活。几年后,他再次回到许氏的镇子,发现许氏的住所恢复了原来的宏伟。他被强烈的似曾相识的感觉所困扰,决定在回族墓附近安顿下来。几天后,他从一个奇怪的梦中醒来,看到了许的鬼魂。就像《牡丹阁》中的那位书生(他的姓氏也是刘,她与鬼女的恋情使她复活)一样,他挖出了惠氏的尸体。但他不合时宜的解体

38 Howard F. Y. Choy, Remapping the Past: Fictions of History in Deng’s China, 1979-1997 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008) 207.
38 Howard F. Y. Choy, Remapping the Past: Fictions of History in 邓的中国,1979-1997 (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2008) 207.

of Hui’s body does not revive the maiden; instead she tells him that it leads to her eternal death.39
许氏的身体并不能使少女复活;相反,她告诉他,这会导致她永恒的死亡。 39

Yu Hua’s adaptation of a traditional frame story, characterization, motif, and even
于华对传统框架故事的改编,人物塑造,主题,甚至

language in “Classical Love” can be interpreted as both paying homage to pre-modern Chinese literary romances and as a post-Mao response to subvert the suppression brought about by the political agenda
《古典爱情》中的语言既可以被解读为对前现代中国文学浪漫主义的致敬,也可以被解读为后毛时代对颠覆政治议程带来的压制的回应
of communist China.
共产主义中国。
The first part of Yu Hua’s story
于华故事的第一部分
is the most conventional part, and the reader is comforted by the clichéd beginning: a scholar on his way to the civil service examination encountering a beautiful young woman and her maidservant is a very old story. The setting of this scene and the conversation between the two would-be lovers are presented
最传统的部分,读者对陈词滥调的开头感到安慰:一个学者在去公务员考试的路上遇到了一位美丽的年轻女子和她的女仆,这是一个非常古老的故事。呈现了这个场景的设定和两个潜在恋人之间的对话
in full accordance
符合
with the tradition of romantic tales of the “scholar and the beauty,” except
美丽,“除了
for two details: first, instead of the normal exchange of love poems such as we have read in Yingying’s Story
莹莹的故事
of the Tang dynasty, the modern reader is presented with a sensual description of Liu’s response to Hui’s reciting voice; second, instead of articulating the male protagonist’s joy of love in poetic lines, Yu Hua reveals it in a third-person omniscient description of Liu’s psychology. The latter change also prepares the reader for the narrative of Liu’s ghostly experience at the end of the story, an experience that belongs more to the inner world
在唐代,现代读者看到的是对刘晓波对回族朗诵声音的反应的感性描述;其次,于华没有用诗意的台词来表达男主的爱的喜悦,而是以第三人称的全知描述的方式揭示了刘的心理。后一种变化也让读者为故事结尾刘晓波的幽灵经历的叙述做好准备,这种经历更属于内心世界
of a bereaved man. These two non-traditional details signal that this is not a conventional “scholar and beauty” romance. In pre-modern narratives like
传统的“书生与美女”的浪漫。在前现代叙事中,像
Peony Pavilion, the scholar unearths the body of his maiden and revives her with his love, and they live happily ever after. In Yu Hua’s story, the usual happy ending is twisted, and a horribly tragic conclusion is presented to Liu as well as to the reader. The reader, earlier drawn into the text by
学者挖出了他的少女的尸体,并用他的爱使她复活,他们从此过上了幸福的生活。在余华的故事中,通常的大团圆结局被扭曲了,一个可怕的悲剧结局呈现在刘晓波和读者面前。读者,早先被吸引到文本中
the familiar genre of “scholar and beauty,” is waiting for a happy ending, yet simultaneously uneasily
熟悉的“书生与美女”类型正在等待一个圆满的结局,但同时又感到不安

39 Peony Pavilion is a well-know chuanqi drama produced in Ming dynasty by Tang Xianzu. It tells how Scholar Liu Mengmei (literally meaning Willow Dreaming of Prunes) falls in love with Maiden Du Liniang in a dream and then unearths and revives her corpse to marry her in reality.
39 《牡丹亭》是唐显祖于明代出品的一部名家鼎鼎的川齐剧。它讲述了书生刘梦妹(字面意思是梦见李子的柳树)如何在梦中爱上杜丽娘,然后在现实中挖掘并复活她的尸体并娶她。

suspecting something different; a sense of the uncanny is produced in the reader by the strange combination of pre-modern expectations and modern perceptions in the form of an ironic fantasy. The modern literary quality of qi is therefore produced by a particular usage of subversive irony.
怀疑不同的东西;前现代的期望和现代观念的奇怪结合以一种讽刺幻想的形式在读者中产生了一种不可思议的感觉。因此,“气”的现代文学品质是通过对颠覆性反讽的特殊使用而产生的。

At the end of “Classical Love” the ghost of Hui speaks as Liu sadly gazes at her
在《古典之爱》的结尾,许的鬼魂说话了,刘悲伤地凝视着她

lingering shape: “I, a humble maiden, was to return to life, but, young sire, it is only because you uncovered me that this will not come to pass.”40 And then, weeping, she leaves never to return. Yu Hua plays with the reader’s textual and generic expectations up to the last moment and the reader can enjoy qi in a state of readerly freedom, roaming inbetween the interacting genres. The reader, furnished with his/her expectations from past literature, like The Peony Pavilion, may hope for a possible revival; deprived of this, he/she may be partially satisfied by the rare classical elegance of Hui’s language. However, the reader’s generic expectations are completely subverted by the dark despair carried in Hui’s words. The genre of “scholar and
挥之不去的身影:“我,一个卑微的少女,本来是要复活的,但是,年轻的陛下,只有你发现了我,这才不会发生。 40 然后,她哭泣着离开,再也没有回来。于华将读者的文本和通用期待玩弄到最后一刻,读者可以在读者自由的状态下享受气,在相互作用的体裁之间漫游。读者带着对《牡丹亭》等过去文学作品的期望,可能会希望有可能的复兴;如果剥夺了这一点,他/她可能会对许氏语言中罕见的古典优雅感到部分满足。然而,读者的一般期待,却被许家辉的话语中所蕴含的黑暗绝望,完全颠覆了。“学者和

beauty” romance is closely associated with the use of elegant literary Chinese narrative language. Yu Hua’s modern version swerves from the comfort zone suggested by his literary language as soon as Liu’s inner world is revealed to the reader without the normal constraints of poetic language; the disturbing force of such a transgression reaches its zenith at the last moment of
美女“的浪漫与优雅的文学中国叙事语言的运用密切相关。余华的现代版本,在吕晓波的内心世界没有诗意语言的正常束缚的情况下,一经展现给读者,就从文学语言所暗示的舒适区中转向;这种违法行为的令人不安的力量在最后一刻达到了顶峰。

the narrative. Under Liu’s gaze as well as that of the reader, the bubble bursts and the light fades.
叙述。在刘的注视下,也在读者的注视下,泡沫破灭,光芒消退。

The ghost leaves Liu forever. The literary quality of qi, however, still lingers; it is still within the text, preserving a legacy of transgression for the reader.
鬼魂永远离开了刘。然而,《齐》的文学品质依然挥之不去;它仍然在文本中,为读者保留了过犯的遗产。

40 The English translation is mine. Yu Hua’s Chinese text is: 小女本來生還,只因被公子發現,此事不成了。說罷,小姐垂泪而別. See Yu Hua, “古典愛情 gudian aiqing ” in Yu Hua (Beijing: People’s Literature Press, 2001) 276. The English translation by Andrew F. Jones is more literary than mine, yet as I argued above, Yu Hua’s intertextual strategy in writing shapes much of its reading. I give more weight to Yu Hua’s intertextual reference to Chinese pre-modern language and style.
40 英文翻译是我的。华的中文文本是:小女本來生還,只因被公子發現,此事不成了。”說罷,小姐垂泪而別.参见余华:《古典爱情古典爱清》,载于华(北京:人民文学出版社,2001年),第276页。安德鲁·琼斯(Andrew F. Jones)的英文译本比我的更具有文学性,但正如我上面所论述的,于华在写作中的互文策略影响了其大部分阅读。更加重视于华对中国前现代语言和风格的互文性引用。

As can be seen in my previous discussion, Yu Hua writes both in and against the tradition of pre-modern fiction in “Classical Love.” He successfully integrates a more traditional sense of qi within a modern perception of the human inner world. This focus on the interior is reminiscent of the literary tradition of Western modernism. Indeed Yu Hua himself has never hesitated to admit how significantly many Western and Japanese modernist writers helped shape his writing.41 The newness of Yu Hua’s writing is also part of his contribution to the transformation of literary qi in modern Chinese literature.
从我前面的讨论中可以看出,于华在《古典爱情》中既是前现代小说传统的写作,也是反对前现代小说传统的写作。他成功地将更传统的气感融入了对人类内心世界的现代感知。这种对内部的关注让人想起西方现代主义的文学传统。事实上,于华本人也毫不犹豫地承认,许多西方和日本现代主义作家对他的写作产生了多么大的影响。 41 于华写作的新颖性,也是他对中国现代文学文学气质转化的贡献的一部分。

My Life as Emperor 我的帝王生涯 (1992) vs. Wu Zetian 武則天 (1993) by Su Tong

Compared with Yu Hua, Su Tong seems to be less subversive when he turns to traditional Chinese artistic forms for models of qi in his own writing. His relative mildness is sometimes characterized as femininity in style. He is often praised for his subtle and precise presentation of conventionally feminine sensibilities, and some critics even consider his writing more feminine than that of female writers.42 For a sophisticated reader of Chinese literature, such a literary inclination and the level of its achievement are rare but not unfamiliar. Pre- modern Chinese poets writing in the lyrical tradition extending from the Chu lyrics to the Song lyrics, were praised for the same achievements.43 As discussed in previous chapters, intertextual and intergeneric relations between poetry and prose have long played a formative role in constructing qi in Chinese fiction. Su Tong provides a perfect contemporary case for the
与于华相比,苏桐在自己的写作中转向中国传统艺术形式来塑造气模型时,似乎不那么具有颠覆性。他的相对温和有时被描述为风格上的女性气质。他经常因其对传统女性情感的微妙而精确的呈现而受到称赞,一些评论家甚至认为他的作品比女性作家的作品更女性化。 42 对于一个老练的中国文学读者来说,这样的文学倾向和成就水平是罕见的,但并不陌生。从楚抒情诗到宋抒情诗的前现代中国诗人,都因同样的成就而受到称赞。 43 如前所述,诗歌与散文之间的互文关系和类比关系长期以来在中国小说的气建构中起着形成作用。苏彤为这个

41 Yu Hua’s list of Western and Japanese writers that have influenced his writing is found in his self-portrayal and literary essays, typically in Yu Hua, “Writing for the Heart: Preface to To Live in 1993,” in Ling Hun Fan (Haikou: Nanhai Chuban Company, 2002) 221-22.
41 华列举了影响他写作的西方和日本作家的名单,见于他的自我描写和文学散文,典型的是俞华的《为心灵写作:1993年活着的序言》,载于《令洪帆》(海口:南海楚办公司,2002年)第221-22页。

42 Wang Aisong, Dangdai zuojia de wenhua lichang yu xushi yishu 当代作家的文化立场与叙事艺术

(Contemporary Writers’ Cultural Positions and Their Art of Narrating) (Nanjing: Nangjing UP, 2005) 223.
(当代作家的文化地位及其叙述艺术)(南京: 南京大学, 2005) 223.

43 I have discussed the major literary features of the Chu lyrics in Chapter II. As for the representation of feminine sensibility in male poets’ lyrics, Stephen Owen’s selection of wanyue style Song lyrics and his concise introduction of the school’s development in the Song dynasty provide an interesting perspective. See Stephen Owen, ed., An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 ( New York: Norton, 1996) 559-589.
43 我在第二章中讨论了楚抒情诗的主要文学特征。至于男性诗人歌词中女性感性的表现,斯蒂芬·欧文(Stephen Owen)选用的万月式歌词和对宋代文派发展的简明介绍,提供了一个有趣的视角。参见Stephen Owen, ed., An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911 ( New York: Norton, 1996) 559-589。

interplay of these often dichotomized pair of literary forces in his two thematically similar yet stylistically divergent fictional works: My Life as Emperor 我的帝王生涯 (1992) and Wu Zetian武則天 (1993).
这两股经常对立的文学力量在他的两部主题相似但风格不同的虚构作品中相互作用:《我的帝王生涯》(1992)和《武则天武則天》(1993)。

My Life as Emperor and Wu Zetian form an interesting contrast in terms of intertextual
《我的皇帝生涯》和《武则天》在互文性方面形成了一个有趣的对比

and intergeneric relations to pre-modern Chinese fiction. Both stories relate the lives of pre- modern Chinese royalty. Wu Zetian is a traditional historical novel featuring Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty as its female protagonist. Su Tong in this fictional work, as with many earlier Chinese fiction writers, is beholden to historical documents. As if to prove historical truthfulness in his fiction writing, he frequently refers back to various historical documents from the Tang dynasty.44 Most of the story’s plot derives from historical documents and records from 624 to 705 in the early Tang dynasty. Su Tong as a writer seems to have done little more than translate these classical historical materials into modern standard Chinese. As a result, he leaves little space and resources for himself to construct a sense of literary qi; neither does he leave much space for his readers to experience it.
以及与前现代中国小说的类属关系。这两个故事都与前现代中国皇室的生活有关。《武则天》是一部以唐武皇后为女主角的传统历史小说。这部虚构作品中的苏彤,和许多早期的中国小说作家一样,对历史文献有着深厚的感情。仿佛是为了证明自己小说中的历史真实性,他频频引用唐代的各种历史文献。 44 故事的大部分情节都来源于唐初 624 年至 705 年的历史文献和记录。作为作家的苏桐,似乎只是把这些经典史料翻译成现代标准汉语而已。于是,他给自己留出的空间和资源很少,用来建构文学气感;他也没有给读者留下太多空间去体验它。

Thanks to Wu Zetian, Su Tong has been considered a typical “new historical fiction” writer by many critics. He himself repeatedly and openly protests against such an association between history and fiction in his essays. In his interviews and prefaces, he often claims that, except for Wu Zetian, he has always avoided historical documents and historical records in his fiction writing.45 He even overtly complains that his own text in Wu Zetian is so confined by
多亏了武则天,苏桐才被许多评论家认为是典型的“新历史小说”作家。他本人在他的文章中一再公开抗议历史与小说之间的这种联系。他在访谈和序言中经常声称,除了武则天之外,他在小说写作中始终回避历史文献和史料记载。 45 他甚至公然抱怨说,他自己在武则天的文本中受到如此的限制

44 Su Tong is critically acclaimed by many critics for his “new historical fiction,” among which Wu Zetian is
44 苏桐因其“新历史小说”而受到许多评论家的好评,其中武则天就是其中之一

sometimes quoted as a good example. As for “new historical fiction” in contemporary Chinese literary field, please see Howard Y. F. Choy, Remapping the Past: Fictions of History in Deng’s China, 1979-1997 (Boston: Brill, 2008), and Lin Qingxin, Brushing History Against the Grain: Reading the Chinese New Historical Fiction (1984-1999) (Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP, 2005).
有时被引用为一个很好的例子。关于中国当代文学界的“新历史小说”,参见蔡玉辉的《重绘过去:邓时代的中国历史小说,1979-1997》(波士顿:布里尔出版社,2008年)和林庆新:《反粮刷历史:解读中国新历史小说(1984-1999年)》(香港:香港出版社,2005年)。

45 Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 92.

historical records that it lacks the force of imagination.46 As a fiction writer, Su Tong loathes to talk about this book unless it is apologetically.47 One of the possible causes for his dissatisfaction might be his compromise with his aesthetic and literary principles in the face of confining historical records. According to David Der-wei Wang Wu Zetian presents “more compromise than originality, more hesitation than critique (妥協多于創新,猶疑多于批判).”48
据史料记载,它缺乏想象力。 46 作为一个小说作家,苏桐不愿意谈论这本书,除非是道歉的。 47 他不满的可能原因之一可能是他在面对有限的历史记录时对自己的美学和文学原则的妥协。根据David Der-wei Wang的说法,武则天提出了“妥协多于独创性,犹豫多于批评(妥協多于創新,猶疑多于批判)”。 48

Comparatively speaking, Su Tong’s previous literary effort in My Life as Emperor is
相对来说,苏桐此前在《我为皇帝的一生》中的文学作品,是

more experimental, original, and capable of producing qi. In My Life as Emperor Su Tong writes “from a dream world.”49 The reader must suspend disbelief at the outset when one notices that the story is not set in any particular historical time. As a result, the reader and the writer are freed from the limits of historical documentation. Instead, their full attention is justifiably given to the inner world of the protagonist Duanbai. Duanbai undergoes drastic changes in his life: as an exiled prince he is forced onto the emperor’s throne; then, ousted by his own brother, he is reduced to being a self-made “Emperor of Tightrope,” and ultimately he becomes “Emperor of
更具实验性、原创性,更能产生气。在《我为皇帝的一生》中,苏桐写道“来自一个梦境”。 49 当读者注意到这个故事不是在任何特定的历史时期设定时,读者必须从一开始就暂停怀疑。因此,读者和作者都摆脱了历史文献的限制。相反,他们的全部注意力都放在了主角端白的内心世界上。端白的人生发生了翻天覆地的变化:作为流亡的太子,他被迫登上了皇帝的宝座;然后,他被自己的兄弟赶下台,沦为白手起家的“走钢丝皇帝”,最终成为“走钢丝皇帝”。

the Patch.” Following his personal vicissitudes is the fate of his Xie Empire. Su Tong’s poetic representation of Duanbai’s inner world is foregrounded by a prosaic sketch of historical events. The literary quality of qi in this first-person narrative in Duanbai’s voice is mostly displayed in the contrast between a world of imagination built inside Duanbai’s mind and his external world, which is reduced to a series of vague impressions.
补丁。跟随他个人沧桑的,是他谢帝国的命运。苏桐对端白内心世界的诗意再现,以平淡无奇的历史事件素描为前景。在段白的口音中,这种第一人称叙述中“气”的文学品质,主要表现在段白内心构建的想象世界与他的外部世界之间的对比中,这种世界被简化为一系列模糊的印象。

Critics’ attention to Su Tong’s sharply different styles in My Life as Emperor and Wu Zetian has been intense. In contrast to Der-wei Wang’s disapproval of the lack of originality in
评论家们对苏通在《我为皇帝的一生》和《武则天》中截然不同的风格给予了强烈的关注。与Der-wei Wang不赞成《In AuthoriScript》中缺乏原创性形成鲜明对比

46 Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 49.

47 Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 39.

48 David Der-wei Wang, “Nanfang de duoluo yu youhuo” (The Decadence and Allurement from the South”) in Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 322.
48 王德伟:《南方的颓废与诱惑》,载《苏通燕酒子寮》,第322页。

49 Su Tong, “Author’s Preface” in My Life as Emperor, trans. Howard Goldblatt (New York: Hyperion East, 2005) vi.
49 苏桐,《我为帝传的一生》中的《作者序言》。霍华德·戈德布拉特(纽约:Hyperion East,2005 年)vi。

Wu Zetian, Vivian Pui-yin Lee gives a more detailed reading of these two books from the perspective of historical fiction writing. In her view, Su Tong attempts to “discover new possibilities in fiction writing” in these two books, and the tension in these two books embodies the tensions “between certain historical perceptions and fictional representation,” which could also be “construed as that between historical ‘facticity’ and literary ‘fictionality.’”50 However,
武则天、李佩燕从历史小说写作的角度对这两本书进行了更详细的解读。在她看来,苏桐试图在这两本书中“发现小说写作的新可能性”,而这两本书中的张力体现了“某些历史认知与虚构表征之间的紧张关系”,这种紧张关系也可以“理解为历史的'事实性'与文学的'虚构性'之间的紧张关系”。 50 然而

Vivian Pui-yin Lee ignores Su Tong’s own preface to My Life as Emperor, in which he insists that his reader should “not approach My Life as Emperor with the idea that it is historical fiction.”51 Vivian Pui-yin Lee’s reading nevertheless admits that My Life as Emperor is “a
李佩贤忽略了苏桐自己为《我的皇帝人生》序言,他坚持认为读者“不要以历史小说的想法来看待《我的皇帝生涯》。 51 然而,李佩妍的解读承认,《我的皇帝生涯》是“一个

highly imaginative, lyrical invocation of China’s dynastic past rich in symbolic meaning.” In her reading, fictional characters in the book intrude upon real history and produce in the reader a perception of these characters’ self-knowledge and self-realization that attains a kind of truth status.52
极富想象力,抒情地唤起了中国王朝的过去,具有丰富的象征意义。在她的阅读中,书中的虚构人物对真实历史的介入,在读者中产生了对这些人物的自我认识和自我实现的感知,从而达到了一种真实的地位。 52

Other critics, such as Zhang Qinghua, complain of Su Tong’s failure to adhere to historical verisimilitude in fiction in My Life as Emperor. According to Zhang, Su Tong could have done better than offering a “floating narrative and vague implications that are meant to be profound.” Zhang complains that he looked in vain for the “factuality of history and force of social critique.”53 This negative response to Su Tong’s fiction attests to Su Tong’s success in developing the power of transgression through the form of qi. Indeed, the “factuality of history and force of social critique” are exactly what Su Tong wishes his reader not to look for in this book, and what Zhang sees as a failure happens to be a fiction writer’s achievement as defined by Su Tong.
其他评论家,如张清华,则抱怨苏桐在《我为皇帝的一生》中未能坚持小说中的历史真实性。根据张的说法,苏桐本可以做得更好,而不是提供一个“浮动的叙述和模糊的暗示,这些暗示注定是深刻的”。张抱怨说,他对“历史的事实性和社会批判的力量”的寻找是徒劳的。 53 这种对苏桐虚构的负面反应,证明了苏桐通过气的形式发展了越界之力的成功。的确,“历史的事实性和社会批判的力量”,正是苏通希望读者不要在这本书中寻找的,而张学友所认为的失败,恰恰是苏通所定义的小说作家的成就。

50 Vivian Pui-yin Lee, “Omens of History: Su Tong's Southern Landscape and Dynastic Histories,” Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese, 10.2 (Dec. 2011), 47.
50 李佩燕:《历史的预兆:苏佟的南朝景观与朝代史》,《中国现代文学》10.2(2011年12月),第47页。

51 Su Tong, My Life as Emperor vi.
51 苏桐:《我的皇帝生涯》 vi.

52 Vivian Pui-yin Lee 58.
52 李佩燕 58.

53 Zhang Qinghua, “On Su Tong: An Elegy in Heaven,” in Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 359.

Su Tong both imitates and challenges the traditional literary genres from which he takes elements to shape his own writing in My Life as Emperor. For example, he mentions in a number of interviews and prefaces that his narrative style and rhythm in My Life as Emperor are
苏桐在《皇帝的一生》中既模仿又挑战传统文学体裁,从中汲取元素塑造自己的写作。例如,他在多篇访谈和序言中提到,他在《我为皇帝的一生》中的叙事风格和节奏是

inspired by a local poetic performance called Suzhou pingtan (蘇州評彈, or the Suzhou ballad style of story-telling).54 Pingtan features a slow-moving narrative in prose that foregrounds its lyrical climax in poetry; such a slow narrative prepares both the performer and the audience and soothes them before and after the climax. Su Tong uses this slow narrative style and encourages
灵感来自当地一种名为“苏州平潭”(蘇州評彈,或苏州民谣风格的讲故事)的诗歌表演。 54 《平潭》以散文中缓慢的叙述方式为特征,在诗歌中预示了其抒情高潮,这种缓慢的叙述既让表演者也让观众做好准备,在高潮前后抚慰他们。苏彤用这种慢节奏的叙事风格,鼓励

his reader to become comfortable with it. At the same time, since he has warned his readers in his preface that fantasy is to be found in the narrative, the reader is also prepared for moments of transgression. For these Su Tong borrows the usage of dreams in traditional Chinese fiction. But he goes further than the pre-modern dream-addicted writers: while they bring the reader back to reality after the dream is over, Su Tong guides his reader directly from one dream to another.
他的读者对它感到满意。同时,由于他在序言中警告读者,在叙述中可以找到幻想,因此读者也为越界的时刻做好了准备。对于这些,苏桐借用了中国传统小说中梦的用法。但他比前现代沉迷于梦境的作家走得更远:他们在梦境结束后将读者带回现实,而苏桐则直接引导读者从一个梦境进入另一个梦境。

His purpose is to portray everyday societal life as signs in a dream, while his protagonist lives his life as if taking a journey to escape from all those confining signs, in order to return to his true self, which is ultimately alienated from society.55
他的目的是将日常社会生活描绘成梦中的符号,而他的主人公则过着自己的生活,仿佛在踏上一段旅程,以摆脱所有这些限制的符号,以便回归最终与社会疏远的真实自我。 55

My Life as Emperor is a highly dramatic story about a person and his country narrated by a first-person narrator/protagonist who learns to know his true self through the narration.
《我的皇帝生涯》是一个关于一个人和他的国家的高度戏剧化的故事,由第一人称叙述者/主角讲述,他通过叙述学会了了解自己的真实自我。

Divided into three sections chronologically, the story focuses on the three most critical and
故事按时间顺序分为三个部分,重点关注三个最关键的部分和

transformative moments in Duanbai’s life: Chapter I relates Duanbai’s acquirement of the Xie throne; Chapter II records his short reign as the Xie Emperor; and Chapter III presents the most
段白人生的转折时刻:第一章讲述了段白夺取谢氏王位的故事;第二章记载了他作为谢帝的短暂统治;第三章介绍最多的是

54 Pingtan is literally a combination of pinghua and tanci, two local performing arts that originated in southern China and date back four hundred years. Popularized in the highly commercialized Song dynasty, it is characterized by prolonged story-telling enhanced by singing, and focuses more on the lyrical representation of characters experiencing events rather than on disclosing the events themselves. See Zhou Liang, ed., zhongguo suzhou pingtan (中國蘇州評彈, The Pingtan Art of Suzhou in China [Shanghai: Baijia chubanshe, 2002]).
54 从字面上看,《平潭》是平华和檀次的结合,这两种地方表演艺术起源于中国南方,可以追溯到四百年前,在高度商业化的宋代普及,它的特点是通过唱歌增强的冗长的故事讲述,更侧重于人物经历事件的抒情表现,而不是揭示事件本身。参见周亮主编:《中国蘇州評彈:中国苏州平潭艺术》[上海:白家出版社,2002年])。

55 See Su Tong, “Interviews by Zhou Xinmin,” in Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 90-91.

dramatic events in his life, in which he is dethroned but then acquires the title “Emperor of
他一生中的戏剧性事件,他被废黜,但随后获得了“皇帝”的称号。

Tightrope” through hard work. However, after the loss of everything he inherits and gains, he becomes a recluse, and is assigned the title of “Emperor of the Patch” for the little patch of field where he finally settles.
走钢丝“通过艰苦奋斗。然而,在失去了他继承和获得的一切之后,他成为了一名隐士,并被分配了“补丁皇帝”的称号,因为他最终定居的那一小块田地。

These moments in Duanbai’s life are presented in a form more dramatic than conventional Post-Mao narrative; in the reading
段白生活中的这些时刻,以一种比传统的后毛叙事更具戏剧性的形式呈现出来;在阅读中
experience generated by
产生的经验
the text, events matter less than Duanbai’s perceptions in and of those moments. In other words, in the narrative text, the chronological flow of events is less important than what Duanbai’s mind perceives and envisions of those events. The shift of narrative focus away from events to perceptions makes the work totally different from
文字,事件的重要性不如段白在那些时刻和那些时刻的感知。换言之,在叙述文本中,事件的时间顺序不如端白的头脑对这些事件的感知和设想重要。叙事重心从事件转移到感知,使得这部作品与
Wu Zetian. In Wu Zetian Su Tong borrows materials from historical documents to illustrate how historical events unfold along Empress Wu’s journey to her throne; but in
苏桐借鉴史料,说明吴皇后登基过程中的历史事件是如何展开的;但在
My Life as Emperor
我的皇帝生活
similar details are either omitted or covered only briefly in the gossip of court ladies and in the courtly debates of ministers. The narrator/protagonist Duanbai pays little attention to these events. In contrast, his emotional responses to the gossip and
类似的细节要么被省略,要么在宫廷女士的八卦和大臣的宫廷辩论中只是短暂地涉及。叙述者/主角端白对这些事件知之甚少。相比之下,他对八卦的情绪反应和
debates are magnified by his own highly personal narration. For example, Duanbai acquires the throne on the day of his father’s funeral, which leads to a commotion among his father’s concubines, causing them to dispute his father’s will.
在父亲的葬礼当天获得皇位,这导致了他父亲的妾室之间的骚动,导致他们对他父亲的遗嘱产生异议。
The scene is narrated completely from Duanbai’s personal perspective. Instead of solid details of political plots and their effects that are found in
这个场景完全是从端白的个人视角来叙述的。而不是在以下位置发现的政治阴谋及其影响的坚实细节
Wu Zetian, the reader of
,的读者
My Life as Emperor
我的皇帝生活
only has access to 14-year-old Duanbai’s inner confusion as he hears the hollering and screaming of his father’s widowed concubines. Duanbai does not give any heed to the contents of his father’s will at all, merely gazing upon his grandmother Madame Huangfu. The will gives him the right to the throne and deprives all the concubines of any hope for their sons, but Duanbai only feels the physical
只有14岁的段白听到父亲的寡妾们的吆喝和尖叫时,他内心的困惑才得以触及。端白丝毫不理会父亲遗嘱的内容,只是注视着自己的祖母皇甫夫人。遗嘱赋予了他皇位的权利,剥夺了所有妾室对自己儿子的任何希望,但端白只感受到了身体上的希望

commotion. He tries to get away from it, if not physically, then mentally. In physical reality, he fails; but in his narration, he succeeds. By staring at and yearning for a “jade ruyi, the symbol of power, hanging from” his grandmother’s girdle, he transgresses the limitations of the physical world and withdraws his mind from it.56 From then on, the gesture of staring blankly at the jade ruyi becomes a textual signal for the reader: whenever it appears, the reader knows that Duanbai is setting to escape from Madame Huangfu’s formidable presence and from his literal and figurative identity as the Xie Emperor. The narrative focus thereby is trained more upon the person in history than upon the history of dynasties. The reader, similarly, is restricted by the text from trying to comprehend the chronology of historical events; rather, the reader is encouraged to track the character’s emotional responses to events that are depicted at a distance and in a fragmentary fashion.
骚动。他试图摆脱它,如果不是身体上,那么在精神上。在物理现实中,他失败了;但在他的叙述中,他成功了。他凝视并渴望祖母的腰带上挂着“玉如意,权力的象征”,他超越了物质世界的局限,将思想从中抽离出来。 56 从此,茫然地凝视着玉如意的姿态,就成为读者的文本信号:每当它出现时,读者就知道端白正准备逃离皇甫夫人的威严存在,逃避他作为谢帝的字面和比喻身份。因此,叙事的重点更多地集中在历史人物身上,而不是朝代历史上。同样,读者也受到文本的限制,无法试图理解历史事件的年表;相反,鼓励读者追踪角色对远距离和以零碎方式描绘的事件的情绪反应。

Su Tong deliberately adds a lyrical force to the text at climactic moments in Duanbai’s internal world. Such moments of lyrical transcendence of the prosaic confinements of Duanbai’s external world are largely expressed in the following ways: through repeated refrains that use certain words with ambiguous implications; omens repeatedly recognized by different people; dramatic monologues by Duanbai; and, finally, the image of a bird as a symbol of flight, escape, and freedom.
苏桐刻意在端白内心世界的高潮时刻为文本增添了抒情的力量。这种抒情地超越端白外部世界平淡无奇的禁锢的时刻,主要表现为以下几种方式:通过反复的克制,使用某些含糊不清含义的词语;预兆被不同的人反复识别;段白的戏剧性独白;最后,一只鸟的形象象征着飞行、逃跑和自由。

Su Tong uses Song dynasty-style lyrics deliberately in this novel. For example, writing lyrics seems to be the only outlet for Duanbai’s emotions. He writes lyrics whenever he is emotionally touched by power, love, and even tragedy. Even within the narrative prose, the practice of repeating one single Chinese character three times consistently at certain points in the book is an intertextual reference to a well-known lyric pattern. It echoes the ending line in
苏桐在这部小说中刻意使用了宋代风格的歌词。比如,写歌词,似乎是段白情感的唯一发泄口。每当他被权力、爱情甚至悲剧所触动时,他就会写歌词。即使在叙事散文中,在书中的某些地方连续重复一个汉字三次的做法,也是对一种众所周知的抒情模式的互文引用。它呼应了

56 Su Tong, My Life as Emperor 5.
56 苏桐:《我的皇帝生涯》 5.

Chaitou feng (釵頭鳳 Phoenix Hairpin), a famous lyric composed by Lu You (陸游, 1125-1209) and his ex-wife Tang Wan (唐婉).57 In My Life as Emperor the Chinese characters that Su Tong repeats in this pattern are sha (, to kill) and wang (, to decline, to disappear). Sha-sha-sha
釵头凤凰发夹,由陆游(陸游,1125-1209)和他的前妻唐婉(唐婉)创作的著名抒情诗。 57 在《我的皇帝生涯》中,苏桐以这种模式重复的汉字是sha(殺,杀死)和wang(亡,衰落,消失)。沙

appears twice in the book: in chapter one, after a visit to the border of his own empire, Duanbai comes back to the Capital with a tormented conscience. He utters the single syllable in one breath three times in his feverish sleep and thereby releases his anger and anxiety. The other time the reader reads the Chinese character three times in one line is near the end of the text.
在书中出现了两次:在第一章中,段白在访问了自己帝国的边界后,带着痛苦的良心回到了首都。他在发烧的睡眠中一口气说出一个音节三次,从而释放了他的愤怒和焦虑。另一次,读者在一行中读了三遍汉字,是在接近文本的末尾。

The Xie Empire is conquered by the Peng Empire, and the Emperor of Peng utters the syllable three times exactly in the way that Duanbai did in his feverish sleep as Xie Emperor. From the one who utters those words as a refrain to the one who receives the fatal effect of those words, Duanbai
谢朝被鹏帝国征服,鹏帝像炙皇帝一样,完全按照端白作为谢帝在发烧的睡眠中所做的那样,念了三个音节。从说出这些话作为副歌的人,到接受这些话的致命影响的人,端白
has completed his journey through
通过
the nightmare of life and death. Wang (to perish, to flee) is the other Chinese character that appears in such a haunting and mournful pattern. It first appears at the end of chapter two when Duanbai shamefully loses his throne as the Xie Emperor. Strictly speaking, the reader can hardly tell if it is a human word, as it appears to be uttered
灭亡,逃跑)是另一个以如此令人难以忘怀和悲哀的模式出现的中国字符。它首次出现在第二章的结尾,当时端白可耻地失去了他作为谢皇帝的皇位。严格来说,读者很难分辨它是否是人类的词,因为它似乎是说出来的
by a flock of flying birds. In Duanbai’s construal, however,
然而
the sound acquires the shape and meaning of a Chinese character that stands for decline and disappearance. The pattern of
代表衰落和消失的汉字的形状和含义。的模式
wang-wang-wang appears four more times after this. The recurrences intensify the tension in Duanbai’s efforts to realize his personal dream as Emperor of Tightrope in the Xie Empire, where
在此之后又出现了四次。这些事件的再次发生加剧了端白在解帝国实现自己作为走钢丝皇帝的个人梦想的努力的紧张气氛,在那里
he used to govern as a real-world Emperor. It also bolsters Duanbai’s concealed desire
以现实世界的皇帝身份进行治理。也助长了端白隐藏的欲望
to

57 The first two lyrics written to the tune of Phoenix Hairpin were by Lu Yu and Tang Wan, the latter as a response to the former’s lamenting lyric. Mourning over their previous happy marital life which comes to a tragic end due to Lu You’s mother’s interruption, both lyrics end by repeating a single character three times, as if it were a prolonged sign. For more details about the paired lyrics by Lu You and Tang Wan, please see Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping trans., The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Contemporary, the Full 3000-Year Tradition (NY: The Anchor Books, 2005) 271-273.
57 按照凤凰簪子的曲调写的前两句歌词是陆羽和唐婉写的,后者是对前者悲哀歌词的回应。两句歌词都以一个字重复一个字三遍结束,哀悼他们之前幸福的婚姻生活,却因陆优母亲的打断而悲惨地结束,仿佛这是一个漫长的符号。关于陆游和唐婉的配对歌词的更多详情,请见托尼·巴恩斯通、周平译的《中国诗词的锚书:从古到当代,完整的三千年传统》(纽约:锚书店,2005年)第271-273页。

overcome the limitations produced by worldly attachments.58 The intergeneric borrowing of haunting lines from a Song dynasty lyric thus adds lyrical force precisely at the moments in which Duanbai ruptures the narrative flow with his thoughts of transgression.
克服世俗执着所产生的限制。 58 因此,对宋代抒情诗中令人心头悍惚的台词的跨属借用,恰恰在端白用他的过犯思想打破叙事流程的那一刻,增加了抒情的力量。

Su Tong also borrows from traditional verse drama to build a sense of literary qi in My Life as Emperor. In traditional Chinese verse drama, characters often repeat ominous words in order to help frame the dramatic plot for the audience. Su Tong applies this generic practice to his prose narrative and thus adds a feeling of qi to it through an aura of inescapable and mysterious fate. In the 126,000-character-long My Life as Emperor, the ominous words
苏桐在《我为皇帝的一生》中也借鉴传统诗剧,建构文学气感。在中国传统的诗歌剧中,人物经常重复不祥的词语,以帮助为观众构建戏剧性情节。苏桐将这种通用的做法运用到他的散文叙事中,从而通过一种不可逃避的、神秘的命运的光环,为其增添了一种气感。在长达12.6万字的《我的皇帝生涯》中,有一句不祥的话

“Calamity will soon befall the Xie Empire” (燮國的灾難要降臨了) are dispersed throughout the book and repeated more than twenty times by a variety of characters. These characters include the protagonist Duanbai, his aged attendant Sun Xin, his uncle Duke Zhaoyang, Li Yizhi the peasant rebel who was tormented to death, Duanbai’s favourite eunuch Swallow, and a ghost
“燮国的灾難要降臨了”(燮國的灾難要降臨了)散布在全书中,并由各种人物重复了二十多次。这些角色包括主人公端白、他年迈的侍从孙信、他的叔叔赵阳公、被折磨致死的农民叛逆者李一之、段白最喜欢的太监燕子和鬼魂

in Duanbai’s memory. These ominous words bring an external sense of ontology to the prose narrative, which otherwise would be so focused on Duanbai’s inner fantasy that the external world would fail even to register as a background to his thoughts. These ominous words are also literary attempts to rationalize the unexplainable and to familiarize the strange via common sense. The latter function paradoxically verifies the existence of Duanbai’s otherworldly perceptions, though. These ominous words, their speakers, and the contexts in which these words are uttered, together form a further paradox that invites and affects the reader’s response to the story. A brief summary of the ominous sentence is as follows:
在端白的记忆中。这些不祥的词语给散文叙事带来了一种外在的本体感,否则散文叙事就会过于关注段白内心的幻想,以至于外部世界甚至无法作为他思想的背景。这些不祥的词语也是文学上的尝试,旨在将无法解释的事物合理化,并通过常识使陌生事物熟悉。然而,后一种功能自相矛盾地验证了端白超凡脱俗的感知的存在。这些不祥的词语,它们的说话者,以及这些词语说出的语境,共同构成了一个进一步的悖论,邀请并影响读者对这个故事的反应。不祥的句子的简要总结如下:

58 The English version of My Life As Emperor as translated by Howard Goldblatt hardly preserves the first repetition pattern as he applies more a liberal translation in his rendition of first sha-sha-sha as “Kill, kill, kill” (81), and the second variant sha-sha-sha as “Kill, kill, kill, kill” (274). The intertextual reference to the Song lyrics’ haunting line is thus lost in his translation. However his transliteration of wang-wang-wang displays a different dilemma in translation: the multiple meanings of Chinese character wang are completely lost in his efforts to present the phonetic implication of the character as an intended imitation of bird chirpings by Duanbai. The latter pattern’s intertextual reference to the Song lyrics’ line is thereby preserved, though.
58 霍华德·戈德布拉特(Howard Goldblatt)翻译的《我的皇帝生涯》(My Life As Emperor)的英文版本几乎没有保留第一种重复模式,因为他在将第一个sha-sha-sha演绎为“Kill,kill,kill”(81)和第二个变体sha-sha-sha为“Kill,kill,kill,kill”(274)时更多地采用了自由主义的翻译。因此,在他的翻译中丢失了对歌曲歌词中令人难以忘怀的台词的互文引用。然而,他对“王-王-王”的音译在翻译上表现出了不同的困境:在他试图将汉字的语音含义呈现为对段白鸟鸣的有意模仿的努力中,完全丧失了汉字“王”的多重含义。不过,后一种模式对宋歌词句的互文引用因此得以保留。

#

Page

Narrative Context/Cause for

Utterance

Speaker

1

4

Autumn is deepening

Duanbai

2

5

Autumn is deepening

Sun Xin

3

18

The fire is out
火已经熄灭了

Sun Xin, and repeated by Duanbai 4
孙欣,并由段白4重复

times

5

24

An assassin's arrow has been shot
刺客的箭射中了

Sun Xin

6

25

Duanbai plays childish games with
端白玩幼稚的游戏

his eunuch

Sun Xin, repeated 7 more times
孙欣,又重复了7遍

8

36

Juekong (the monk master of
觉空(和尚的师傅

Duanbai) was gone

Duanbai

9

36

The chamber pot is shattered
腔室锅破碎了

Duanbai

10

36

I saw little white demons
我看到了小白鬼

Duanbai

11

43

Now that eunuchs have gained favor
现在太监们已经获得了好感

Sun Xin, and repeated by Sun Xin 12
孙欣,并由孙欣重复 12

more times

13

77

The Emperor is young, and very cruel
皇帝很年轻,而且非常残忍

Duke Zhaoyang

14

100

Sun Xin is dead
孙欣死了

Sun Xin's ghost in Duanbai's
孙欣在端白的鬼魂

imgaination
增强

15

129

If Lady Hui (Duanbai's favorite concubine who was victimized by the jealous Empress and all the other royal concubines) remains as she is
如果许夫人(端白宠爱的妾室,被嫉妒的皇后和所有其他皇室妃子所害)保持原样

now

Duanbai

16

174

When torture becomes this cruel,
当酷刑变得如此残酷时,

humans are worse than wild beasts
人类比野兽还坏

Li Yizhi

17

179

They (the little white demons)'ve
他们(小白恶魔)已经

come back

Duanbai

18

180

You will see ninety-nine spirits,
你会看到九十九个灵,

Sun Xin as recalled by Duanbai
段白回忆的孙欣

19

194

The Xie Emperor is mired in debauchery
谢帝深陷放荡的泥潭

A muted sorrowful sound emanated
一声低沉的悲哀声响起

from somewhere deep in the canopy of heaven (heard by Duanbai)
从天幕深处的某个地方(段白听到)

20

198

I believe in nothing any longer
我什么都不相信了

Duanbai

21

274

As I looked up at the blue Double- Eagle (Flag of the Peng Empire that conquers the Xie Empire) flapping in the morning breeze above the
当我抬头望向蓝色的双鹰(征服谢帝国的彭帝国旗帜)在晨风中飘扬时

watchtower
瞭望 塔

Duanbai recalling Sun Xin's sad face
端白回想起孙欣那张伤心的脸

Fig. 2 “Calamity will soon befall the Xie Empire” (燮國的灾難要降臨了)
图2 “灾祸即将降临谢帝国” (燮國的灾難要降臨了)

As shown in Fig. 2, some causes of the dark omen of “calamity” sound logical, as in number 13, where Duke Zhaoyang is worried about state affairs under the reign of an inexperienced yet ruthless young emperor. So does number 16, spoken by Li Yizhi, who had pleaded in vain for
如图 2 所示,“灾难”不祥之兆的一些原因听起来很合乎逻辑,例如第 13 条中,昭阳公在一个缺乏经验但冷酷无情的年轻皇帝统治下担心国家事务。李义之说的16号也是如此,他曾徒劳地恳求

the young emperor to show mercy over the plight of the commoners. Some causes, however, are absurd and even illusionary, like that of number 3: the fire is out, and then a dark omen of
年轻的皇帝对平民的困境表示怜悯。然而,有些原因是荒谬的,甚至是幻觉的,就像数字 3 一样:火熄灭了,然后是黑暗的预兆

“calamity” is uttered by Sun Xin, the old eunuch. Furthermore, there is a paradoxical relation between the rationality of the causes for the utterance of the omen and its immediate effects on the audience. Unlike conventional explications of the surface world, the more absurd and illusionary these causes are, the more receptive the immediate audience depicted in the narrative becomes to the omens: they repeat the ominous words for no apparent or feasible reasons. It seems that by repetition they can perhaps come to believe these words, whether intentionally or not. For example, in situations 10, 17, and 18, disturbed by his own hallucination, Duanbai utters these words, and his attendants repeat these words immediately, even though they do not physically share his hallucination.
“大祸”是老太监孙欣说的。此外,在发出预兆的原因的合理性与其对听众的直接影响之间存在着矛盾的关系。与传统的对地表世界的解释不同,这些原因越是荒谬和虚幻,叙述中描绘的直接观众就越能接受这些预兆:他们无缘无故地重复着不祥的话语。看来,通过重复,他们也许可以有意或无意地相信这些话。例如,在情境10、17和18中,端白被自己的幻觉所干扰,说出这些话,他的侍从立即重复这些话,即使他们实际上并未分享他的幻觉。

The utterances with logical external causes thus connect Duanbai’s internal narrative with the flow of historical events in the Xie state. In contrast, those with illusionary or nonsensical causes are more like a ghostly echo of what is taking place in Duanbai’s internal
因此,具有逻辑外因的话语将端白的内在叙事与谢国历史事件的流动联系起来。相比之下,那些带有幻觉或荒谬原因的人,更像是端白内心正在发生的事情的幽灵般的回声

world. The latter, however, reflect more profoundly Duanbai’s desires, inner fears, and fantasies. These two types of utterances with different causes subtly overlap each other in Duanbai’s first- person narrative and together foreshadow what is to come in the text. From number 19 to the last utterance of these ominous words, the reader witnesses a transgression from two sides.
世界。然而,后者更深刻地反映了段白的欲望、内心的恐惧和幻想。这两类不同原因的话语在端白的第一人称叙述中巧妙地相互重叠,共同预示着文本中将要发生的事情。从第 19 句到这些不祥之词的最后一句话,读者目睹了来自两方面的过犯。

Duanbai’s fantasy transgresses into the surface, everyday world, finally overwhelming it. Duanbai stops uttering these ominous words; instead, he is an imagined hearer of these words from the ghost world. From then on, the only time he actually utters them again is when he claims that he believes in nothing now. His total negation of his external world is immediately confirmed in front of his own eyes and physically felt by his immediate audience, which has
端白的幻想闯入了表面,闯入了日常世界,最终压倒了它。端白停止说这些不祥的话;相反,他是一个想象中的听鬼世界话语的听众。从那时起,他唯一一次真正再次说出这些话,就是他声称他现在什么都不相信的时候。他对外部世界的完全否定立即在他自己的眼前得到证实,并被他的直接观众实际感受到,这已经

already witnessed the calamity of the fall of the Xie Empire. His external world is in ruins. The ominous utterance sounds like the words of the chorus in a tragedy, accompanying every step of the protagonist to his dreadful last step off the stage.
已经目睹了谢帝国灭亡的浩劫。他的外部世界一片废墟。这不祥的话语听起来像是悲剧中合唱团的歌词,伴随着主角的每一步,直到他可怕的最后一步离开舞台。

The reader’s experience of qi via Duanbai’s fantasy in words is thus partly achieved by the repeated dramatic, ominous words. Additionally, Su Tong uses symbolism in My Life as Emperor to enact a metaphoric relation between the protagonist and birds, symbols of flight. Throughout the first-person narrative, Duanbai feels at ease when he uses a bird’s image to interpret his perception of the world. The story starts as the 14-year-old Duanbai gazes at “a flock of white herons sweeping in low from the black tallow tree”59 and ends when Duanbai the recluse experiences nearby residents’ gazing upon him, “a strange monk standing on a rope strung between two pine trees, either walking rapidly or striking a one-legged crane pose.”
因此,读者通过端白在文字中的幻想对气的体验,在一定程度上是通过反复出现的戏剧性、不祥的词语来实现的。此外,苏桐在《我的皇帝生涯》中使用象征主义来构建主角与鸟类之间的隐喻关系,鸟类是飞行的象征。在整个第一人称叙述中,当段白用鸟的形象来解读他对世界的感知时,他感到很自在。故事开始于14岁的段白凝视着“一群白鹭从黑色的牛油树上低低扫过” 59 ,到隐士端白体验到附近居民的注视时结束,“一个奇怪的和尚站在两棵松树之间的绳子上,要么走得很快,要么摆出单腿鹤的姿势”。

“That person is me,” Duanbai thus claims in his last words of the book.60 Changed from a subject who observes the flight of birds to a bird-like observed object of flight, Duanbai gradually escapes from the bondage of the external and the internal and takes flight in his fantasy. Searching for a way to fly, physically and spiritually, he makes his final decision to give up performing flight-like tightrope walking for others. Instead, he resumes a reclusive life and only walks tightropes for himself. The literary quality of qi is fully displayed in the metaphorical connection between Duanbai’s yearning for flight and his self-image as an object of flight.
“那个人就是我,”段白在书的最后一句话中这样说。 60 段白从一个观察鸟儿飞行的主体,变成了一个鸟一样观察飞行的对象,逐渐摆脱了外在和内在的束缚,在自己的幻想中飞翔。在寻找一种在身体和精神上飞行的方式时,他最终决定放弃为他人表演飞行般的走钢丝。取而代之的是,他恢复了隐居的生活,只为自己走钢丝。“气”的文学品质,在端白对飞行的向往与他作为飞行对象的自我形象之间的隐喻联系中得到了充分的体现。

The symbolic relevance of birds and flight to Duanbai’s pursuit of freedom and self- knowledge is carefully set up by Su Tong in the text. For example, Duanbai is reluctant to become the Xie Emperor, so in his perception, the Xie palace is like a prison, and the map of the
鸟儿和飞行与端白追求自由和自知的象征意义,是苏桐在文中精心设置的。比如端白不愿意成为谢朝皇帝,所以在他的认知中,谢氏宫就像一座监狱,而牠朝的地图。

59 Su Tong, My Life as Emperor 3.
59 苏桐:《我的皇帝生涯3》。

60 Su Tong 290.

137

Xie Empire seems to him nothing but an image of a dead bird “that would never fly again”;61 all he can acutely feel is “a desire to fly.”62 It is under such circumstances that he meets Lady Hui, another bird-like soul who is later ensnared by dark plots in the palace. To console Lady Hui in her despair, Duanbai sends her eighteen birds in cages as gifts, all of which she tries in vain to set free. Yet when the two lovers reunite after he is dethroned, he finds that they have each “reached the same goal”:
在他看来,谢帝国只不过是一只“再也不会飞翔”的死鸟的形象; 61 他能敏锐地感觉到的只是“飞翔的欲望”。 62 正是在这样的情况下,他遇到了许夫人,这是另一个像鸟一样的灵魂,后来在宫殿里被黑暗的阴谋所诱捕。为了安慰绝望的许夫人,端白将她的十八只鸟装在笼子里作为礼物送给她,她徒劳地试图释放它们。然而,当两个恋人在他被废黜后重逢时,他发现他们每个人都“达到了相同的目标”:

That was my deepest wish. My beautiful, unlucky Lady Hui has already been transformed into a free-flying white bird, and from now on we would soar in the same skies, our meetings limited to brief encounters and a wave of the hand; this would legitimate our worshipping of birds and our dreams of becoming one.63
这是我最深切的愿望。我美丽而不幸的惠夫人已经变成了一只自由飞翔的白鸟,从此我们在同一片天空中翱翔,我们的会面仅限于短暂的相遇和挥手;这将使我们对鸟类的崇拜和我们成为鸟类的梦想合法化。 63

Duanbai is highly lyrical at this moment in the dark first-person narrative. Another equally lyrical outcry by Duanbai occurs in this section a few pages earlier when he finally masters the skills to walk the tightrope. He “saw a beautiful white bird fly up from somewhere deep in my soul and haughtily soar through the vast sky above the heads of the people below. / I was the Emperor of the Tightrope. / I was a bird.”64 Against the otherwise doomed tone of the narrative and the haunting chorus of ominous words that pervade the story, these two lyrical celebrations of a personal victory, even if a pyrrhic one, reach deep into the reader’s mind. Tragic, poignant, but still undauntedly victorious, these two moments shed light on the silent and lonely ending of Duanbai’s worldly life. When he shows a boy buried bird-cages in the palace ruins, he realizes
端白此时此刻在黑暗的第一人称叙事中,具有高度的抒情性。段白的另一句同样抒情的呐喊发生在几页前的这一部分,当时他终于掌握了走钢丝的技巧。他“看到一只美丽的白色鸟从我灵魂深处的某个地方飞起来,傲慢地翱翔在下面的人头顶的广阔天空中。/我是走钢丝的皇帝。/我是一只鸟。 64 与叙述本来注定要失败的基调和弥漫在故事中的令人难以忘怀的不祥词语合唱相比,这两首抒情的庆祝个人胜利,即使是一场惨烈的胜利,也深深地触及了读者的心灵。悲惨、凄美,但仍然无畏的胜利,这两个时刻揭示了段白世俗生活的无声和孤独的结局。当他看到一个男孩在宫殿废墟中埋着鸟笼时,他意识到

that it is he himself who “hid those things,” and that, “priceless” or “worthless,” he cannot keep
是他自己“隐藏了那些东西”,而且,“无价”或“毫无价值”,他无法保留

61 Su Tong 82.

62 Su Tong 83.

63 Su Tong 265.

64 Su Tong 263.

them anymore.65 When all his followers in the Circus are killed by the invading army, he accepts his responsibility as their survivor and buries their bodies single-handedly. After this, he is “truly a man alone.”66 The buried cages in the palace ruins and his burial of his followers’ corpses echo each other, yet Duanbai’s words describing the two reveal their basic differences. His burial of the cages is his way to escape the bondage of court life; and his burial of his followers’ corpses is a farewell he bids to the external world. Paradoxically, when he loses everything in the external world, he comes closest to his true internal desire:
他们不再是。 65 当他在马戏团的所有追随者都被入侵军队杀害时,他接受了自己作为幸存者的责任,并单枪匹马埋葬了他们的尸体。在这之后,他“真正是一个人”。 66 宫殿废墟中埋设的笼子和他埋葬追随者尸体的情景相呼应,但段白对这两者的描述却揭示了两者的基本区别。他埋葬笼子是他逃避宫廷生活束缚的方式;而他埋葬追随者的尸体,也是他向外部世界告别。矛盾的是,当他失去了外部世界的一切时,他最接近他真正的内在欲望:

The sky and I were so close that I had one dream after another about birds. All the birds I had dreamed about were white as virgin snow; the sky I dreamed about was transparent and boundless. All the birds I dreamed about flew into that sky.
天空和我离得如此之近,以至于我做了一个又一个关于鸟的梦。我梦见的所有鸟儿都是洁白如原始的雪;我梦寐以求的天空是透明无边的。我梦见的所有鸟儿都飞进了那片天空。

I dreamed of a new world.67
我梦想着一个新世界。 67

This sky is a new world of freedom, accessed after flight from suffocating reality. Reading between these lines, the reader can feel the text’s power in instantiating qi. Disillusioned by everyday reality all his life, Duanbai finds strength by discovering his true desire, and finds peace in going beyond the boundary that divides his mind and his world, his perceptive
这片天空是一个自由的新世界,在逃离令人窒息的现实后可以进入。从这些字里行间阅读,读者可以感受到文本在实例化气方面的力量。段白一生都对日常现实感到幻灭,他通过发现自己的真正愿望来找到力量,并在超越划分他的思想和世界、他的洞察力的界限中找到了平静

imaginations and his surface impressions, even life and death. Duanbai enters an area that both embodies and frees his inner desire. To the reader of his first-person narrative, that area is the effect of qi.
想象和他的表面印象,甚至生与死。端白进入了一个既体现又释放他内心欲望的区域。对于他的第一人称叙述的读者来说,那个区域就是气的影响。

It is therefore no wonder that Su Tong himself prefers My Life as Emperor to Wu Zetian.
因此,难怪苏桐本人更喜欢《我的皇帝生涯》而不是武则天。

In the former he is a fiction writer who is endowed with a literary freedom of roaming and draws inspiration from his knowledge of traditional literature. He freely crosses textual and generic
在前者中,他是一位小说作家,被赋予了文学漫游的自由,并从他对传统文学的知识中汲取灵感。他自由地跨越了文本和通用
boundaries in his writing, constructing a qi that reveals new perspectives
观点
on historical

65 Su Tong 284.

66 Su Tong 286.

67 Su Tong 286.

events. In the latter, he is bound by his reading of historical documents and constrained within the narrative frame that is fixed by those documents. When Su Tong flouts historiography he realizes his fantasy about history in his text. The writer’s power to create an imagined reality makes anything possible.68
事件。在后者中,他受到对历史文献的阅读的束缚,并被限制在这些文献所固定的叙述框架内。当苏桐蔑视史学时,他在文字中实现了他对历史的幻想。作家创造想象现实的能力使一切成为可能。 68

Conclusion

In this chapter, through key representative texts, I explored the fate of qi in contemporary Chinese fiction over the last two decades of the twentieth century. My discussion, however, in fact moved before and beyond the 1980s and 1990s. I briefly explained why and how a cultural and intellectual debate emerged after the suppression of independent thinking from the late 1940s to 1976, and how fiction writing benefited from the post-Mao cultural ferment. At the same time I pointed out the limitations of criticism of the era’s fiction, mainly due to the categorizing of writing into groups often at the cost of accurate investigations of individual works. My argument is that writers of these two decades shared in common a desire for qi, and that, thanks to the emancipation of individuality created by cultural ferment, they present highly individual and unique forms of qi in fiction.
在本章中,我通过关键的代表性文本,探讨了二十世纪最后二十年中国当代小说中气的命运。然而,我的讨论实际上发生在1980年代和1990年代之前和之后。我简要地解释了在1940年代末至1976年独立思考受到压制之后,为什么以及如何出现文化和思想辩论,以及小说写作如何从后毛时代的文化发酵中受益。与此同时,我指出了对那个时代小说的批评的局限性,这主要是由于将写作分类为组,往往以牺牲对个别作品的准确调查为代价。我的论点是,这二十年的作家们对气有着共同的渴望,而且,由于文化发酵所创造的个性解放,他们在小说中呈现了高度个人化和独特的气形式。

By reading works like
阅读的工作原理如下
The King of Chess, Red Sorghum,
国际象棋之王,红高粱,
“Classical Love,” and
“古典之爱”,以及
My Life as Emperor
我的皇帝生活
I have analyzed four major writers’ unique ways of constructing
我分析了四位主要作家独特的建构方式
qi in fiction. Ah Cheng overcomes a totalizing political agenda by presenting traditional Chinese philosophical beliefs in freedom of roaming in his characterization of a King of Chess. Mo Yan successfully goes beyond an imitation of traditional lyrical lines, reaching a hallucinatory zone where the past,
在小说中。阿成通过在对国际象棋之王的刻画中呈现了中国传统的自由漫游哲学信仰,从而克服了一种总体化的政治议程。莫言成功地超越了对传统抒情台词的模仿,达到了一个幻觉地带,在那里,过去的,
present and future meet in a first-person’s
第一人称视角
narrative voice. Yu Hua subversively adapts the

68 Su describes his writing in Wu Zetian as a way to write history, which he detests. In contrast, he admits that his imagination as a fiction writer achieves full release via writing My Life as an Emperor. See Su Tong yanjiu ziliao 26.
68 苏将他在武则天的写作描述为一种书写历史的方式,他对此深恶痛绝。与他形成鲜明对比的是,他承认,自己作为小说家的想象力,通过写《我的皇帝人生》得到了充分的释放见《苏通衍久子廖》第26页。

traditional clichéd romance of the scholar and beauty; by parodying the genre he gives it a new postmodern twist. Su Tong explores the different realms of history and fantasy in his two historical fictions, revealing his preference for fantasy, since it maximizes qi.
书生与美女的传统陈词滥调的浪漫;通过模仿这一类型,他赋予了它一种新的后现代风格。苏桐在他的两部历史小说中探索了历史和幻想的不同领域,揭示了他对幻想的偏爱,因为它可以最大化气。

In these contemporary Chinese writers’ works,
在这些中国当代作家的作品中,
qi emerges mainly through the writers’ literary transgressions. Their literary visions achieved through
主要是通过作家的文学越界而出现的。他们的文学愿景是通过以下方式实现的
qi can only be decoded by the reader; nonetheless, readerly interpretation is limited by the boundaries these writers set for themselves. However, the
只能由读卡器解码;尽管如此,读者的解释受到这些作者为自己设定的界限的限制。但是,
mixed critical reception of these
对这些的批评褒贬不一
works reveals another
作品揭示了另一个
aspect of qi in fiction: i.e., that it hinges upon the reader’s literary knowledge in decoding the message left by the writer. I have discussed briefly how this aspect may work in chapter II. The Tang literati mainly produced their literary quality of
在小说中:即,它取决于读者在解码作者留下的信息方面的文学知识。我在第二章中简要地讨论了这方面如何发挥作用。唐朝文人主要发挥了他们的文学品质
qi through a prior understanding that their targeted readers were
通过事先的理解,他们的目标读者是
fellow members of the
联合国人权事务高级专员办事处的同仁
literati who largely
很大程度上是文人
shared their knowledge
分享他们的知识
of literature and values. In chapter III, however, I have delineated how
和价值观。然而,在第三章中,我阐述了如何
qi was domesticated. In the 1980s and 1990s, most writers yearned for a “correct reading” of their fiction, and yet they seemed to be more
被驯化了。在 1980 年代和 1990 年代,大多数作家都渴望对他们的小说进行“正确阅读”,但他们似乎更是如此
reserved in committing
themselves
他们自己
to such a relationship with their readers, at least openly in words. A large part of
公开地用言语。的很大一部分
qi then remains to be explored. In the next chapter, I turn to Wang Xiaobo for a key to further understanding the creation and reception of literary
然后还有待探索。在下一章中,我将转向王晓波,以进一步理解文学的创作和接受
qi in Chinese
中文记录
fiction.

Chapter V

The Tang People and Our Time: Qi in Wang Xiaobo’s Intertextual Travel
唐人与我们的时代——王晓波互文游记中的气

In the last chapter I explored how contemporary writers revived qi in fiction during the last two decades of the twentieth century. I argued that fiction writers like Ah Cheng, Mo Yan, Yu Hua, and Su Tong in their writing display perspectives on their world that are different from those prescribed by communist official discourse. These writers’ different literary efforts manifest themselves in various forms of roaming freely across generic and textual boundaries in their major works.
在最后一章中,我探讨了当代作家如何在二十世纪的最后二十年里在小说中复兴气。我认为,像阿成、莫言、于华和苏彤这样的小说作家在他们的写作中表现出与共产党官方话语所规定的不同的世界观。这些作家的不同文学努力表现在他们的主要作品中,以各种形式自由地跨越一般和文本的界限。

In this chapter I continue my exploration
勘探
of qi through
通过
the work of Wang Xiaobo 王小波 (1952-1997). Often, contemporary writers lament the death of fiction’s popularity when they find that their readership dwindles, but Wang Xiaobo celebrated the exclusiveness of his intended readership in his writing. His pursuit of aesthetic values in fiction, his love for the lyrical force of literary language, and his ultimate preference for fantasy in fiction align him
(1952-1997)当代作家常常在发现小说的读者群减少时,对小说的受欢迎程度的消亡感到遗憾,但王小波在他的作品中庆祝了他目标读者群的排他性。他对小说审美价值的追求,对文学语言抒情力量的热爱,以及对小说中幻想的极致偏爱,使他保持一致
with the writers of
与作家一起
qi I discussed in previous chapters. His major contribution to the tradition of elaborating literary
我在前几章中讨论过。他对阐述文学传统的重大贡献
qi in fiction lies in his undaunted stance against boundaries external to literary
在小说中,在于他对文学之外的界限的无畏立场
values. He also openly
值。他还公开表示
invites his small readership to forge a sense of
邀请他的小读者群建立一种意识
qi along with him in his works of fantasy. In this chapter I discuss his literary thinking, his critical reception
与他一起在他的幻想作品中。在这一章中,我将讨论他的文学思想,他的批判性接受
among both common readers and mainstream literary critics, his intratextual practices, and his legacy for the future of Chinese fiction. Two of his major works are analyzed for this purpose:
无论是普通读者还是主流文学批评家,都对他的文本内实践,以及他对中国小说未来的遗产。为此,分析了他的两部主要著作:
Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
唐人故事 (Tangren gushi, 1989) and The Bronze Age
青铜时代
青銅時代
青铜时代
(Qingtong shidai, 1997), written and published respectively in the late 1980s and late 1990s.
,1997),分别在1980年代末和1990年代后期撰写和出版。

Wang Xiaobo: Literary Critics’ Gaze and Common Readers’ Reception
王晓波:文学评论家的目光与普通读者的接受

137

153

According to Ai Xiaoming
据艾晓明介绍
艾曉明
艾晓明
who is considered the most authoritative critic in mainland China regarding Wang Xiaobo’s works, Wang Xiaobo was ahead of his time.
被认为是中国大陆关于王小波作品最权威的评论家,王小波走在了时代的前面。
1 His posthumous
他的遗腹
popularity among Chinese readers seems to be good evidence for the truth of such a statement.
一个声明。
Born in 1952 to an intellectual family, Wang Xiaobo witnessed many major political movements in his early
他早期的政治运动
youth in mainland China, and his writings are
中国大陆的青年,他的著作有
flavored with his memory of the Cultural Revolution. He began to write fiction in the early 1980s, but he did not receive plaudits from literary critics until 1992, when the first recognition of his literary merit came from Taiwan in the form of a prize given to
带着他对文化大革命的记忆的味道。他从1980年代初开始写小说,但直到1992年,他的文学价值才得到文学评论家的赞誉,当时他的文学价值首次得到认可,以奖项的形式授予台湾。
The Golden Age.
黄金时代。
Before that he published his first collection of short stories in 1989 at his own cost in mainland China, but received little immediate praise.
在此之前,他于1989年自费在中国大陆出版了第一本短篇小说集,但几乎没有立即得到好评。
2 Indeed, he was better known in mainland China as an essayist, even though he would rather people appreciated his talents as a fiction writer.
事实上,他在中国大陆以散文家的身份更为人所知,尽管他更愿意人们欣赏他作为小说作家的才华。
3 He never gave up his efforts
他从未放弃自己的努力
to write fiction, and even resigned from his teaching position at Renmin University in 1992 to pursue writing full-time. In 1997 he wrote to Zhu Wei
写小说,甚至在1992年辞去中国大学的教职,全职从事写作。1997年,他写信给朱伟
朱偉
朱伟
, general editor of
、《公约》总编辑
Sanlian Life

Weekly 三聯生活周刊, which published most of Wang Xiaobo’s essays, and indicated his
周刊《三聯生活周刊》,刊登了王晓波的大部分文章,并指出了他的

1 Ai Xiaoming, “Shijizhijiao de wenxue xinling” (“A Literary Mind at the Turn of the Century”) in Wang Xiaobo shinianji (The Tenth Anniversary of Wang Xiaobo’s Death, ed. Li Yinhe [Nanjing: Jiangsu meishu chubanshe, 2007]), 298. Ai Xiaoming is a one of the earliest and maybe the most immediate critic of Wang Xiaobo’s fiction works. She was also trusted by Li Yinhe, Wang’s widow, to edit the unfinished manuscript left at the time of Wang Xiaobo’s untimely death. In the essay she stresses that Wang’s writing is different from whatever writings have come before in Chinese fiction, and that his childlike love of fun, his humorous irony, and his fantastic imagination go far beyond the literature of his time.
1 艾晓明:《世纪之交的文学思想》,载《王小波逝世十周年》,李银河编:南京:江苏梅书出版社,2007年],第298页。艾晓明是最早批评王晓波小说作品的人之一,也许也是最直接的批评家。她还受到王孝波遗孀李银河的信任,编辑了王晓波英年早逝时留下的未完成的手稿。在文章中,她强调,汪晖的写作与以往的中国小说作品不同,他孩子般的对乐趣的热爱,他的幽默讽刺和他奇妙的想象力远远超出了他那个时代的文学。

2 The collection was entitled by its then editors Tangren michuan gushi (The Mysterious Tales of the Tang People) and published by Shandong wenyi chubanseh in Jinan. Both Wang Xiaobo and his wife Li Yinhe felt unhappy about the revised title but had to compromise for commercial reasons. Later, when the five stories were incorporated into his posthumous publications, the original title Tangren gushi (Tales of the Tang People) was restored.
2 该文集由当时的编辑《唐人神秘故事集》命名,由济南山东文义出版社出版。王晓波和妻子李银河都对修改后的标题感到不满,但出于商业原因不得不妥协。后来,当这五个故事被收录到他的遗作中时,原来的标题《唐人古志》又恢复了。

3 Wang Xiaobo is barely mentioned in any comprehensive “history” of contemporary Chinese literature, except for A History of Contemporary Literature written by Hong Zicheng, the English version of which was published by Leiden in Boston in 2007, in which he is mainly credited as an essayist with a straightforwardness in his language style and a sharp sense of social criticism. According to Li Yinhe, however, Wang Xiaobo was more annoyed than pleased by his fame in essay-writing. In fact, Wang Xiaobo himself stated explicitly in his preface to his essay collection The Pleasure of Thinking (siwei de lequ) published in 1995 that “[m]y major occupation is fiction writing, and sometimes in order to state my attitudes of the worldly affairs, I would also write a few essays.” (我以寫小說 爲主業,但有時也寫些雜文,來表明自己對世事的態度)as seen in 王小波全集第一卷 The Complete Anthology of Wang Xiaobo, vol. 1 (Kunming: Yunnan People Press, 2006) 1.
3 在中国当代文学的任何综合性“史”中,除了洪自诚所著的《当代文学史》外,汪小波几乎没有被提及,该书的英文版于2007年由莱顿在波士顿出版,在这本书中,他主要被认为是一位语言风格直率、具有敏锐社会批判意识的散文家。然而,在李银河看来,王晓波对他在散文写作方面的名声感到恼火多于高兴。事实上,王小波本人在1995年出版的散文集《思知的乐趣》的序言中明确指出,“我的主要职业是写小说,有时为了表明我对世俗事务的态度,我也会写几篇散文。(我以寫小說 爲主業,但有時也寫些雜文,來表明自己對世事的態度),如王小波全集第一卷 The Complete Anthology of Wang Xiaobo, vol. 1 (Kunming: Yunnan People Press, 2006) 1.

inclination to stop writing essays completely in order to give more time to writing fiction.4 It seems that in writing fiction, he writes against his contemporary world’s expectations of him.
倾向于完全停止写论文,以便有更多时间写小说。 4 似乎在写小说时,他违背了当代世界对他的期望。

Wang Xiaobo’s “Age Trilogy,”--The Golden Age 黃金時代 (Huangjin shidai), The Silver Age 白銀時代 (Baiyin shidai), and The Bronze Age 青銅時代 (Qingtong shidai)--reveals much about his fictional aesthetics. It was his last literary project working with his editor Ai Xiaoming, who suggested the use of the concept of “ages”. Ai Xiaoming believed that the titles
王晓波的“时代三部曲”——《黄金时代》、《白银时代》和《青铜时代》——揭示了他的虚构美学。这是他与编辑艾晓明合作的最后一个文学项目,艾晓明建议使用“年龄”的概念。艾晓明认为,这些标题

could metaphorically remind the reader of human perceptions and ambitions in each titular age of Greek mythology.5 In addition, the three volumes of the “Age Trilogy” have their own particular focus on periods of time. The Golden Age collects five stories about “current life” that bear echoes of the Cultural Revolution; The Silver Age projects the writer’s reflections on current life upon a canvas that features imagined future worlds across three stories; and The Bronze Age is composed of three stories originally adapted from Tang tales of marvels.
可以隐喻地提醒读者在希腊神话的每个名义时代人类的观念和野心。 5 此外,“时代三部曲”的三卷本对时期有自己的特别关注。《黄金时代》汇集了五个关于“当下生活”的故事,这些故事与文化大革命有着共鸣;《白银时代》将作家对当前生活的反思投射在画布上,画布上有三个故事中想象中的未来世界;而《青铜时代》则由三个故事组成,最初改编自唐朝的奇观故事。

Wang Xiaobo’s fiction about contemporary life has attracted the most critical attention in his canon since this life echoes the Cultural Revolution. The stories collected in The Golden Age are the critics’ favourites. These stories won him literary awards in his life, and two of them are also among his only fictional works ever translated into English.6 As I noted in chapter one,
汪晓波关于当代生活的小说,自《王晓波的一生》与文化大革命相呼应以来,就引起了他经典作品中最多的评论界关注。《黄金时代》中收集的故事是评论家的最爱。这些故事为他赢得了一生中的文学奖,其中两个也是他唯一被翻译成英文的虚构作品之一。 6 正如我在第一章中所指出的,

4 See Zhu Wei, “Wang Xiaobo’s Spiritual Home,” first published in Sanlian Life Week, vol. 15 (2005), and later collected in Wang Xiaobo yanjiu ziliao (The Research Materials for the Study of Wang Xiaobo) , ed. Han Yuanhong (Tianjin: Tianjin People Press, 2009) 123.
4 参见朱伟:《王小波的精神家园》,首次发表于《三联生活周刊》。15(2005年),后收录于《王晓波研究资料》 ,韩元宏主编 (天津:天津人民出版社,2009年) 123.

5 Ai Xiaoming, “Notes About The Iron Age and Other Fiction Manuscripts Left by Wang Xiaobo” in Han Yuanhong, ed., Wang Xiaobo yanjiu ziliao, 455. Ai’s article was written in 1998, and she states thatWang Xiaobo entitles his own fiction series with such a mythical reference,” yet, in my interview with Li Yinhe, Li says that it was the editor’s idea instead of Wang’s own authorial wish. Wang, however, did not object to it, according to Li Yinhe. The “Age” titles seem more like a postscript to the fiction works collected in them. For example, two stories in The Bronze Age were first finished in 1993 and Wang Xiaobo at that time put them and another story later collected in The Golden Age together and entitled the grouping The Trilogy of Doubts (huaiyi sanbuqu 懷疑三部 曲). In 2002, it was finally published by Wenhua yishu chubanshe (Culture and Arts Publishing House) in Beijing with the purpose ofcompensate[ing] Xiaobo’s lost wish in early years” (對小波早年心願的一個補償)(Huaiyi sanbuqu, “Preface by Li Yinhe” ) 1.
5 艾晓明:《关于王小波留下的铁器时代等小说手稿的笔记》,载于韩元宏编:王小波《严九子寮》,第455页。艾未未的文章写于1998年,她称“王小波以如此神话般的引用来命名他自己的小说系列”,然而,在我与李银河的采访中,李寅和说这是编辑的想法,而不是王寅和自己的作者愿望。然而,据李银河说,王并没有反对。“时代”的标题似乎更像是其中收集的小说作品的后记。例如,《青铜时代》中的两个故事首次完成于1993年,当时的王晓波将它们和后来在《黄金时代》中的另一个故事合在一起,命名为《疑神三部曲》。2002年,该书最终由北京文华一书出版社(文化艺术出版社)出版,以“弥补小波早年心願的一份補償”为目的(《李银河序言》)1。

6 The Golden Age won the Literature Award of United Daily News (Taiwan) in 1993; and Future World won the
6 《黄金时代》1993年获联合报(台湾)文学奖;和 Future World 赢得了

Literature Award of United Daily News (Taiwan) in 1995. 2015, The Golden Age (novella), and East Palace, West
1995年获《联合报》(台湾)文学奖。2015年,《黄金时代》(中篇小说)和《东宫,西》

most critics pay a great deal of attention to the political, social, and cultural contexts of Chinese literature in their studies. In this vein, many critics respond to Wang Xiaobo’s stories in The Golden Age for their seemingly realistic depiction of the decade of the Cultural Revolution, and these critics are inclined to elaborate on the political and cultural meanings they perceive in these texts more than the aesthetic or literary qualities. In fact, nearly every one of the essays in the first significant volume of criticism on Wang Xiaobo’s works is a response to these stories.7
大多数批评家在他们的研究中非常关注中国文学的政治、社会和文化背景。本着这种精神,许多批评家对王小波在《黄金时代》中的故事做出了回应,因为它们对文化大革命的十年进行了看似现实的描绘,这些批评家更倾向于阐述他们在这些文本中感知到的政治和文化意义,而不是审美或文学品质。事实上,第一本关于王小波作品的重要评论集,几乎每一篇文章都是对这些故事的回应。 7

These first critics in emphasizing the extrinsic value of Wang Xiaobo’s fiction set the tone for subsequent criticism. In his 2005 book, Lin Qingxin devotes a whole chapter to Wang Xiaobo’s “The Age Trilogy,” which he calls “The Time Trilogy” in English.8 He interprets The Golden Age as a literary effort with the aim of “sexing Chinese history”;9 The Silver Age as a
这些最初的批评家在强调王小波小说的外在价值时,为后来的批评定下了基调。在他2005年出版的书中,林庆新用了一整章的篇幅来介绍王晓波的“时代三部曲”,他称之为“时间三部曲”。 8 他将《黄金时代》解读为一部以“中国历史性爱”为目的的文学作品; 9 白银时代作为一个

literary response to “living in totalitarian terror”;10 and The Bronze Age as an allegorical exploration of mass memory and amnesia in the wake of the most traumatic event in modern China, the Cultural Revolution.11 In 2007, Huang Yibing’s study of contemporary Chinese literature also lists Wang Xiaobo as an indispensable subject.12 His focus, similar to that of Lin Qingxin, is mainly on Wang’s fiction as a mode of “writing against the gravity of history,”13 and therefore most of the time he discusses how Wang Xiaobo awakens from “a modern arcadia,
对“生活在极权主义恐怖中”的文学回应; 10 《青铜时代》则以寓言式的方式探索了现代中国最具创伤性的事件——文化大革命之后的大众记忆和健忘症。 11 2007年,黄一冰的《中国当代文学研究》也将王晓波列为不可或缺的课题。 12 与林庆新类似,他的关注点主要集中在王子山的小说上,作为一种“对抗历史引力的书写” 13 的模式,因此他大部分时间都在讨论王晓波如何从“现代的阿卡迪亚”中觉醒。

Palace were translated into English by Hongling Zhang and Jason Sommer and published by SUNY Press in 2007 in one book under the title: Wang in Love and Bondage: Three Novellas by Wang Xiaobo
《宫殿》由张红玲和杰森·索默(Jason Sommer)翻译成英文,于2007年由纽约州立大学出版社出版,书名为《王晓波的《王的爱与束缚:三部中篇小说》
.

7 Buzai chenmo: renwen xuzhe lun Wang Xiaobo 不再沉默——人文學者論王小波(Not Silent Any More: Humanities Scholars on Wang Xiaobo, ed. Wang Yi (Beijing: Guangming Daily Press, 1998).
7 《王小波不再沉默——人文學者論王小波》,王毅编(北京:光明日报出版社,1998年)。

8 Lin Qingxin, Brushing History Against the Grain: Reading the Chinese New Historical Fiction (1986-1999)
8 林庆新:《以史反粮:读中国新历史小说》(1986-1999)

(Hong Kong: HK UP, 2005).

9 Lin Qingxin 176.

10 Lin Qingxin 182.

11 Lin Qingxin 186-206.

12 Huang Yibing, Contemporary Chinese Literature: From the Cultural Revolution to the Future (NY: Palgrave/ Macmillan, 2007).
12 黄一冰,《中国当代文学:从文化大革命到未来》(纽约:帕尔格雷夫/麦克米伦出版社,2007年)。

13 Huang Yibing 137.

and into History.”14 Huang also argues that by describing “the melancholy of being”15 and “Eros perverted,”16 Wang Xiaobo in fact presents a dystopian world to his reader.17
并进入历史。 14 黄仁勋还认为,通过描述“存在的忧郁” 15 和“爱欲”, 16 王小波实际上向读者展示了一个反乌托邦的世界。 17

Few critics attend to Wang Xiaobo’s literary technique. In 2009, however, Wendy Larson noticed Wang’s literary contribution to fiction, perceiving it “in his language, sense of time, and the relationship between action and understanding.”18 She claimed that via “dislocation and irony”19 in the narrative voice, his work reduces its political background to nothing but a “dull white noise.”20 Unfortunately Larson only focuses on The Golden Age, which she refers to as The Golden Years in English, and like the above-mentioned critics, she does not dwell on its literary values for very long, either.
很少有评论家关注王晓波的文学技巧。然而,在2009年,温迪·拉尔森(Wendy Larson)注意到了王对小说的文学贡献,认为它“在他的语言、时间感以及行动与理解之间的关系中”。 18 她声称,通过叙事声音中的“错位和讽刺” 19 ,他的作品将其政治背景简化为只不过是“沉闷的白噪音”。 20 不幸的是,拉尔森只关注《黄金时代》,她将其称为英语中的“黄金时代”,而且像上述评论家一样,她也没有长时间关注其文学价值。

In short, the social critiques implied in Wang Xiaobo’s fiction have been explored by many critics. His resistance to authoritarianism, his refusal to cooperate with totalitarianism, and his rebukes of conventionalism in his works have been identified by these critics. The critics also claim that these social critiques are expressed through the following literary strategies: he selects characters as protagonists in his narratives that are not accepted as “heroes” in mainstream writing; he manifests a disillusioned attitude toward the Cultural Revolution and the cultural ferment of the 1980s; and his stories have a dystopian quality, often presenting literary carnivals that function to dissolve any possibility of authority. Even sexual politics, which are used by some contemporary writers to voice resistance to conventionalism and totalitarianism, acquires a layer of self-irony and self-dissolution in his fiction.
简言之,王小波小说中隐含的社会批判,已经被许多批评家探索过。他对威权主义的抵制,拒绝与极权主义合作,以及他在作品中对传统主义的斥责,都被这些批评家所识别。批评家们还声称,这些社会批判是通过以下文学策略表达的:他在叙述中选择人物作为主角,而这些人物在主流写作中不被接受为“英雄”;他对文化大革命和1980年代的文化热潮表现出一种幻灭的态度;他的故事具有反乌托邦的特质,经常呈现文学狂欢节,这些狂欢节的作用是消解任何权威的可能性。即使是一些当代作家用来表达对传统主义和极权主义的抵制的性政治,也在他的小说中获得了一层自我讽刺和自我解体。

14 Huang Yibing 141.

15 Huang Yibing 147.

16 Huang Yibing 154.

17 Huang Yibing 165.

18 Wendy Larson, From Ah Q to Lei Feng: Freud and Revolutionary Spirit in 20th Century China (Palo Alto: Stanford UP, 2009) 136.
18 温迪·拉尔森,《从阿青到雷锋:20世纪中国的弗洛伊德与革命精神》(帕洛阿尔托:斯坦福大学出版社,2009年),第136页。

19 Larson 138.

20 Larson 152.

With the cultural, political, and historical meanings of Wang Xiaobo’s work explored so thoroughly by critics, the literary questions posed by his writing remain to be answered. For example, what is Wang Xiaobo’s concept of “good fiction”? What is Wang Xiaobo’s definition of the function of fiction? Where is Wang Xiaobo’s place in the great tradition of Chinese
随着评论家对王晓波作品的文化、政治和历史意义的深入探讨,他的作品所提出的文学问题仍有待回答。比如,王小波的“好小说”概念是什么?汪小波对小说功能的定义是什么?王小波在中国伟大传统中的地位在哪里

fiction? What is “new” in Wang Xiaobo’s fiction that could transform fiction writing in his time and possibly in the future? If he opposes totalitarianism and conventionalism, with what does he replace them? My study finds answers to all these questions in his pursuit of qi. Wang Xiaobo’s pursuit of qi in fiction is the most thorough, absorbing, and successful among Chinese writers of the 1980s and 1990s. In the following sections I read his literary essays for a clue to his self- defined mission in writing fiction, and then I read his Tales of the Tang People and The Bronze Age to display the intertextual and intergeneric relations with Tang tales used in his own writings, as well as his own literary development between the two books.
小说?在王小波的小说中,有什么“新”的东西可以改变他那个时代乃至未来的小说写作?如果他反对极权主义和传统主义,他用什么来取代它们?我的研究在他对气的追求中找到了所有这些问题的答案。王晓波在小说中对气的追求,是1980年代和1990年代中国作家中最彻底、最引人入胜、最成功的。在接下来的章节中,我阅读了他的文学散文,以了解他自我定义的小说写作使命,然后我阅读了他的《唐人故事篇》和《青铜时代》,以展示他自己作品中使用的唐故事的互文和同种关系,以及他自己的文学发展在这两本书之间。

Writing Fiction to Communicate: Wang Xiaobo’s Self-Definition
写小说来交流:王小波的自我定义

Wang Xiaobo seems to be aware of the danger of being misinterpreted, so he clearly expresses his views about fiction in his literary essays. Most of his essays were first published as columns in weekly journals and daily papers, and then collected in two collections, The Pleasure of Thinking (思維的樂趣 Siwei de lequ, 1996) and My Spiritual Home (我的精神家園 Wode jingshen jiayuan, 1997). In these essays he clearly defines his mission in writing fiction.
汪小波似乎意识到了被误解的危险,因此在自己的文学散文中明确表达了自己对小说的看法。他的大部分文章首先以专栏形式发表在周刊和日报上,然后被收录在两本合集中,《思維的乐趣 Siwei de lequ, 1996》和 《我的精神家園 Wode jingshen jiayuan, 1997》。在这些文章中,他明确定义了自己写小说的使命。

As with his predecessors in pre-modern and modern times, Wang Xiaobo is sensitive to the marginal status of fiction writing in the long history of Chinese literature. In response he takes a firm stand for fiction, considering it a product of human imagination that can fight against despair in the everyday world. In his essayLife and Fiction” (生活和小Shenghuo he
与前近代和近代的前辈们一样,王小波对小说写作在中国文学长河历史中的边缘地位有着敏感的敏感。作为回应,他对小说采取了坚定的立场,认为它是人类想象力的产物,可以对抗日常生活中的绝望。在他的文章《生活与小说》中(生活和小說 Shenghuo he

xiaoshuo), he defines the essence of fiction as a form that, harnessing falsehood and fabrication, follows whatever path one pleases.21 In other words, for Wang Xiaobo, the essence of fiction is that it provides the writer and the reader the chance to develop a world that can extend, reverse, or negate the world external to them. Above all, compared to the external world that fixes, confines, and conditions the human being, the world in Wang Xiaobo’s concept of fiction can be limitless and thus emancipatory. He therefore believes that the standard for good fiction should be aesthetic rather than political, although fiction can still have political effects.22 He sees great potential in fiction for transforming factual life. In fiction he seeks a channel that can subvert the status quo political agenda and that leads to a life of fantasy that surpasses quotidian life.
小硕),他将小说的本质定义为一种形式,它利用虚假和捏造,走任何人们喜欢的道路。 21 换言之,对于王小波来说,小说的本质在于,它为作者和读者提供了一个发展一个可以延伸、反转或否定他们外部世界的机会。最重要的是,与固定、禁锢和制约人类的外部世界相比,王小波小说概念中的世界可以是无限的,因此可以解放。因此,他认为,好的小说的标准应该是审美的,而不是政治的,尽管小说仍然可以产生政治效果。 22 他认为小说在改变事实生活方面具有巨大潜力。在小说中,他寻求一个可以颠覆现状政治议程的渠道,并导致超越日常生活的幻想生活。

Wang Xiaobo also delineates in his essays what he intends to write in his fiction and how he should write it. He is strongly against politicizing fiction writing or emphasizing the didactic mode of fiction; instead, he selects the inner world as the proper subject for his fiction. In “The VR Skin Suit by Mr. Gates,” he states that it is “perception in the human inner mind” that should be written in fiction.
王小波还在文章中阐述了他打算在小说中写什么以及应该如何写。他强烈反对将小说写作政治化,强调小说的说教模式;相反,他选择内心世界作为他小说的适当主题。在《盖茨先生的VR皮肤套装》中,他指出应该用小说来写的是“人类内心的感知”。
23 He distinguishes fiction displaying “perception in the human inner mind” from what he calls “claustrophobic fiction.” The latter, according to Wang Xiaobo, focuses on personal experiences in ways reminiscent of cages and nightmares and factually records these feelings with a touch of despair. Wang Xiaobo also believes that in order to present
他将展示“人类内心感知”的小说与他所谓的“幽闭恐惧症小说”区分开来。根据王晓波的说法,后者以让人联想到笼子和噩梦的方式关注个人经历,并以淡淡的绝望真实地记录了这些感受。王晓波也认为,为了呈现
perception
知觉
in the human inner mind,” the best way is to harness thevigorous power of imagination” (
的想象力“(
澎湃的想像力 pengpai de xiangxiangli): only then can a writer plunge into the “limitless field” of literature in order to break the cages and dispel the nightmares.
:只有这样,一个作家才能投身文学的“无限场域”,以打破牢笼,驱散噩梦。
24

21 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol. 2, 11.
21 王晓波:《全集》.2, 11.

22 Wang Xiaobo, “The Art of Fiction,” The Complete Works, vol. 2, 61.
22 王晓波:《小说的艺术》,《小说全集》第261卷。

23 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Work, vol. 2, 75.
23 王晓波:《全集》第275卷。

24 Wang Xiaobo, “On Claustrophobic Fiction,” The Complete Works, vol. 2, 85-86.
24 王晓波:《论幽闭小说》,《幽闭小说全集》,第285-86卷。

Wang Xiaobo thus endows fiction with the transgressive power of fantasy, thereby revealing a paradoxical potentiality for fiction. On one hand, this stance echoes and confirms his prioritizing of the imagination and aesthetics in fiction over the slavish mimesis of immediate impressions of reality; but on the other hand, it ironically validates what he earlier tried to deny for fiction writing: a political and social agenda. This is because with the fulfilment of his first goal (valorizing the imagination), his fiction will break the boundaries of politics and lead readers to a new, hopeful, and possibly eternal reality in their inner minds. In other words, by annulling the political agenda prescribed by the Party dictates for literature, he revitalizes
因此,王晓波赋予了小说以幻想的越界力量,从而揭示了小说的一种矛盾的潜力。一方面,这种立场呼应并证实了他对小说中的想象力和美学的优先考虑,而不是对现实的直接印象的奴隶式模仿;但另一方面,具有讽刺意味的是,它验证了他早先试图否认小说写作的东西:政治和社会议程。这是因为,随着他的第一个目标(增强想象力)的实现,他的小说将打破政治的界限,引导读者在他们的内心深处进入一个新的、充满希望的、可能是永恒的现实。换言之,他废除了党为文学规定的政治议程,从而振兴了文学

literary fantasy’s political function as a means to resist a nightmarish reality and even to dissolve it through the literary imagination. Many of his contemporaries, as discussed in previous chapters, also work toward such ends; yet it is Wang Xiaobo who declares it most loudly and clearly, in his essays as well as in his fictional works. What he achieves with this stance in his fiction is a literary qi that is even more powerful than that in the Tang tales of marvels.
文学幻想的政治功能,作为一种抵抗噩梦般的现实的手段,甚至通过文学想象来消解它。正如前几章所讨论的,他的许多同时代人也朝着这样的目标努力;然而,王小波在他的散文和虚构作品中都最响亮、最清楚地宣告了这一点。他在小说中以这种姿态所达到的,是一种文学气,比唐朝的奇观故事中还要强大。

In his literary essays, Wang Xiaobo also considers carefully how he should achieve the quality of qi in his fiction as he “constructs a world out of pure imagination” to share with his intended readers “of equal intelligence.” He intends for his fiction to discover, describe, and enact something he perceives in life that is appealing to human minds, and for lack of a better
在文学散文中,汪小波还仔细思考了如何在小说中实现气的品质,他“用纯粹的想象构建了一个世界”,与“智力同等”的目标读者分享。他打算让他的小说发现、描述和实施他在生活中所感知到的东西,这些东西对人类的思想有吸引力,而且缺乏更好的

word, he calls it tentatively yunlu 韻律 orthe rhythm of the verse.”25 Yunlu is a literary feature of classical poetry, and Wang Xiaobo joins a great tradition of Chinese fiction in pursuing qi by linking his fiction to poetic force. He explores the poetic aspect of modern standard Chinese language in representing yunlu. Unlike Ah Cheng, who pays homage to pre-modern vernacular
字,他暂定地称其为“云律”或“诗句的韵律”。 25 韵律是古典诗歌的文学特征,王小波将小说与诗力相联,加入了中国小说追求气的伟大传统。他探索了现代标准汉语在代表云路方面的诗意方面。与阿成不同,阿诚对前现代的白话表示敬意

25 Wang Xiaobo, “The VR Skin Suits by Mr. Gates,” The Complete Works, vol. 2, 75.
25 王晓波:“盖茨先生的VR皮肤套装”,《盖茨全集》,第275卷。

Chinese, or Mo Yan, who seeks meaning beyond or even subversive of the Maoist version of the Chinese language, Wang Xiaobo uses a modern literary Chinese that is proper for writing poetry and good fiction. In Wang Xiaobo’s estimation, this language is cultivated in works by modern Chinese poets/translators such as Zha Liangzheng 查良錚 (aka Mu Dan 穆旦) and Wang Daoqian 汪道乾.26 Wang Xiaobo considers Zha and Wang his exemplars in mastering language, and in turn he boldly experiments with language in his own fiction.
中国人,或莫言,寻求超越甚至颠覆毛泽东版本的中文的意义,王小波使用现代文学汉语,适合写诗和好小说。在王晓波的估计中,这种语言是在查良正(又名穆丹穆旦)和王道谦汪道乾等现代中国诗人/翻译家的作品中培养出来的。 26 王晓波认为查、王是掌握语言的典范,反过来,他在自己的小说中大胆地尝试语言。

Wang Xiaobo’s literary experiments in fiction writing are more than experiments with modern literary Chinese, though. Indeed, he has more literary fantasies to share with his readers. Though as a writer he disclaims any relation with his texts once the texts are published, he leaves clues in his essays as to how to decode his literary puzzles. He declares that his fiction has its own targeted readership.27 Hence his texts are written and read as intertexts from the
不过,王晓波在小说写作中的文学实验不仅仅是对现代中国文学的实验。事实上,他有更多的文学幻想要与读者分享。尽管作为一名作家,一旦文本出版,他就否认与他的文本有任何关系,但他在他的文章中留下了关于如何解码他的文学难题的线索。他宣称他的小说有自己的目标读者群。 27 因此,他的文本是作为互文来编写和阅读的。

moment they are out of his hands and enter the reader’s world. As he tells Huang Jiwei, in his fiction he produces something that is as strange as history: his fiction uses history as a background, it is of a certain length, and it bears a clear individual mark. To achieve such literary goals, he adopts literary techniques so as to write about the solemn with lightness, as well as the light with solemnity 舉輕若重,舉重若輕.28 In other words, he writes in a diametric reversal of normal styles, and the results of these literary efforts become part of Wang Xiaobo’s singular form of qi.
当他们脱离他的手中,进入读者的世界的那一刻。正如他告诉黄继伟的那样,在他的小说中,他产生了一种与历史一样奇怪的东西:他的小说以历史为背景,具有一定的长度,并且带有明显的个人印记。为了达到这样的文学目的,他采用文学手法,以轻盈书写庄重,以庄重书写光明。 28 换言之,他的写作方式与正常风格截然相反,而这些文学努力的结果成为王晓波的奇异气形式的一部分。

26 See Wang Xiaobo, “My Masters” (我的師承, wo de shicheng), a preface he writes for The Bronze Age, collected in The Complete Works, vol. 3. 1-4. And also, in his essay “Life-long Learning of Arts” (用一生來學習藝術, yong yisheng lai xuexi yishu), in The Complete Works, vol. 2, 56-57, Wang Xiaobo emphasizes that “we have already acquired a literary language that is regular in its form and smooth in its tone, with which we could write the best poetry and the best fiction. 我們已經有了一種字正腔圓的文學語言,用它可以寫最好的詩和最好的小說”.
26 参见王晓波为《青铜时代》撰写的序言,收录于《青铜时代》第三卷。1-4. 此外,王晓波在《一生学习艺术》一文《用一生学习》第二卷第56-57页中强调,“我们已经掌握了一种形式规律、语气流畅的文学语言,可以用它来写出最好的诗歌和最好的小说。我們已經有了一種字正腔圓的文學語言,用它可以寫最好的詩和最好的小說”.

27 In Wang Xiaobo’s own words, “I have my own readers for my own fiction. 本人的作品有自己的讀者群” (The Complete Works, vol 2, 64).
27 用王小波自己的话说,“我自己的小说有自己的读者。本人的作品有自己的讀者群“(《全集》第2卷,第64页)。

28 See Huang Jiwei’s interview with Wang Xiaobo, collected in Wang Xiaobo yanjiu ziliao, vol. 1, 88-89.
28 参见黄继伟对王晓波的访谈录,收录于《王晓波燕酒字辽》第1卷,第88-89页。

Texts, Intratexts, and Intertexts: Wang Xiaobo’s Textual Transgression
文本、文本内与互文:王晓波的文本越界

In this section I read Wang Xiaobo’s Tales of the Tang People and The Bronze Age comparatively in order to trace the origin, development, and ripening of his mode of qi. The five tales collected in Tales of the Tang People are Wang Xiaobo’s first published fictional works, and the three novellas in The Bronze Age are among his last literary projects. Between these two works, his fiction matures from imitative pastiche to transformative experimentation. However, the two works also share something else. The texts in these two groups are not mere texts; they are both intratexts in Wang Xiaobo’s corpus and intertexts for linking Wang Xiaobo and the Tang literati who wrote Tang tales.
在本节中,我比较阅读了王晓波的《唐人故事》和《青铜时代》,以追溯他的气法的起源、发展和成熟。《唐人故事集》中的五个故事是王小波出版的第一部虚构作品,《青铜时代》中的三个中篇小说是他最后的文学作品之一。在这两部作品之间,他的小说从模仿的模仿成熟为变革性的实验。然而,这两部作品也有其他共同点。这两组的文本不仅仅是文本;它们既是汪小波语料库中的内文本,也是将王小波与写唐故事的唐朝文人联系起来的互文。

The five tales of Tales of the Tang People were completed by Wang Xiaobo during his short stay in the United States in the 1980s. Physically removed from his home country and mentally more engaged by the study of classical Chinese, he begins his bold experiments with modern literary Chinese in these texts. All five stories in Tales of the Tang People are modern adaptations from Tang tales of marvels. The first three are adapted from well-known Tang tales that have strong female characters. “No. 1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave” 立新街甲一號與昆侖奴 (Lixinjie jia-yi hao he kunlun nu) is textually adapted from “Kunlun Slave” written by Pei Xing; “Red Thread Steals the Casket” 紅綫盜盒 (Hongxian daohe) is adapted from “Red
《唐人故事五故事》是王小波在1980年代短暂停留美国期间完成的。在身体上远离家乡,在精神上更多地投入到古典汉语的研究中,他开始了在这些文本中对现代文学汉语的大胆实验。《唐人故事》中的五个故事都是对唐人奇迹故事的现代改编。前三部改编自著名的唐朝故事,具有强烈的女性角色。《立新街甲一号与昆侖奴》 (Lixinjie jia-yi hao he kunlun nu) 文本改编自裴兴所著的《昆仑奴》;《红线偷棺材》 紅綫盜盒(Hongxian daohe)改编自《红线偷棺材》

Thread” written by Yuan Jiao; and “Red Whisk Elopes at Night”
《线程》作者:袁娇;和“红拂子在晚上私奔”
紅拂夜奔
红拂夜奔
(Hongfu yeben) is adapted fromThe Tale of the Curly-Bearded
卷胡子
Guest” by Du Guangting.
广亭.
29 The other two stories in Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
are also textually
在文本上也是
adapted from Tang tales. “The Night Journey”
改编自唐故事。《夜行记》
行記
行记
(Yexing ji) is adapted from the Tang taleThe Monk Knight-Errant”
骑士-错误”
僧俠
僧侠
(seng xia); and “A Lover of Uncle”
和《叔叔的情人》
舅舅情人 (Jiujiu qingren) is adapted from the Tang
)改编自《唐朝》
tale “General Pan”
故事《潘将军》

29 The three Tang tales were previously discussed in chapter II in this dissertation.
29 这三个唐故事之前在本论文的第二章中已经讨论过。

將軍 (Pan Jiangjun). These last two Tang tales are less known to common readers than the first three.
將軍(Pan Jiangjun)。与前三个故事相比,普通读者对最后两个唐故事的了解较少。

In the 1990s, Wang Xiaobo continued his project of re-writing
重写
Tang tales. Out of the five stories in Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
, he selected the story of Red Whisk and elaborated, transformed, and extended it into a more complicated novella. He also adapted another famous Tang
,他选取了《红拂》的故事,对其进行了阐述、转化和扩展,是一部更复杂的中篇小说。他还改编了另一部著名的唐书
tale of marvels “A Biography of Peerless”
绝世”
無雙傳
无双传
(Wushuang zhuan
无双传
)30 by Xue Diao 薛調
薛调
(829-872) and transformed it into a complicated novella,
(829-872)并将其改编成一部复杂的中篇小说,
Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
尋找無雙
寻找无双
(xunzhao wushuang). He had planned to publish these two novellas together with a modern
).他原计划将这两部中篇小说与一部现代小说一起出版
story in his Trilogy of Doubts 懷疑三部曲
怀疑三部曲
(Huaiyi sanbuqu). When that plan failed, he
).当这个计划失败时,他
replaced the novella with a modern background in
用现代背景取代了中篇小说
Trilogy of Doubts
疑惑三部曲
with The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
萬壽
万寿
(Wanshou si), a novella version of “Red Thread Steals the Casket,” again using both the famous Tang tale and his own previous adaptation of the same Tang text in
),中篇小说版的《红线偷棺材》,再次使用了著名的唐童故事和他自己之前对同一唐童文本的改编。
Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
as its source texts. The collection of these three novellas was finally accepted by a publisher as
作为其源文本。这三部中篇小说的合集最终被出版商接受为:
The Bronze Age
青铜时代
not long before his death.
就在他去世前不久。

A series of questions arise if we take the two sets of texts by Wang Xiaobo and study them in relation to their Tang source texts. Why did Wang Xiaobo initially select these Tang tales to adapt early in the 1980s, especially the three tales he readapted later? What are the common elements in those tales that influenced Wang Xiaobo? Why, almost a decade later, did he turn back to his own adapted texts to re-write them? What are the differences between his
如果我们把王小波的两套文本,与它们的唐代源文本联系起来研究,就会产生一系列的问题。为什么汪小波在1980年代初初就选择这些唐故事来改编,尤其是他后来重新改编的三个故事呢?那些影响王晓波的故事中有哪些共同的元素?为什么在将近十年后,他又回到自己改编的文本中来重写它们?他的之间有什么区别

30 TPGJ 4001-05.

two sets of texts? If, as some critics argue, Wang Xiaobo’s imaginative fiction reaches its zenith in The Bronze Age, then what criteria support that judgment?31
两套文本?如果像一些评论家所说的那样,王小波的想象力小说在《青铜时代》中达到了顶峰,那么支持这一判断的标准是什么呢? 31

In addition to the textual and intertextual perspectives elicited by
除了引出的文本和互文视角外,还引发了
Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
and The Bronze Age,
青铜时代,
there is one more noteworthy aspect of Wang Xiaobo’s writing in these two books: in both he writes with an awareness of his communication with readers
在这两本书中,王晓波的写作还有一个值得注意的方面:在这两本书中,他的写作都带有与读者交流的意识
through the medium of the texts. Bonnie S. McDougall asserts that contemporary Chinese literature caters to a certain group of educated readers,
通过文本的媒介。邦妮·麦克杜格尔(Bonnie S. McDougall)断言,中国当代文学迎合了特定受过教育的读者群体,
32 and this is to some extent true of Wang Xiaobo’s fiction. As stated in his essays, Wang Xiaobo aimed to write for readers who ideally share
在某种程度上,王小波的小说也是如此。正如他在文章中所说,王晓波的目标是为理想中分享的读者写作
with him cultural and intellectual codes. My analysis below of Wang Xiaobo’s intertextual and intratextual dynamics in
互文和文内动态
Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
and The Bronze Age
青铜时代
will reveal how he achieves
将揭示他是如何取得成就的
qi by creating fantasy out of history, opening up his texts to his readers, and crossing the textual barriers that separate writer from reader. Although my selection of texts is limited, they serve to reveal the great literary and aesthetic depths within them.
通过从历史中创造幻想,向读者开放他的文本,并跨越将作家与读者分开的文本障碍。虽然我选择的文本有限,但它们有助于揭示其中的伟大文学和审美深度。
33

Tales of the Tang People 唐人故事 (Tangren gushi)

Among the five stories in Tales of the Tang People, the first three-- “No. 1-A Lixin
在《唐人故事》的五个故事中,前三个——“第一——阿立新

Street and Kunlun Slave,” “Red Thread Steals the Casket,andRed Whisk Elopes at Night”-- share several aesthetic and literary features, which later influence Wang Xiaobo’s The Bronze Age. The same narrator/character, Wang Er 王二 (Wang Number Two), appears in all three
《街头奴》和《昆仑奴》、《红线偷棺材》和《红拂子夜行》等几个共同的美学和文学特征,后来影响了王晓波的《青铜时代》。同一个叙述者/角色,王二王二(王二号),出现在所有三个中

31 As noted by Prof. Allan Barr in regards to my paper on Wang Xiaobo’s early stories, the longer and later work of fiction by Wang Xiaobo is “more mature, accomplished and successful” (quoted here with permission from Prof.
31 正如艾伦·巴尔(Allan Barr)教授在我关于汪晓波早期故事的论文中所指出的,汪晓波的小说作品更长、更晚“更成熟、更成功、更成功”(此处引用经教授许可)。

Barr in his email to me on June 22, 2010).
巴尔在2010年6月22日给我的电子邮件中)。

32 See Bonnie S. McDougall, Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century (Hong Kong: The Chinese UP, 2003) 45-75.
32 参见Bonnie S. McDougall, Fictional Authors, Imaginary Audiences: Modern Chinese Literature in the Twentieth Century (Hong Kong: The Chinese UP, 2003) 45-75。

33 As I said before, the political and historical implications of Wang Xiaobo’s texts have been thoroughly discussed by many critics. To avoid repetition, I will not quote their points again. Instead, my discussion will engage more with literary and aesthetic topics.
33 如前所述,汪晓波著作的政治和历史意义已经被许多批评家进行了深入的讨论。为避免重复,我就不再引用他们的观点。取而代之的是,我的讨论将更多地涉及文学和美学话题。

stories. Wang Er the name also indicates a possibility that implicitly
故事。王耳这个名字也暗示了一种可能性,隐含着
he could be an alter ego of Wang Xiaobo the writer since Wang Xiaobo and Wang Er share the same family name and Wang
他可能是作家王晓波的另一个自我,因为王晓波和王耳同姓,而王二同姓,王二
Xiaobo in fact is the second son in his own family. However, the Tang
小波其实是自己家里的次子。然而,唐朝
source texts haunt Wang Xiaobo’s texts in diverse ways. In terms of language, Wang Xiaobo’s self-consciousness as a reader/writer informs his various efforts to imitate, incorporate, and even parody the classical literary Chinese that is used in Tang tales and other traditional texts. Moreover, as I mentioned in Chapter II, the three Tang tales are thematically connected and known to readers
源文本以各种方式困扰着王晓波的文本。在语言方面,王小波作为读者/作家的自我意识为他模仿、吸收甚至模仿唐童故事和其他传统文本中使用的古典文学汉语的各种努力提供了信息。此外,正如我在第二章中提到的,这三个唐故事在主题上是相互联系的,并为读者所熟知
as a group from the Tang dynasty on.
从唐朝开始作为一个群体。
By comparison, the other two stories by Wang Xiaobo, “The Night Journey” and “A Lover of Uncle,” interesting as they
相比之下,王小波的另外两个故事《夜行记》和《舅舅的情人》虽然有趣
are, most resemble their Tang source texts in producing a mood of otherworldliness. The source texts for these latter two tales are not so familiar to modern readers. In terms of narrative style, voice, and linguistic experimentation, however, these two stories differ from the first three stories by being more conventional than original. In the last two stories, Wang Xiaobo’s self-reflectivity in the first- person narrative voice of Wang Er disappears; instead, a third-person omniscient voice takes over each narrative. The sense of fantasy therein is mainly produced by the strangeness of the plots
它们最像他们的唐代源文本,产生了一种超凡脱俗的情绪。后两个故事的源文本对现代读者来说并不那么熟悉。然而,在叙事风格、声音和语言实验方面,这两个故事与前三个故事的不同之处在于它比原著更传统。在最后两个故事中,王小波在王二第一人称叙述声音中的自我反思性消失了;取而代之的是,一个第三人称全知的声音接管了每个叙述。其中的奇幻感主要是由情节的奇特性产生的
which, echoing Tang source texts, still very much rely upon representing supernatural
超自然
facts as if they were real.
事实就好像它们是真实的一样。
34 All in all, these texts are less relevant in illustrating Wang Xiaobo’s modern literary quality of
总而言之,这些文本在说明王小波的现代文学品质方面不太相关。
qi as they do not rely on transgressing boundaries of language or narrative conventions. Hence my discussion here will be mainly devoted to the first three
因为它们不依赖于超越语言或叙事惯例的界限。因此,我在这里的讨论将主要集中在前三个方面
stories.

34 Indeed, the Tang source texts for these two stories are not among the the best of the existent Tang tales of marvels, mainly because they are more historical than fictional in terms of their authors’ intentions, more flat than lyrical in their descriptions of details, and, in terms of reader’s response, they leave great doubts about the fantasy they create.
34 事实上,这两个故事的唐代原文并不属于现存的唐代奇观故事中最好的,主要是因为它们在作者的意图上更像是历史性的而不是虚构的,在对细节的描述上是平淡的而不是抒情的,而且,就读者的反应而言,它们对他们创造的幻想留下了很大的怀疑。

“No. 1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave”
《1号-丽新街与昆仑奴》

The Tang tale “Kunlun Slave” relates a romance that breaks social boundaries between an incompetent scholar and a gifted maid through the help of a slave who comes from a society alien to Tang society. By comparison, Wang Xiaobo’s adapted tale “No. 1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave” is a pastiche of such a romance. In Wang Xiaobo’s text, the contemporary version of a romance is both created and crushed by the everyday world. Wang Xiaobo deploys what he reads in the Tang text as a shadow tale that has been read and re-used by the protagonist Wang Er in order to represent Wang Er’s perceptions of his own situation. The Tang text and
唐童话《昆仑奴》讲述了一个无能的书生和一个有天赋的女仆之间打破社会界限的浪漫故事,通过一个来自与唐社会格格不入的社会的奴隶的帮助,打破了社会界限。相比之下,王小波改编的故事《一号——立新街与昆仑奴》就是这样一部浪漫小说的翻版。在王晓波的文字中,浪漫的现代版本既是由日常世界创造的,也是被日常世界压垮的。王晓波将他在唐文中读到的内容作为一个影子故事,被主人公王耳阅读和重复使用,以表现王耳对自己处境的感知。《唐文》和

its characters cross several boundaries to arrive in Wang Xiaobo’s text: the limits of time that separate the Tang dynasty and Wang Er’s “present”; the limits of vision that separate the worlds of Wang Er’s eyes and of his mind; and the limits of communication that separate what characters say and what they feel. The literary quality of qi emerges through Wang Er’s narration, which successfully overcomes these differences.
笔下的人物跨越了几个界限,来到了王小波的文本中:分隔唐朝和王二“现在”的时间界限;视觉的局限性,将王耳的眼睛世界和心灵的世界分隔开来;以及将角色所说的话和他们的感受分开的沟通限制。气的文学品质通过王耳的叙述显现出来,成功地克服了这些差异。

“No. 1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave” displays in its very title that it contains a double plot: it is a story about what happens in contemporary times, as well as a story about a Tang slave. The two plots are intertwined by Wang Er’s first-person narration. The
《第一号——立新街与昆仑奴》在书名上就表明,它包含着双重情节:一个是关于当代发生的事情的故事,也是一个关于唐奴的故事。两个情节通过王耳的第一人称叙述交织在一起。这

contemporary protagonists are Wang Er and Xiao Hu.35 Both were orphaned in their early years. Living under the same roof in one shabby
年。住在同一个屋檐下,在一个破旧的屋檐下
apartment due to some bureaucratic callousness, both have the same dream: to fall in love with their ideal man/woman and move out of the squalid apartment. Wang Er imagines his life as it would be in the Tang dynasty, weaving his story
公寓 由于一些官僚主义的冷酷无情,两人都有相同的梦想:爱上他们理想的男人/女人,并搬出肮脏的公寓。王耳想象着自己在唐朝的生活,编织着他的故事
of a

35 Wang Er 王二, literally mean Wang Number Two. Character/Narrator Wang Er appears repeatedly in Wang Xiaobo’s fiction. He Huaihong 何懷宏 has written an article discussing the character of Wang Er in which he lists all his identities and functions in Wang Xiaobo’s fiction. See He Huaihong, “A Person Out of Place: The
35 王二,字面意思是王二号。人物/叙述者王二在王小波的小说中反复出现。何怀宏曾写过一篇文章,讨论王二的性格,其中他列举了王洱波小说中的所有身份和功能。参见何怀红:《格格不入的人》

Protagonist in Wang Xiaobo’s Fiction” (不合時宜的人: 王小波小說中的主人公), written in 1998 and collected in Wang Xiaobo yanjiuziliao, vol. 2, 476-501. Xiao Hu 小胡, is a special Chinese way to address the girl whose last name is . And , a homonym character that is used as a family name, and also means nonsense as in 胡說, probably implies an ironic pun: literally it is Hu the Younger One; potentially it may suggest “Petty Nonsense.”
《王小波小說中的主人公》,写于1998年,收录于《王小波小说》第2卷,第476-501页。小胡小胡,是一种特殊的中文称呼胡姓女孩的方式。而胡,一个用作姓氏的谐音字符,也像胡说一样意味着胡说八道,可能暗示着一个讽刺的双关语:字面意思是小胡;它可能暗示“琐碎的胡说八道”。

Wang Er of the Tang dynasty and a Kunlun slave; and Xiao Hu plays the role of a commentator on his vision until she dispels his fantasy by marrying herself to him in real life. The contemporary strand of the plot ends in a poignant but seemingly optimistic compromise with reality: on the one hand, Wang Er is aware that his marriage with Xiao Hu would end his fantasy; on the other hand, he feels that he does enjoy his relationship with Xiao Hu. While it is not love that leads to their marriage, the marriage nevertheless delivers Xiao Hu and Wang Er from their everyday world, epitomized by their shabby apartment in real life.
唐朝王耳,昆仑奴;而小胡则在他的视野中扮演着评论员的角色,直到她在现实生活中嫁给他,打消了他的幻想。情节的当代主线以与现实的凄美但看似乐观的妥协而告终:一方面,王二意识到他与小胡的婚姻将结束他的幻想;另一方面,他觉得自己确实很享受和小胡的关系。虽然不是爱情导致了他们的婚姻,但这段婚姻仍然将小胡和王二从他们的日常生活中解脱出来,这在现实生活中他们破旧的公寓中得到了体现。

At least three levels of narrative can be discerned in “No. 1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave” for a reader who shares Wang Xiaobo’s knowledge of the Tang tale of marvels “Kunlun Slave”: the highest level is Wang Xiaobo’s frame narrative in which Wang Er appears as a character; the next level is the version of the “Kunlun Slave” story told by Wang Er himself in which he appears as a character; and the final level is the original Tang dynasty source text of “Kunlun Slave”, which informs the other two levels of narrative. The following is a simple chart of comparisons and contrasts between the Tang text and the two levels of Wang Xiaobo’s text:
在《第一号——立新街与昆仑奴》中,对于与王晓波一样了解唐代奇妙故事《昆仑奴》的读者来说,至少可以看出三个层次的叙事:最高层次是王小波的框架叙事,王耳在其中以人物身份出现;下一个层次是王耳本人讲述的“昆仑奴”故事的版本,他在其中以角色的身份出现;最后一层是《昆仑奴》的唐代原著,为其他两个层次的叙事提供了信息。以下是唐文与王晓波文两级对比的简单比较和对比图:

“Kunlun Slave” ( source text by Pei Xing)
《昆仑奴》(裴兴原文)

“Kunlun Slave” (core story imagined by narrator/character Wang Er) in “No. 1-A Lixin
《No. 1-A Lixin》中的“昆仑奴”(叙述者/人物王二想象的核心故事)

Street and Kunlun Slave”
《街头与昆仑奴》

Frame Narrative of “No.1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave”
“No.1-A立新街与昆仑奴隶”的框架叙事

Characters

Kunlun Slave

Kunlun Slave

Wang Er
王耳

Young Master Cui

Wang Er
王耳

Xiao Hu

Hong Xiao (Ms. Red Scarf)
洪潇 (红围巾女士)

Dancing Maids

Ideal love/lover

General

Chinese Dancing Maid

Possible Dating Partners
可能的约会伙伴

General’s Dog

General

Unit Chief/Leaders
股长/领导

General’s Servants
将军的仆人

Dog (cooked by Wang Er)
狗狗(王二煮)

Plot / Events

Cui visits general’s household
崔探访将军家

Hong Xiao gestures to Cui

Kunlun Slave offers to help solve the puzzle
昆仑奴隶提出帮助解谜

Kunlun Slave visits the General’s Household secretly
昆仑奴秘密造访将军府

Kunlun Slave slays the dog
昆仑奴杀狗

Kunlun Slave brings Cui to Hong Xiao

Hong Xiao affirms her love for Cui and initiates elopement
洪萧肯定了自己对崔的爱,并发起了私奔

Kunlun Slave delivers the young couple out of General’s Household
昆仑奴将这对年轻夫妇从将军家中解救出来

Discovery by the General’s servants, Futile
被将军的仆人发现,徒劳无功

Efforts to Catch Kunlun Slave
抓捕昆仑奴的努力

Endings of all characters
所有角色的结局

Wang Er Serves Kunlun Slave with free dog soup

Kunlun Slave recalls his freedom in childhood
昆仑奴隶回忆起童年时期的自由

Kunlun slave magically brings dancing maids to Wang Er
昆仑奴神奇地将跳舞的侍女带到王耳面前

One dancing maid admires freedom in Wang Er’s home

Wang Er falls in love with a typical dream girl
王二爱上了一个典型的梦中少女

With help of Kunlun slave, Wang Er marries the girl.
在昆仑奴的帮助下,王二娶了姑娘。

Wang Er and Xiao Hu orphaned by an accident
王二和小胡因意外成为孤儿

Wang Er fails in his dream career due to his color blindness while Xiao Hu becomes an visual artist
王二因色盲而未能实现梦想中的事业,而小胡则成为了一名视觉艺术家

Xiao Hu and Wang Er date different people, introduce friends to each other, and provide opinions on dating
小胡和王二与不同的人约会,互相介绍朋友,并提供约会意见

Wang Er and Xiao Hu have to marry if they want to leave the shabby apartment
王二和小胡要离开破旧的公寓,就得结婚了

Xiao Hu proposes a marriage of convenience to Wang Er, and Wang Er accepts
小胡向王二提出权宜之计,王二接受了

Xiao Hu and Wang Er marry each other and find a way out of the shabby
小胡和王二结婚,找到走出寒酸出路

apartment

Style of Language
语言风格

Classical Literary Chinese mixed with Classical Chinese poetry
古典文学汉语与中国古典诗歌的混合

Classical Vernacular Chinese in imitation of Ming vernacular xiaoshuo
模仿明代白话小书的古典白话文

Modern Standard Chinese with
现代标准汉语

mock epic style

Modern vernacular Chinese Colloquial Chinese with Maoist style idioms
现代白话汉语 口语汉语与毛泽东风格的成语

Fig. 3. Comparison of “Kunlun Slave” and “No.1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave”
图 3.“昆仑奴”与“1号——立新街与昆仑奴”的比较

As shown in Fig. 3, Wang Xiaobo inserts the Tang tale of “Kunlun Slave” into his short story through Wang Er, who interprets it, transforms it, and finally creates his story out of its shadow. As a result, in the eye of a knowing reader, the different layers of the source text, Wang Xiaobo’s text, and the “fictional text” by Wang Er in his fantasy, while distinctive from one another in the narrative, also unfold simultaneously in the reader’s reading. The possible meanings that a reader might pick up and interpret from the three levels of texts roam freely across the limits that Wang Xiaobo thus transgresses via his intertextual experiments. The reader’s comprehension of the Tang tales is transformed by reading Wang Xiaobo’s narrative,
如图3所示,王晓波通过王耳将“昆仑奴”的唐童故事插入到自己的短篇小说中,王耳对其进行解读,对其进行转化,最后从短篇小说的阴影中创造出自己的故事。因此,在一个有知识的读者眼中,原文、王小波的文本和王耳在幻想中的“虚构文本”的不同层次,虽然在叙述上彼此不同,但在读者的阅读中也同时展开。读者从文本的三个层次中可能获得和解释的意义,自由地跨越了王小波通过他的互文实验所超越的界限。读者对唐故事的理解,通过阅读汪小波的叙述而改变,

just as Wang Er’s imagining of his own tale with Kunlun slave is transformed by Xiao Hu’s intrusion into his life. At the core of the sense of literary qi achieved in this text is Wang Xiaobo’s bold experimentation taking place between the original Tang text he reads and the new text he presents to his readers.
正如王二对自己与昆仑奴的故事的想象,也被小胡闯入他的生活所改变。这部作品所达到的文学气感的核心,是王小波在他阅读的唐代原文和他呈现给读者的新文本之间进行的大胆实验。

In the Tang text of “Kunlun Slave,” even though the Kunlun slave through his bold actions outshines the scholar Cui in the romance narrative, the scholar remains essential to the narrative as the lover. Wang Er, as the narrator in Wang Xiaobo’s text of a modified version of the “Kunlun Slave”, replaces the young scholar with a fantasy version of himself as a common youth, poor and warm-hearted, living a hard life during winter in the Tang dyansty. The Kunlun slave in Wang Er’s text still plays an instrumental role in Wang Er’s imagined romance. Red Silk, the gifted maid in the Tang text, however, is completely removed from Wang Er’s imagined Tang adventures. In her place, a series of dancing girls parade by in his fantasy, and
在《昆仑奴》的唐文中,尽管昆仑奴通过大胆的行动在浪漫叙事中胜过了崔士生,但书生作为情人,在叙事中仍然是不可或缺的。王二作为王晓波修改版《昆仑奴》文本中的叙述者,以幻想版的自己取代了青年书生,成为一个普通青年,贫穷而热心,在唐大江冬天过着艰苦的生活。王二文本中的昆仑奴,至今仍是王二想象中的浪漫故事中的重要角色。然而,《唐书》中的天才侍女红丝却完全脱离了王二想象中的唐朝历险记。在她的位置上,一系列舞女在他的幻想中游行而过,并且

keeping true to the conventions of the Tang text that he has adapted, he deploys a stereotype of a talented but fragile lady as his ideal love:
他忠实于他所改编的唐文本的惯例,将才华横溢但脆弱的女士作为他理想的爱情的刻板印象:

154

It is a Chinese girl. She sits upright on the
HT on
mat, and keeps her eyelids half closed from the beginning to the end. She wears dresses in soft white silk, and her face is as pale as from anaemia. Extremely fine are her features: her mouth is extremely tiny, her nose extremely straight, and her eyebrows extremely light. Also extremely fine are her form and shape: shoulders are extremely sloping, waist extremely slim, fingers extremely slender, and feet extremely small. Sitting there for a long while, she only makes a request as soft as the mosquito
蚊子
s flittering and asks for a sip of tea.這是位中國少女,在席上坐得筆直,從始至終,眼簾低垂。她穿著白軟緞的衣裙,臉色蒼白有如貧血,面目極其娟秀,嘴極其小,鼻極其直,眉極其
这是位中国少女,在席上坐得笔直,从始至终,眼帘低垂。 她穿着白软绮的衣裙,脸色苍白有如贫血,面目极其娟秀,嘴极其小,鼻极其直,眉极其

細,身材也極其苗條,肩極其削,腰極其細,手指極其細長,脚極其小。坐了許久,才發出如蚊鳴的細聲,請求一口茶。36
细,身材也极其苗条,肩极其削,腰极其细,手指极其细长,脚极其小。 坐了许久,才发出如蚊鸣的细声,请求一口茶。 36

To a naive reader, this is nothing but a portrait of a dainty and elegant lady. To a reader who shares Wang Xiaobo’s familiarity with traditional Chinese literature, however, this portrait of a young Chinese lady produces different meanings. The intertextual references to the pre-modern cliché of “scholar and beauty” (caizi jiaren) romances saturate the portrait, and yet Wang Er’s fantasy implies a discrepancy between the social role of a “dancing girl” in the Tang dynasty and the portrait of a woman he fancies. The fact that this favourite dancing girl in Wang Er’s imagination is more like an aristocratic lady of letters--the paragon of which is Lin Daiyu 林黛(who is the female protagonist in the Qing vernacular novel, A Dream of Red Mansions 紅樓[Honglou meng]), provides a possibility for an ironic reading of this short paragraph.
对于一个天真的读者来说,这只不过是一位精致优雅的女士的肖像。然而,对于一个与王小波一样熟悉中国传统文学的读者来说,这幅中国年轻女士的肖像画产生了不同的含义。对前现代陈词滥调的“书生与美人”(彩子佳人)浪漫的互文引用充斥着这幅肖像画,但王二的幻想暗示了唐代“舞女”的社会角色与他所想象的女性肖像之间的差异。在王耳的想象中,这个最喜欢的舞女更像是一位贵族文坛的女士——其中的典范是林黛玉(她是清代白话小说《红楼梦》中的女主角),为这短短的一段话提供了一种讽刺解读的可能性。

36 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol.8, 137.
36 王晓波:《全集》第8卷,第137页。

Alongside Wang Er’s fantasy world of the Tang dynasty, his contemporary world as portrayed by Wang Xiaobo is dominated by Xiao Hu, a lively young lady he has known ever since childhood. Ironically, in contrast to Wang Er’s fantasy of a Tang lady, Xiao Hu actually resembles Red Silk in the Tang source text, and outshines Wang Er in their own modern romance. She takes on his ideal occupation, rises to a rank higher than his, and continually breaks into his reclusive daily life. In short, Xiao Hu is more an imposing intruder than a meek soul mate. Even Xiao Hu’s own fantasy
除了王二的唐朝幻想世界外,王小波所描绘的当代世界也以他从小就认识的活泼小胡为主。具有讽刺意味的是,与王耳对唐女的幻想形成鲜明对比的是,小胡实际上与唐本正文中的红丝相似,在他们自己的现代恋情中更胜一筹。她承担了他理想的职业,升到比他更高的级别,并不断闯入他隐居的日常生活。简而言之,小胡与其说是一个温顺的灵魂伴侣,不如说是一个气势磅礴的闯入者。就连小胡自己的幻想
resembles that of
类似于
Red Silk in Pei Xing’s Tang text: Red Silk waits for a young member of the literati to deliver her from the General’s household; similarly, Xiao Hu yearns for a decent young man to ask for her hand so that she can leave the shabby apartment. Xiao Hu finds a substitute for her “decent young man” in the narrator Wang Er and by a twist of fate she achieves her departure from the squalid place. Such an ending appears as a fantasy from twelve hundred years ago finally reaching its conclusion in the
裴行唐文中的红丝:红丝等待一位年轻的文人将她从将军家中解救出来;同样,小胡也渴望有一个体面的年轻人向她求婚,这样她就可以离开破旧的公寓。小胡在叙述者王耳身上找到了她“正派青年”的替代品,通过命运的转折,她离开了那个肮脏的地方。这样的结局似乎是一千二百年前的幻想,最终在《一千二百年前》中得出结论。
modern world, but the status of Wang Er as an unreliable narrator casts such a conclusion into doubt.
现代世界,但王二作为一个不可靠的叙述者的地位,使这样的结论受到质疑。
The intertextual relations between the female characters depicted in Wang Xiaobo’s story delineate a complicated web of transgressions of time and space, bringing entirely new perspectives on the squalid reality inhabited by Wang Er and Xiao Hu.
故事勾勒出一个错综复杂的时空越界之网,为王二和小胡所处的肮脏现实带来了全新的视角。

The Tang tale of “Kunlun Slave” is well known in China, so the irony and transgressive power of qi in Wang Xiaobo’s text can hardly escape notice by Chinese readers. The romantic female figure in the Tang text is faithfully translated into Xiao Hu but the male one encounters a distorted contemporary adaptation in the figure of Wang Er, who is also the narrator of his own story. The text’s irony is also poignant in that it reveals a sad aspect of contemporary times: even with such an emotional legacy inherited in Xiao Hu’s modern version of romance, Xiao Hu finds herself deprived of resources and unable to complete her romance in its fullest sense. For
“昆仑奴”的唐童故事在中国是众所周知的,因此王小波文本中气的讽刺和越界力量很难逃脱中国读者的注意。唐文中浪漫的女性形象被忠实地转化为小胡,但男性形象在王二的形象中遇到了扭曲的当代改编,王二也是他自己故事的叙述者。文本的讽刺也在于它揭示了当代的悲哀一面:即使在小胡的现代版浪漫小说中继承了这样的情感遗产,小胡也发现自己被剥夺了资源,无法完成最充分意义上的浪漫。为

example, Red Silk in the Tang source text designs a sign language of her own to express her desire, and later she resorts to lyrical poetry to express her passion. By contrast, the Xiao Hu in the contemporary time of Wang Er’s narrative can only tease Wang Er via vulgar conversation and make her proposal as dry as a business contract.37 Even at her most lyrical moment, Xiao Hu has to copy the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, a play alien to her native culture both geographically and historically. Maybe Xiao Hu means to create a pastiche of the balcony scene, but to the reader it appears as parody. A strong sense of absurdity and humour overwhelms the romantic sentiments between the young couple due to the triple distantiation of the scene’s quotations: the poetic lines are voiced in imitation of the Chinese translation by Zhu Shenghao朱生豪 (1912-1944) , who translated the modern English version of Shakespeare’s famous lines into Chinese in the 1930s:
例如,《唐文》中的红丝设计了自己的手语来表达自己的愿望,后来她又诉诸抒情诗来表达自己的激情。相比之下,王耳叙事中的当代小胡,只能通过庸俗的谈话来调侃王耳,让她的提议像商业合同一样枯燥无味。 37 即使在她最抒情的时刻,小胡也不得不复制《罗密欧与朱丽叶》中的阳台场景,这是一部在地理和历史上都与她的本土文化格格不入的戏剧。也许小胡的意思是要创造一个阳台场景的模仿,但对读者来说,这似乎是模仿。强烈的荒谬感和幽默感压倒了这对年轻夫妇之间的浪漫情怀,这是由于场景引语的三重差异:诗意的台词是模仿朱生豪(1912-1944)的中文翻译而表达的,朱生豪在1930年代将莎士比亚著名台词的现代英文版本翻译成中文:

At midnight she would stand at my door and give a long sigh: “Alas, Wang Er, Wang Er, why are you Wang Er?”
半夜时分,她会站在我家门口,长长地叹一口气:“唉,王二,王二,你为什么在王二?

Then I would answer: “So Wang Er would, were he not Wang Er call’d, go without that title.” So we play Romeo and Juliet and talk as lovers on the balcony.
然后我会回答:“所以王耳,如果他没有被王耳召唤,他会没有那个头衔。所以我们扮演罗密欧与朱丽叶,在阳台上像恋人一样交谈。

半夜三更她會站在門口長嘆一聲:
半夜三更她会站在门口长叹一声:

“啊,王二,王二,爲什麽你是王二?”

我就說:“聽了你的話,我從此不叫王二。”混充羅密歐與朱麗葉,在陽臺說情話哩。38
我就说:“听了你的话,我从此不叫王二。 “混充罗密欧与朱丽叶,在阳台说情话哩。 38

37 Indeed, Xiao Hu’s conversation with Wang Er is delivered in Chinese business language, and their agreement to marry each other is reached and written down in point form, as if it were a business contract. See The Complete Work, vol. 8, 134.
37 的确,小胡与王二的对话是用中国商务语言进行的,他们结婚的协议是达成的,并以点的形式写下来,仿佛是一份商业合同。见《全集》第8卷,第134页。

38 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol. 8, 135. Zhu Shenghao’s translation of Shakespeare might be the most popular since 1930s. His Chinese, however, is so steeped in the literariness of classical Chinese and seasoned with a touch of modern vernacular Chinese, that it is more accurate in presenting the elegant and sublime aspect of
38 王晓波:《全集》第8卷,第135页。朱胜浩的莎士比亚译本可能是自1930年代以来最受欢迎的。然而,他的《中文》却深深浸透了古典汉语的文学性,并带有一丝现代白话的色彩,更准确地呈现了《中国古典汉语》的优雅和崇高的一面。

Sharp incongruities exist in the text between the youthful aristocratic Italian couple consumed by
文本中存在着一对年轻的意大利贵族夫妇之间的尖锐不协调之处。
passion and the common Chinese couple feigning a love affair in order to gain ownership of a shabby apartment, between the romantic association with the original names of “Romeo and Juliet” and the familiarity and informality implicit in Wang Er and Xiao Hu, and between the original
激情和普通的中国夫妇为了获得破旧公寓的所有权而假装恋情,在与“罗密欧与朱丽叶”原名的浪漫联想与王二和小胡之间隐含的熟悉和非正式之间,以及与原著之间
source and the adapted parody. The incongruities
不协调
inspire the knowing reader to read the text in a sophisticated and complex manner. However, considering that Wang Er is the narrator and the text is Wang Er’s perceptions of the “facts,” the reader may also take a step back and ask: is this fact or fantasy? Is this a deconstruction of
文本以一种复杂而复杂的方式。但是,考虑到王耳是叙述者,文本是王耳对“事实”的感知,读者也可能会退后一步,问:这是事实还是幻想?这是对
the classical romance, or
古典浪漫,或
a construction of a modern romance out of everyday life? Is this, after all, a way to signal the death of the symbolic
在日常生活中构建出现代浪漫?毕竟,这是一种标志着象征性死亡的方式吗
power of beautiful words, or a unique modern confirmation
确认
that this power is not dead but is merely transformed in order to preserve its essence in a new context? Thus inspiring his reader
死了,但仅仅为了在新的背景下保留其本质而被改造?从而启发了他的读者
with the tantalizing possibility of finding a revitalized
振兴
romantic qi through
通过
fantasy, Wang Xiaobo attains a uniquely ironic touch in his understanding
他的理解中带有讽刺意味
of romance--an irony
浪漫--讽刺
that teeters on the edge of actually achieving what it ironizes, although in a compromised form.
这在实际实现它所讽刺的东西的边缘摇摇欲坠,尽管是以一种妥协的形式。

Wang Xiaobo’s experiments with the language of modern Chinese fiction are evident in this story. In this early stage of his fiction writing, his experiments involve more imitation than transformation. He uses a melange of linguistic styles in this short story, just as his Tang predecessors did with in their Tang tales of marvels. Wang Xiaobo’s text comprises classical literary prose, classical poetry, pre-modern vernacular Chinese novelistic prose, modern vernacular Chinese novelistic prose, modern colloquial Chinese from everyday conversation, and even the Maoist style of Chinese language common in the Communist government’s reports and propaganda. Wang Xiaobo arranges the contrasts and differences among these styles in such
王晓波对中国现代小说语言的实验在这个故事中体现得淋漓尽致。在他小说创作的早期阶段,他的实验更多地涉及模仿而不是转化。他在这部短篇小说中使用了多种语言风格,就像他的唐前辈在他们的唐朝奇迹故事中所做的那样。王晓波的文本包括古典文学散文、古典诗歌、前现代白话中国小说散文、现代白话中国小说散文、日常对话中的现代口语汉语,甚至包括共产党政府报道和宣传中常见的毛泽东风格的汉语。王晓波将这些风格之间的对比和差异安排在这样的中

Shakespeare’s lines. Hence I did not use Shakespeare’s original words here, but instead presented the modern version in Wang Xiaobo’s text.
莎士比亚的台词。因此,这里没有使用莎士比亚的原话,而是在王小波的文本中呈现了现代版本。

a natural way that the reader enjoys the journey of linguistic discovery. He alternates the classical style with the modern vernacular in order to achieve an aesthetic effect of distance that is constructed by the contrast of the past with the present, the imagined with the factual, and the vulgar with the elegant.39
一种自然的方式,让读者享受语言发现的旅程。他将古典风格与现代白话交替,以达到一种由过去与现在、想象与事实、庸俗与优雅的对比所构建的距离的审美效果。 39

A sense of almost absurd fantasy is produced by these linguistic and stylistic contrasts running through the whole story. This sense is heightened by Wang Er’s repeated assertion,
这些贯穿整个故事的语言和文体对比产生了一种近乎荒谬的幻想感。这种感觉因王耳的反复断言而更加强烈,

“there is no difference between ancient times and the present,” which is repeated thirteen times in the story.40 The critic Lin Qingxin interprets these assertions of similarity between different times as evincing “an intention to bridge the gap between the past and the present” that consequently conflates “a historical narrative, which is associated with facts, and a fictive
“古今无别”,这句话在故事中重复了十三次。 40 批评家林庆新将这些关于不同时代之间相似性的断言解读为表达了“弥合过去与现在之间鸿沟的意图”,从而将“与事实相联系的历史叙述和虚构混为一谈

narrative, which is associated with fabrication.”41 However, Lin’s reading posits the Tang text as a historical text, which is obviously not the case. Also, even if the Tang people took the Tang text as a quasi-historical narrative, Wang Xiaobo the modern reader/writer certainly would not have. Instead, the Kunlun slave story as imagined and narrated by Wang Er in Wang Xiaobo’s text is so different from the Tang version that it would be naive for a reader to take Wang Er’s assertions of similarity at face value. Wang Xiaobo makes his readers aware of the differences precisely by his narrator’s repeated assertions of there being “no difference,” and the disjuncture between the two levels of reading in the same text adds a sense of qi to his fiction generated as much by the telling of the story as the story itself.
叙述,这与捏造有关。 41 然而,林的解读将唐文本假定为历史文本,这显然不是事实。此外,即使唐人将唐文本视为准历史叙事,现代读者/作家王晓波肯定不会有。相反,王耳在王小波的文字中想象和叙述的昆仑奴故事与唐版大相径庭,读者如果从表面上理解王耳的相似性断言,那就太天真了。王小波正是通过叙述者反复强调“没有区别”的断言,使读者意识到了差异,而在同一文本中,两个层次的阅读之间的脱节,为他的小说增添了一种气感,这种气感既是由故事的讲述而产生的,也是由故事本身产生的。

When Wang Er tries to imagine how his Tang counterpart can feel the same as he does, the
当王二试图想象他的唐人如何能有和他一样的感觉时,
reader is aware of the fact that such a Tang dynasty only exists in Wang Er’s
Er's的
imagination. In other words, the reader’s reception of Wang Er’s narrative helps Wang Er create his fantasy in
想象力。换言之,读者对王耳叙述的接受,有助于王耳在《王耳》中创造自己的幻想。

39 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol. 8, 124.
39 王晓波:《全集》.8124.

40 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol. 8, 123-139.
40 王晓波:《全集》.8, 123-139.

41 Lin Qingxin 195.

words. Feelings are highly individual sentiments, and Wang Er’s forceful reassertions remind readers that the Wang Er in the Tang dynasty is nothing but a projected image of the contemporary Wang Er; and Wang Er of the Tang dynasty is allowed to exist only if the reader crosses the dividing line between subjectivities and experiences so as to travel between those temporal and psychic limitations. By replacing the pale young scholar of the Tang source text with a poor peddler (Wang Er) who makes a living selling soup, Wang Xiaobo disrupts the continuity of the Tang source text in his narration, insisting upon the differences between the “historical” and the present. By disrupting a clichéd romance, he creates space in it for his own perceptions. The literary quality of qi in “No. 1-A Lixin Street and Kunlun Slave” does not flow directly from the Tang dynasty “Kunlun Slave” story, nor is it to be found solely at “No. 1-A
的话。感情是高度个人化的情感,王耳的有力重申提醒读者,唐代的王耳只不过是当代王耳的投射形象;而唐代的王耳,只有当读者跨越主观性和经验的分界线,在那些时间性和心理性的限制之间穿梭时,才被允许存在。王小波用一个以卖汤为生的穷小贩(王二饰)取代了唐原文中苍白的年轻学者,在叙述中打破了唐原文的连续性,坚持“历史”与现在的差异。通过打破陈词滥调的浪漫,他在其中为自己的感知创造了空间。《一号-甲里新街与昆仑奴》中气的文学品质,并非直接源于唐代“昆仑奴”的故事,也不能只在“一-甲”中找到。

Lixin Street”. It is generated by the “and” of the title, the juxtapositions so distinctively constructed by Wang Xiaobo’s attention to the differences between the past and the present, emphasized by his experiments with Chinese language, revealing the ironic edge and transformative force of qi.
立新街”。它是由标题的“和”产生的,王小波对过去和现在差异的关注如此独特地构建了并置,并通过他对中文的实验得到了强调,揭示了气的讽刺锋芒和变革力量。

“Red Thread Steals the Casket”
“红线偷了棺材”

Wang Xiaobo’s “Red Thread Steals the Casket” again makes full use of the intended reader’s knowledge of its Tang source text to achieve its modern version of qi. The frame narrative relates how the narrator Wang Er (again) reads a story about General Xue Song and his maid Red Thread. This time Wang Er is a worker at a Tofu Factory. He is interested in Chinese classical literature, and he explores historical documents--both factual and fabricated by Wang Xiaobo--to assemble and represent what might have happened in his understanding of history— an understanding that the reader perceives as more fantasy than fact. In this sense, “Red Thread
王晓波的《红线偷棺材》再次充分利用了读者对其唐文原文的了解,达到其现代版的气。框架叙述讲述了叙述者王耳(再次)如何阅读关于薛松将军和他的侍女红线的故事。这一次,王二是豆腐厂的一名工人。他对中国古典文学很感兴趣,他探索历史文献——包括事实和王晓波捏造的——以收集和表现他对历史的理解中可能发生的事情——读者认为这种理解更多的是幻想而不是事实。从这个意义上说,“红线

Steals the Casket” is also a story about the reading experience itself: Wang Er is a prototypical reader reading poeticism into a romance that has been lost in many different versions of texts. He acquires a sense of qi when he restores words to the romance, even if his real-world life remains everyday and colourless.
《偷棺材》也是一个关于阅读体验本身的故事:王耳是一个典型的读者,将诗意读入一种在许多不同版本的文本中已经遗失的浪漫。当他将文字恢复到浪漫中时,他获得了一种气感,即使他的现实世界生活仍然是日常和无色的。

In “Red Thread Steals the Casket” Wang Xiaobo follows the plot of the Tang source. In both texts Red Thread helps General Xue Song when he is threatened by his military rival, and in both texts she leaves him for freedom in spite of his earnest request to keep her in bondage once the threat is resolved. The first paragraph in Wang Xiaobo’s text is also evidently written in a tone that imitates the Tang source text’s pseudo-biographical model.
在《红线偷棺材》中,王小波沿袭了唐源的情节。在这两篇文章中,当薛松将军受到军事对手的威胁时,红线帮助了他,在这两篇文章中,尽管薛松将军恳切地要求在威胁解决后将她束缚起来,但红线还是离开了他寻求自由。王小波的文字第一段,显然也是用模仿唐代原文的伪传记模式的语气写成的。

Wang Xiaobo, however, passes from imitation to adaptation early on in his text. He immediately confronts his readers with surprises: first, the female protagonist Red Thread engages in a tug of war with General Xue over narrative tone, successfully changing it from sublime elegance to light playfulness. Then after eight pages of third-person narrative about events
然而,王晓波在他的文本中很早就从模仿转向了改编。他立即给读者带来了惊喜:首先,女主角红线与薛将军在叙事基调上展开了拉锯战,成功地将其从崇高的优雅转变为轻松的俏皮。然后在八页关于事件的第三人称叙述之后
that occur in the historical Tang dyansty, a first-person
第一人称
narrative voice that belongs to the contemporary Wang Er comments on differences between the Tang source text and the modern text written by him. Wang Er casts himself as a critical and analytical modern reader of historical documents related to the events that he uses to write his own text. From then on, the reader/writer/narrator Wang Er keeps explaining why he writes the modern text about Red Thread and General Xue as he does. He quotes from various sources: some are actual ones, like the Tang source text; some, however, to a sophisticated reader, are evidently fabricated—for example, the so called “Chronicles of the Xue Clan” (
对同时代的王耳,评论了唐代原文与他所写的现代文本的差异。王耳将自己塑造成一个批判性和分析性的现代读者,阅读与他所写文章相关的事件相关的历史文献。从此,读者/作家/叙述者王耳不断解释他为什么会这样写关于红线和薛将军的现代文本。他引用了各种来源:有些是真实的,如唐元原文;然而,对于老练的读者来说,有些显然是捏造的——例如,所谓的“薛氏编年史”(
薛氏宗譜
薛氏宗谱
Xueshi zongpu) and “Confidential Documents of the Xue Clan” (
)和《薛氏机密文件》(
薛氏密籍 Xueshi miji). Occasionally, Wang Er deliberately creates an analogy between himself and the General Xue in his narrative; and he
).偶尔,王耳在叙述中故意将自己与薛将军进行类比;他

also applies what he perceives in his writing of history/fantasy to his actual life. In the second half of the narrative, there is less narration of action taken by the Tang protagonists than there is Wang Er’s discourse on how he discriminates between more and less reliable sources in the source material for his writing. Even though an ending similar to that in the Tang source text is finally provided at the end of Wang Er’s text, Wang Er the narrator undermines such a conclusive ending. Through his industrious research work, he finds several alternative endings, each of which seems plausible on its own. Wang Er the narrator thus virtually surpasses the
也将他在历史/幻想写作中所感受到的东西应用到他的实际生活中。在叙述的后半部分,对唐朝主人公所采取的行动的叙述较少,而是王二关于他如何在写作的原始材料中区分更多和更不可靠的来源的论述。尽管最终在王耳文本的结尾提供了一个与唐原文相似的结局,但叙述者王耳却破坏了这样一个决定性的结局。通过他勤奋的研究工作,他找到了几种不同的结局,每一种结局似乎都是合理的。因此,叙述者王耳几乎超越了

limits of a “story-teller” and negotiates with his readers for the credibility of his writing.
“讲故事的人”的局限性,并与他的读者谈判他写作的可信度。

Wang Xiaobo’s literary project to establish
建立
his own definition of qi is also realized by his exploration of modern Chinese words and expressions in “Red Thread Steals the Casket.” A good example is the scene in which he describes how an assassin attacks General Xue in his garden. The implied narrative voice portrays the situation via a contrast of moods: Xue Song serenely takes his morning saunter in his own quiet garden, but then an assassin abruptly
他在《红线偷棺材》中对现代汉语词汇和表达方式的探索。一个很好的例子是他描述刺客如何在他的花园里袭击薛将军的场景。隐含的叙述声音通过情绪的对比描绘了这种情况:薛松在自己安静的花园里平静地散步,但随后突然成为刺客
appears as if from nowhere, disguised in black mud and exotic apparel. Once the two moods-- and the two characters meet--the narrative
仿佛不知从何而来,伪装成黑泥和异国情调的服装。一旦两种情绪——两个角色相遇——叙事
voice infuses the narration with negative
带否定的旁白
expressions. A desire to negate lurks in these sentences: expressions like “
表达 式。否定的愿望潜伏在这些句子中:像”
wufa 無法
无法
have no way to,” “
没有办法,“”
bingbushi
冰布希
幷不是 be not in fact,” and “
事实上不是,“和”
kebushi
克布希
可不是 not possibly be” indicate that the narrative voice is struggling to render an imagined scene: the narrator deliberately pronounces his world as “not being true” even in the process of constructing it in words. His negation implies possible transgression, and yet the completion of the scene in words validates the transgression. The literary quality of
不可能“表明叙述者正在努力渲染一个想象的场景:叙述者故意宣称他的世界”不是真实的“,甚至在用语言构建它的过程中也是如此。他的否定意味着可能的过犯,然而,用言语完成这一幕证实了过犯。文学品质
qi thus again displays its power of creating something out of nothing even as it denies its own reality. For Wang Xiaobo, negative phrases convey not
因此,它再次展示了它从无到有创造某种东西的能力,即使它否认了自己的现实。对于王晓波来说,否定词传达的不是

merely negative results; instead, they show the existence of a world beyond the empirical one, and by negating this world in vain in the text it is displayed even more vividly for the reader.
仅仅是负面结果;取而代之的是,它们展示了一个超越经验世界的存在,并且通过在文本中徒劳地否定这个世界,它更加生动地展示给读者。

Another example of Wang Xiaobo’s experiments with negative expressions is found in his portrayal of Red Thread’s first appearance in Wang Er’s narrative. Negative expressions again paradoxically confirm the existence of that which is denied in words. The description goes as follows:
王小波尝试否定表达的另一个例子是他对红线首次出现在王耳的叙述中的描绘。否定的表达再次自相矛盾地证实了用言语否认的东西的存在。描述如下:

This maid and concubine is not a beauty with delicate features and dainty make-up, not that kind of lady who goes in a phoenix-head hairstyle dotted with rose gold hairpins, neither is she dressed in silk and satin, and combing and primping herself in front of her mirror. Her hair is black and thick, yet messy, and she has not yet got up, still lying on her plank bed.
这个侍女妾不是五官精致、妆容精致的美女,也不是那种留着凤头发型点缀着玫瑰金发夹的女士,也不是穿着绸缎,在镜子前梳头打扮的女士。她的头发乌黑浓密,但凌乱不堪,还没有起床,仍然躺在她的木板床上。

這位侍妾也非細眉細目粉雕也似的美人——頭上梳風頭髻,插紫金釵,穿絲紗衣袍,臨鏡梳妝者。此女披散著一頭烏髮,在板鋪上睡著未起.42
这位侍妾也非细眉细目粉雕也似的美人——头上梳风头髻,插紫金釵,穿丝纱衣袍,临镜梳妆者。 此女披散着一头乌发,在板铺上睡着未起. 42

In this paragraph Wang Xiaobo elevates Wang Er’s fantasy of Red Thread over the image of her that Wang Er has read in the Tang source text. The double negation structure in his Chinese sentences is what raises Wang Er’s fantasy above the version of Red Thread in the Tang source text, and Wang Er’s contemporary imagination transforms the past in words. I mentioned in Chapter II that the Red Thread of the Tang text is indeed a female gifted with non-female talents and that her identity as a talented woman transgresses Tang values. In Wang Er’s text, however, Red Thread is deprived of all the Tang male talents. Instead, she is a daughter of a tribal chief in the “savage” southern region of China. Unlike the Red Thread of the Tang source text, Wang
在这一段中,王小波将王二对红线的幻想提升到王二在唐文原文中读到的她的形象之上。他的中文句子中的双重否定结构,是王耳的幻想高于唐代原文中红线版本的原因,王耳的当代想象用文字改变了过去。我在第二章中提到,《唐书》中的红线确实是一位具有非女性才能的女性,她作为才华横溢的女性身份违背了唐人的价值观。然而,在王二的文字中,红线被剥夺了唐朝男性的所有才能。相反,她是中国“野蛮”的南方地区一个部落酋长的女儿。与《唐书》原文的《红线》不同,《王氏》

Er’s Red Thread does not have any sincere respect or loyalty for General Xue; instead, she is
二氏红线对薛将军没有任何真诚的尊重和忠诚;相反,她是

42 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol. 8, 140.
42 王晓波:《全集》.8, 140.

attracted to him not because of his political ambition or literary talents (as a lady of the Tang dynasty might have been) but because of his handsomeness and sexuality.43 Her criteria are normal for her marginal tribe yet abnormal and transgressive according to Xue’s social values.44 In such a fantasy, the reader is incessantly reminded by the narrative of what is not to be and what is instead to be. As a result, the reader’s mind is trained to see beyond the empirical world to a constructed one.
吸引他不是因为他的政治野心或文学才能(就像唐朝的女士一样),而是因为他的英俊和性感。 43 她的标准对她的边缘部落来说是正常的,但根据薛的社会价值观,她的标准是不正常和违规的。 44 在这样的幻想中,叙述不断提醒读者什么不应该成为,什么应该成为。因此,读者的思想被训练成能够超越经验世界,看到一个建构的世界。

In Wang Er’s narrative, tensions emerge between competing images of the self. The General Xue Song comes to the marginal frontier regions to subdue the primitive tribespeople and aims to tame Red Thread into a domestic lady. However, Red Thread intends to tame Xue with her game of love, and therefore she agrees to play the role he assigns to her on the condition that he in turn cooperates with her in her game. At the core of the exchange and negotiation of intentions and roles is the work of language in the conversations between the two parties.
在王耳的叙述中,相互竞争的自我形象之间出现了紧张关系。薛松将军来到边疆地区,征服原始部落居民,旨在将红线驯服成家政淑女。然而,红线打算用她的爱情游戏来驯服薛,因此她同意扮演他分配给她的角色,条件是他反过来在她的游戏中与她合作。意图和角色的交流和谈判的核心是双方对话中的语言工作。
A reading of the role-playing scenes between the two protagonists shows
主角表演
how Xue Song is gradually manipulated by Red Thread and comes to accept the role she assigns to him, how Red Thread--despite explicitly accepting Xue’s insistence on her using a pejorative moniker for herself
薛松逐渐被红线操纵,并开始接受她给他分配的角色,红线——尽管明确接受了薛坚持让她给自己使用贬义的绰号
(nubi 奴婢, or your bonded and humble female slave)--coaxes Xue Song into partnership in her game.
在她的比赛中合作。
45 At the times when Xue’s sincerity
在薛之诚意的时代
in taking the game as true threatens to destroy the fun of the game for Red Thread, she rejects her moniker and stops using
在将游戏视为真实威胁要破坏 Red Thread 游戏的乐趣时,她拒绝了她的绰号并停止使用
the literary Chinese language that she learns from Xue. She will instead talk in her natural, colloquial style, sometimes vulgar yet always vital.
她向薛学的中文。相反,她会以她自然、口语化的风格说话,有时粗俗,但总是至关重要。
46 Xue’s language also notably changes throughout their conversations: his tone is stern toward Red Thread in the beginning but then self-pitying as he
在他们的谈话中,薛的语言也发生了明显的变化:他的语气一开始对红线很严厉,但随后又自怜

43 Wang Xiaobo 150.

44 Wang Xiaobo 141.

45 Wang Xiaobo 141.

46 Wang Xiaobo 147.

deplores his loss of authority. The key change in Xue Song’s language stems from his realization that Red Thread is not what he had expected in real life and that she will only be possible in his fantasy.47 Following this acceptance, a switch of language styles between Xue Song and Red Thread in their role-playing occurs: Xue develops a colloquial Chinese while Red Thread sticks to the classical Chinese until the termination of their relationship and their conversation.
对他失去权威感到遗憾。薛松语言的关键变化源于他意识到红线并不是他在现实生活中所期望的,她只有在自己的幻想中才有可能。 47 在这种接受之后,薛松和红线在角色扮演中发生了语言风格的切换:薛发展了口语化,而红线则坚持使用古典中文,直到他们的关系和对话结束。

Wang Er the narrator also displays powers of analytical reading in his composition of the text. Like the Wang Er of Red Silk’s story, Wang Er in Red Thread’s story also works in a Tofu factory for a living, and his wife’s last name is also Hu , a possible pun on the Chinese word for “nonsense”. Unlike Wang Er in Red Silk’s story, though, Wang Er, the narrator of Red
叙述者王耳在文本的构成中也表现出分析阅读的能力。就像红丝故事中的王二一样,《红线》故事中的王二也在豆腐厂工作谋生,他妻子的姓也是胡,可能是对中文“胡说八道”的双关语。然而,与《红丝》故事中的王耳不同,《红丝》的叙述者王耳

Thread’s story, has minimized his own presence as a character in his text. Instead, his identity as a critical reader is maximized, adding self-reflexivity to his multiple roles as reader/writer/narrator/character in the narrative. His link to the intended reader is therein consolidated. What Wang Er presents in his text is not only his composition of Red Thread’s story,
作为一个批判性的读者被最大化,在他作为读者/作家/叙述者/人物的叙述者/角色的多重角色中增加了自我反省性。他与目标读者的联系在其中得到了巩固。王耳在文中呈现的,不仅是他对红线故事的构想,
but also the process of his composition.
组成。
As a narrator, Wang Er does not appear in the text until the reader is already briefed on the story’s intertextual link to Yuan Jiao’s source text, and after this point he appears in the text mainly
直到读者已经了解了这个故事与袁娇源文本的互文链接,而在这一点之后,他主要出现在文本中
as a self-reflexive reader of “source documents” as well as a writer who hopes to restore fantasy
作为一个“原始文件”的自我反省的读者,也是一个希望还原幻想的作家
in words, but seldom as a character in the tale. For example, once his identity as a reader/writer is revealed, Wang Er no longer hides his writer’s hand. On the contrary, he pops up in the narrative text from time to time like an annotation, commenting on the Tang source text;
在言语上,但很少作为故事中的一个角色。比如,一旦他的读者/作家身份被揭露,王耳就不再藏着作家的手。恰恰相反,他时不时地像注释一样出现在叙述文本中,对唐本文本进行评论;
48 acknowledging the factual source text as well as the
承认事实源文本以及

47 Wang Xiaobo 143.

48 Wang Xiaobo 147.

imagined source text;49 making trivial interpretations of sublime details or making pseudo- sublime interpretations of trivial details in his readings;50 referring the words of the protagonists back to the long tradition of classical Chinese poetry;51 connecting the lyrical as well as the euphemistic phrases in pre-modern Chinese literature to contemporary cultural expressions in literature and movies;52 describing his own responses to the factual and fictional source texts;53 and even officially declaring the end of the story of Red Thread. Wang Er’s voice is not only the narrator’s voice but also an external force that freely intrudes in the plot.
想象的源文本; 49 在他的阅读中,对崇高的细节进行微不足道的解释,或对微不足道的细节做出伪崇高的解释; 50 将主人公的话语追溯到中国古典诗歌的悠久传统; 51 将前现代中国文学中的抒情和委婉短语与文学和电影中的当代文化表现形式联系起来; 52 描述他自己对事实和虚构的原始文本的回应; 53 甚至正式宣告了红线故事的终结。王二的声音不仅是叙述者的声音,更是一种自由介入情节的外力。

Therefore in his own description of his experience as a reader, Wang Er is no longer a passive reader of the Tang story. His imagination in the act of reading makes him a creator of the past. As a Tang tale of marvels, the story of Red Thread in its original form seems doomed to
因此,在他自己作为读者的经历的描写中,王耳不再是唐故事的被动读者。他在阅读行为中的想象力使他成为过去的创造者。作为一个奇迹的唐朝故事,红线这个故事的原始形式似乎注定要失败
clichéd interpretations, and the development
发展
of events in the story leaves little space to arouse more surprises in the course of reading it. It is not so in the eyes of Wang Er, who becomes a modern
在阅读过程中引起更多的惊喜。在成为现代人的王二眼里,情况并非如此
version of the Tang literati participating in the storytelling. Despite a social identity as a factory worker that is detached from literary circles in his own time, he believes in a power of language and literature to access what is underneath a story’s surface. He adapts the story from the Tang source text and then twists it with his implied narrative voice, with his playing with language styles, and with his multiplication of the story’s possible endings. To Wang Er, Red Thread may leave for freedom, but she may have other options, too. The dead text is no longer dead in the eye of a creative reader with literary competence who knows the symbolic power of
作为一个在他那个时代脱离文学圈的工厂工人,他相信语言和文学的力量可以接触到故事表面之下的东西。他从唐代原文改编这个故事,然后用他隐含的叙述声音,用他的语言风格玩弄,用他对故事可能结局的倍增来扭曲它。对王二来说,红线可能会为了自由而离开,但她可能也有其他选择。在一个具有文学能力的有创造力的读者的眼中,死的文本不再是死的,他知道它的象征力量。
language.

49 Wang Xiaobo 150.

50 Wang Xiaobo 151.

51 Wang Xiaobo 153.

52 Wang Xiaobo 154.

53 Wang Xiaobo 157.

“Red Whisk Elopes at Night”
“红拂子在晚上私奔”

The Tang source text “The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest” by Du Guangting
唐本文本《卷胡子客的故事》,杜光庭著
杜光庭 (850-933) was discussed previously in Chapter II of this dissertation. Also in Chapter III, I pointed out that such a story of marvels about a Tang lady with great transgressive powers devolved
(850-933)在本论文的第二章中已经讨论过。同样在第三章中,我指出,这样一个关于唐夫人拥有巨大越界能力的奇迹故事被下放了
into a clichéd story of domestication
驯化
in later pre-modern literature. Wang Xiaobo’s re- writing of this Tang tale restores much of the transgressive romance to the story. As he does in the two stories I discussed earlier, he introduces a first-person narrator, Wang Er, and a paratextual commentator, Xiao Hu. Through self-reflexivity, Wang Xiaobo deconstructs those elements he sees as constraining in the Tang text and constructs his own perspective on the events in the tale. He uses the title, language, and characterization to build up
对这个唐故事的改写,恢复了这个故事的大部分越界浪漫。正如我之前讨论的两个故事中他所做的那样,他介绍了一个第一人称叙述者王二和一个副文本评论者小胡。通过自我反省,王晓波解构了他认为在唐文本中具有制约性的那些元素,并建构了他对故事中事件的自己视角。他使用标题、语言和特征来建立
qi in this story-- and the quality of
在这个故事中--以及
qi in his text ultimately
最终在他的文字中
stands up against and even subverts what would be a common orthodox understanding and interpretation of the world by most readers.
它反对甚至颠覆了大多数读者对世界的普遍正统理解和解释。

First, the title of Wang Xiaobo’s text, “Red Whisk Elopes at Night,” imparts a subversive power to its Tang source text “The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest.” It shifts readers’ expectations from a publicly oriented tale to a private one. Second, Wang Xiaobo tailors the plot elements he borrows from the Tang source text. The majority of his narrative is about how Li Jing and Red Whisk run away from the persecution of Yang Su, Red Whisk’s aged adopted father, who tries to retain Li Jing in order to destroy
首先,王晓波的文本标题“红拂子在夜晚私奔”,赋予其唐语原文“卷胡子客人的故事”具有颠覆性的力量。它将读者的期望从面向公共的故事转变为私人的故事。其次,王晓波对他从唐书原文中借鉴的情节元素进行了剪裁。他的大部分叙述都是关于李静和红拂如何逃离红拂年迈的养父杨素的迫害,杨素试图留住李淑以摧毁
him. In Wang Xiaobo’s text, Li Jing is a smart and free city-drifter.
城市漂泊者。
Yang
Su selects Li
选择李
Jing to be Red Whisk’s
打蛋器
husband. Red Whisk is in fact Yang Su’s secret agent disguised as his adopted daughter. She is aware of the political conspiracy
红拂其实是杨素伪装成自己养女的秘密特工。她知道这个政治阴谋
in the arranged marriage, and she chooses to escape from Yang Su with Li Jing instead. Yang Su sends another secret agent, known as the Curly-Bearded Guest, after the fleeing
在包办婚姻中,她选择和李静一起逃离杨素。杨肃派出另一名秘密特工,被称为卷胡子客人,追捕逃跑的人
couple, but when that agent catches them, he decides to release them. Throughout
整个
Wang

Xiaobo’s version the chaos of the
小波版本的混沌
political context is minimized, even if it haunts the plot residually.
政治背景被最小化,即使它残余地困扰着情节。
Li Shimin, the
李世民,
shadowy but instrumental political figure
但重要的政治人物
that shapes major events in the original Tang
塑造了原唐的重大事件
narrative, is not even mentioned in Wang
叙述,甚至在王氏身上都没有提到
Xiaobo’s text of the 1980s: instead, there are new characters such as Li Erniang, or Second Lady Li, who is Li Jing’s wine-selling mistress; Pangpang, a fat maid waiting on Li Erniang; and Widow Qian, a legendary prostitute who earns money
小波1980年代的文本:取而代之的是李二娘等新角色,或者说李二夫人,她是李静卖酒的情妇;庞庞,一个侍候李二娘的胖丫鬟;还有钱赚钱的传奇钱寡妇
by offering sexual services to rich people and then uses the money
向富人提供性服务,然后使用这笔钱
to support a number of poor young scholars. Many of these scholars later become influential politicians by passing
政客们通过路过
civil service examinations, and Widow Qian acquires great power through
通过
her influence over them. These new minor characters are of little political significance but pivotal to the romance between Red Whisk and Li Jing. Their own special perspectives on the love affair reveal alternative aspects of it not explored in the Tang text.
对他们的影响。这些新的次要角色几乎没有政治意义,但对红悍和李静之间的浪漫至关重要。他们自己对恋情的特殊看法揭示了唐代文本中没有探讨的恋情的其他方面。

In addition, Wang Xiaobo thoroughly subverts the traditional priority of historiography over literary fiction writing in this story. He parodies historiography in “Red Whisk Elopes at Night” in the beginning of his text. He pretends to follow the formal conventions of traditional historiography, carefully providing aprefaceby the first-person narrator’s wife, who, as with all of Wang Ers’ other wives in Tales of the Tang People, tellingly has the last name Hu , a Chinese character with connotations of “nonsense”. The preface reads as follows:
此外,王晓波在这个故事中彻底颠覆了史学优先于文学小说写作的传统优先权。他在文章的开头模仿了《红拂私奔在夜晚》中的史学。他假装遵循传统史学的正式惯例,小心翼翼地由第一人称叙述者的妻子提供“序言”,这位妻子与《唐人故事》中王尔的其他所有妻子一样,明显地拥有胡胡的姓氏,这是一个带有“胡说八道”内涵的汉字。序言如下:

…Du [Guangting]’s bad writing narrates one thing at the cost of tens of thousands of other things, and it is full of errors. My humble husband Wang Er, reading extensively in all kinds of documents, finally composed the following account after ten years of painstaking work. What is recorded in his writing about the three knights is thorough and solid in its details. My humble husband ignored his sleep and meals in order to compose his writing: he totally forgot his housework duties of
…杜光庭的拙劣文笔,是以数以万计的其他事情为代价来叙述一件事,而且错误百出。我卑微的丈夫王二,广泛阅读各种文献,经过十年的艰苦工作,终于写出了以下几篇。他关于三位骑士的著作中记载的内容在细节上是彻底而坚实的。我卑微的丈夫为了写作而忽略了他的睡眠和饮食:他完全忘记了他的家务职责。

washing diapers and filling the gas containers, and he completely brushed away from his mind his family obligations to earn bread and toss away garbage. He grabbed every moment to sit constantly at his desk, smoking and writing. Now the writing is completed, I am delighted for the new assets it brings to historical texts, and I am exhilarated that from now on, he has no further excuse for shirking his domestic duties.
洗尿布和装满煤气罐,他完全忘记了挣面包和扔垃圾的家庭义务。他抓住每一个时间,不断地坐在办公桌前,抽烟和写作。现在写作已经完成,我为它给历史文本带来的新财富感到高兴,我感到欣喜的是,从现在开始,他再也没有借口推卸家务了。

杜氏惡撰,述一漏百,且多謬誤。外子王二,博覽群書,竭十年心力方成此篇,所錄三俠事,既備且鑿。外子爲營此篇,寢食俱廢。洗褲子換煤氣全付腦後,買糧食倒垃圾未挂于心,得暇輒穩坐于案前,吞雲吐霧,奮筆疾書。今書已成,余喜史家案頭,又添新書,更喜日後家事,彼無遁詞54
杜氏恶撰,述一漏百,且多谬误。 外子王二,博览群书,竭十年心力方成此篇,所录三侠事,既备且凿。 外子为营此篇,寝食俱废。 洗裤子换煤气全付脑后,买粮食倒垃圾未挂于心,得暇辄稳坐于案前,吞云吐雾,奋笔疾书。 今书已成,余喜史家案头,又添新书,更喜日后家事,彼无遁词。 54

I hope my English translation conveys the irony in Wang Xiaobo’s Chinese text. The irony mainly manifests itself in the discrepancy between the content of Xiao Hu’s frivolous
我希望我的英文翻译能传达出王晓波的中文文本中的讽刺意味。讽刺意味主要表现在小胡轻浮内容的差异上

complaints against her husband’s negligence of housework and the serious, formal tone in which she writes them, between her elegant literary Chinese and the vulgar images presented in that elegant language, and between her accusation of the Tang source text for being unreliable and her allusion to her husband’s composition as a tale made out of “smoke.” Her applauding of Wang Er’s return to the tedious chores of actual life projects a motif that comes to haunt Wang Xiaobo’s writing later in 1990s: the literary quality of qi can help the writer and reader to transgress limits of real life and unleash unspoken desires, and yet upon the completion of writing and reading, the factual world will always surge back to overwhelm the fantasy--even if one hopes that the apparent status quo has been transformed at its core by the literary transgression. Even so, the very writing and reading of literary qi can deliver the writer and the
在她优雅的文学中文和以优雅的语言呈现的庸俗形象之间,在她指责唐文原文不可靠和她暗示丈夫的作品是由“烟雾”构成的故事之间,在她对丈夫的创作是“烟雾”构成的故事之间,她抱怨丈夫的家务劳动疏忽。她对王耳回归现实生活繁琐琐事的赞赏,投射出一个主题,这个主题在1990年代后期萦绕在王小波的写作中:气的文学品质可以帮助作家和读者超越现实生活的界限,释放出不言而喻的欲望,但在完成写作和阅读之后, 事实世界总是会涌现出来,压倒幻想——即使人们希望表面上的现状已经被文学的越界从根本上改变了。即便如此,文学之气的书写和读书,也能使作家和

54 Wang Xiaobo 160.

reader from the pains of everyday life. This last point is expressed in the text of “Red Whisk Elopes at Night.”
来自日常生活之痛的读者。最后一点在《红拂子在夜晚私奔》的文字中得到了表达。

After preparing the intelligent reader via Xiao Hu’s ironic preface for the text’s twisted plot and characters, Wang Xiaobo starts the narrative in Wang Er’s first-person authoritative voice, which claims for itself a historical veracity based on “historical documents”
在通过小胡的讽刺序言为聪明的读者准备了文本曲折的情节和人物之后,王小波以王二的第一人称权威声音开始了叙述,这种声音自称是基于“历史文献”的历史真实性
55 and “his personal research into the evidence.”
以及“他对证据的个人研究”。
56 The irony lies in the fact that his “historical documents” are
具有讽刺意味的是,他的“历史文献”是
nothing more than the text of the
的文本
Tang tale “The Tale of the Curly Bearded Guest”
大胡子客人”
and some other evidently fabricated resources such as an autobiography attributed to Li Jing called “A Brief Account of My Life,” which does not appear in any extant historical record. As for Wang Er’s “personal research into the evidence,” it results in recording lively and intimate conversations among characters in the tale, which is not so much historical evidence about the characters in his tale as it is evidence of the narrator’s vivd powers of fantastic imagination. All of the Tang characters’ letters and memoirs “quoted” by Wang Er are written in classical Chinese, but then Wang Er as the first-person narrator provides his interpretations of these documents
以及其他一些明显捏造的资料,例如李静的一本自传《我的一生简述》,该书没有出现在任何现存的历史记录中。至于王耳的“个人取证”,则是记录了故事中人物之间生动而亲密的对话,这与其说是他故事中人物的历史证据,不如说是叙述者生动的奇特想象力的证据。王耳“引用”的所有唐字书信和回忆录都是用古典汉语写成的,但随后王耳作为第一人称叙述者对这些文件进行了解释
in modern colloquial Chinese immediately
马上
after quoting them. The modern linguistic interruption
语言中断
again betrays the illusionary quality of his “historical authenticity.”
真实性。
Wang Xiaobo’s intended readers, sometimes addressed by Wang Er as “my respected readers,”
小波的目标读者,有时被王耳称为“我尊敬的读者”,
57 are therefore constantly
因此,不断
reminded that this is a purely
提醒大家,这纯粹是
fictional story
虚构的故事
manipulated and interpreted by
操纵和解释者
Wang Er throughout his text.
王耳贯穿全文。

Wang Xiaobo also makes subversive changes to other elements of the Tang source text of “The Tale of the Curly-Bearded Guest.” The revival of Red Whisk’s unconventionality is calmly, ironically, and intricately presented in his writing. In the text, Red Whisk’s gradual
《卷胡子客人的故事》的文字。Red Whisk 非常规性的复兴在他的写作中平静、讽刺和复杂地呈现出来。在文中,Red Whisk 逐渐

55 Wang Xiaobo 160, 195.

56 Wang Xiaobo 175.

57 Wang Xiaobo 175.

changes in language style are fully explored. Wang Xiaobo’s story of Red Whisk portrays how she is entrapped in the establishment of Yang Su but then tries to break away from this structure by deconstructing it. In Wang Xiaobo’s re-writing, Red Whisk is restored to being a lady with transgressive powers, as well as having an ironic spirit greater than her equivalent in the Tang text. She surprises the reader through the discrepancy between her seeming inability to express herself in words and her manifest ability to assert her will in action.
充分探讨了语言风格的变化。王晓波的《红拂》故事描绘了她如何被困在杨苏的建立中,但随后又试图通过解构它来摆脱这一结构。在王晓波的改写中,红拂被恢复为一个具有越界能力的女士,同时也具有比唐文本中她对等物更大的讽刺精神。她让读者感到惊讶的是,她似乎无法用言语表达自己,而她显然有能力在行动中坚持自己的意志。

Red Whisk’s romance with Li Jing in the Tang source text starts from their very first meeting. Li Jing goes voluntarily to Yang Su’s residence out of political ambition, and Red Whisk, attracted by his ambitious nature, elopes with him on the same night. Li Jing then becomes
红拂与李静在唐文中的恋情,就从他们的第一次见面就开始了。李静出于政治野心,自愿前往杨肃的住所,而红拂则被他的野心所吸引,于当晚与他私奔。李静于是成为
her new master. The flow of events remains roughly the same in Wang Xiaobo’s text as in the source text, yet the meaning of the characters’ actions changes drastically. In Wang Xiaobo’s text, instead of offering himself to Yang Su’s service, Li Jing tries to escape the “honours” imposed by Yang Su, among which the highest is an arranged marriage with Red Whisk. By
文本与源文本中的文本相同,但角色动作的含义却发生了巨大变化。在王晓波的文字中,李静没有献身于杨素的侍奉,而是试图逃避杨素强加的“荣誉”,其中最高的是与红悍的包办婚姻。由
such a twist Li Jing is no longer a
不再是
talented hero eagerly
才华横溢的英雄热切地
waiting to be recruited, but an individual with a free spirit who evades various societal structures, be they in the form of political systems or arranged marriages. In Wang Xiaobo’s text, Li Jing’s will to reject Red Whisk
被招募,但是一个具有自由精神的人,逃避各种社会结构,无论是政治制度还是包办婚姻的形式。在王晓波的文字中,李静拒绝红拂的意志
vanishes when she decides to come to him of her own free will rather than being forced onto him as an unwanted gift. His affection for her matures into love when she becomes his
作为不想要的礼物强加给他。当她成为他的时,他对她的感情就成熟为爱

partner to escape from persecution. Red Whisk’s identity is thus transformed completely by her betrayal and defiance of the political system that has generated her identity. Before she comes to Li Jing, she is an instrument of the system, educated to seduce and destroy any free spirit. With her decision to join Li Jing of her own free will, she transgresses the limits of her identity and starts her own journey of self-creation.
伙伴逃离迫害。因此,Red Whisk 的身份因她对造就她身份的政治制度的背叛和蔑视而彻底改变。在她来到李静面前之前,她是制度的工具,被教育去勾引和摧毁任何自由的精神。凭着自己自由意志加入李静的决定,她超越了自己身份的界限,开始了自己的自我创造之旅。

In Wang Xiaobo’s text, gradual changes in the manner of Red Whisk’s speech signal her escape from authority structures. She was raised in Yang Su’s household to be an educated, seductive performer who fatally attracts those who resist the system set up by Yang. In the story’s first part, her speech has a performative tone that recalls the dramatic lines of traditional Chinese opera: elegant, flowery, but with only scant communication with the audience.58 In contrast, Li Jing speaks with a forceful directness that resembles the vernacular Chinese used by most male characters in the Ming dynasty vernacular novel Water Margin 水滸傳 (Shuihu zhuan). This conversation in the early part of the story is a good example:
在王晓波的文字中,红拂说话方式的逐渐变化标志着她摆脱了权威结构。她在杨素的家庭中被抚养长大,成为一个受过良好教育、诱人的表演者,她致命地吸引了那些反抗杨素建立的制度的人。在故事的第一部分,她的演讲有一种表演的语气,让人想起中国传统戏曲的戏剧性台词:优雅、华丽,但与观众的交流很少。 58 相比之下,李静说话时有一种有力的直接性,类似于明代白话小说《水浒传》中大多数男性角色使用的白话汉语。故事开头部分的这段对话就是一个很好的例子:

[Red Whisk:] “When a humble maid as I am is without a brain in her head, my honourable dear must have one. My dear, speak forth the marvellous plan you have hidden in your brocade bag; your humble maid washes her ears and listens with respect!”
[红拂:]“当我这样一个卑微的女仆脑子里没有脑子时,我尊贵的亲爱的人必须有一个脑子。我的挚爱,请说出你藏在锦袋里的奇妙计划;你谦卑的女仆洗耳,恭敬地听!

[Li Jing:] “Why, you do speak so strangely from time to time! Right now we’re facing a problem caused by you: you came here and now my two plans are useless. We can only take option three. Too early, though, so let’s go to bed for a rest.”
[李静:]“哎呀,你的时候还时不时地这么奇怪说话呢!现在我们正面临一个由你引起的问题:你来了,现在我的两个计划都没用了。我们只能选择第三种选择。不过,太早了,所以让我们上床休息一下吧。

奴家無腦時,郎君須是有的。郎却說出那錦囊妙計來,奴家洗耳恭聽!
“奴家无脑时,郎君须是有的。 郎却说出那锦囊妙计来,奴家洗耳恭听! ”

你這人怎麽一會兒人話,一會兒鬼話!現在的形勢是,你這一來,把我的頭兩個計劃統統破壞。只能執行第三號計劃了。現在太早,上床去歇會兒。59
“你这人怎么一会儿人话,一会儿鬼话! 现在的形势是,你这一来,把我的头两个计划统统破坏。 只能执行第三号计划了。 现在太早,上床去歇会儿。 ” 59

In the course of merging herself into Li Jing’s world, Red Whisk begins inserting vulgar words into her speech. With these changes in her style of speech she incorporates the vitality of Li
在融入李静世界的过程中,红拂开始在她的言语中插入粗俗的词语。通过这些说话风格的改变,她融入了李的活力。

Jing’s tone, vocabulary, and even sentence patterns. She also learns how to express her free will.
Jing 的语气、词汇量,甚至句型。她还学会了如何表达自己的自由意志。

58 The closed structure of the Ming and Qing drama as expressed in the language styles is discussed in chapter three of this dissertation.
58 本论文第三章对明清戏剧在语言风格上所表达的封闭结构进行了讨论。

59 Wang Xiaobo, The Complete Works, vol. 8, 176.
59 王晓波:《全集》.8, 176.

In the last duel scene between Li Jing and the Curly-Bearded Guest--unlike the Tang analogue, he is a self-interested sword-fighter who secretly covets Red Whisk for her physical beauty-- Red Whisk displays her change clearly. The Curly-Bearded Guest orders her to sing songs to his taste, taking for granted that she should follow his orders without question, as they both come from the same system. To his surprise, she curtly rejects him based on arguments that eloquently express her newly acquired free will. She tells him that those songs are “hurting her voice,” “are not singing but shouting,” and in terms of gender, they “are not fitting for her, a female singer,” leading her to declare, “I will not sing!”60
在李静和卷胡子客人的最后一场决斗戏中——与唐的类似物不同,他是一个自私自利的剑士,暗中觊觎红拂的身体美貌——红拂清楚地展示了她的变化。卷胡子客人命令她按照他的口味唱歌,理所当然地认为她应该毫无疑问地听从他的命令,因为它们都来自同一个系统。令他惊讶的是,她婉转地拒绝了他,这些论点雄辩地表达了她新获得的自由意志。她告诉他,那些歌“伤害了她的嗓子”,“不是在唱歌,而是在大喊大叫”,就性别而言,它们“不适合她这个女歌手”,导致她宣称,“我不会唱歌! 60

Red Whisk thus casts off her training in search of something unknown but attractive to her: the alternative self-made otherness represented by Li Jing. The text’s ending creates irony
因此,Red Whisk 放弃了她的训练,寻找一些未知但对她有吸引力的东西:以李静为代表的另类自制他者。文本的结尾具有讽刺意味
in two ways: first, the narrator Wang Er is a worker/scholar who earns his wage in a Tofu factory and delves privately into (what he describes as) past records about the three knights- errant. At the end of his narrative, he claims the honour of a knight-errant on the basis that he does “not even” steal a piece of Tofu when working
从两个方面来看:首先,叙述者王耳是一名在豆腐厂打工的工人/学者,他私下里深入研究(他所描述的)关于三位骑士的过去记录。在他的叙述的最后,他声称自己是一个骑士的荣誉,理由是他在工作时“甚至没有”偷一块豆腐
at the factory. Second, the final clue to Red Whisk’s action against the Curly-Bearded Guest in the final duel scene (when Li Jing is in a coma) remains a mystery to Li Jing and is exposed to the reader by Wang Er. Wang Er claims that he has discovered the Curly-Bearded Guest’s last will, written in elegant classical literary Chinese
在工厂。其次,在最后的决斗场景中(李静昏迷时),红拂对卷胡子客人采取行动的最后线索对李静来说仍然是个谜,并由王二向读者揭示。 王二声称他已经发现了卷胡子客人的遗嘱,用优雅的古典文学中文写成
and long concealed by the Curly Bearded Guest’s
大胡子客人
descendants.
后代。
The contents of the will, however, contain a story similar to the Tang source text narrative: Curly-Bearded Guest is
然而,将包含一个类似于唐本文本叙述的故事:卷胡子客人是

moved by Red Whisk’s high morals, and he willingly retreats to a remote small country. The doubt that attends this clue, however, lurks beneath the beautifully woven “historical record”: is this the ultimate truth, or another veil of lies? Are all these “truths” a factual documentation of
他被红拂的高尚道德所感动,心甘情愿地撤退到一个偏远的小国。然而,伴随着这条线索的怀疑,隐藏在精心编织的“历史记录”之下:这是最终的真相,还是另一个谎言的面纱?所有这些“真相”都是事实文件吗

reality, or nothing but the whim of a highly imaginative mind? Through a mock sublime style, a
现实,还是只不过是一个极富想象力的头脑的心血来潮?通过一种嘲讽的崇高风格,

60 Wang Xiaobo 206.

perfect imitation of historiographical form, and a contemporary parallel narrator/character uncovering the Tang tale in his own modern voice, Wang Xiaobo critiques conventional and clichéd understandings of the Tang tale as well as of his own time, thereby exposing greater creative potentials in the acts of reading and writing our everyday reality.
王小波对史学形式的完美模仿,以现代的现代声音作为当代平行的叙述者/人物揭示唐故事,批判了对唐故事以及他自己所处的时代的传统和陈词滥调的理解,从而在阅读和书写我们日常现实的行为中揭示了更大的创造潜力。

The Bronze Age: General Introduction
青铜时代:一般介绍

Critical attention to Wang Xiaobo’s extended re-writing of Tang tales of marvels in the 1990s is more intensive than that given to Tales of the Tang People. As I mentioned above, the three novellas of The Bronze Age (The Temple of Longevity, Red Whisk Elopes at Night, and Looking for Peerless) arouse critical interest mainly because these novellas present more
对汪小波在1990年代对唐人奇事的详尽改写,比对唐人故事的改写更为深入。正如我上面提到的,青铜时代的三部中篇小说(《长寿神殿》、《红拂私奔》和《寻找绝世》)之所以引起评论界的兴趣,主要是因为这些中篇小说呈现了更多

explicit political references than his other works. Among the three novellas collected in the book, Red Whisk Elopes at Night has the similar title with the short story “Red Whisk Elopes at Night” I discussed in the above section, but the two sets of texts are different and present an interesting intratextual relation in my discussion below.
与他的其他作品相比,有明确的政治参考。在本书收录的三部中篇小说中,《红拂夜鹏》的标题与我在上一节讨论的短篇小说《红拂夜雏》相似,但两组文本不同,在我下面的讨论中呈现出有趣的文本内关系。

Wang Xiaobo identifies the Tang source texts that inspired him to write The Bronze Age in his preface and he emphasizes that “the three Tang tales of marvels are suited to people’s tastes and so popular that their texts have been selected for anthologies in every dynasty. My readers will find that the three novellas by me have some relation with those tales and their
王小波在序言中指出了启发他写《青铜时代》的唐代原始文本,他强调“唐朝三部奇事合人口味,通俗易懂,其文本被选入各朝代选集。我的读者会发现,我的三部中篇小说与这些故事及其

texts.”61 Wang Xiaobo thus claims his identity as a writer explicitly even before the texts in Wang Er’s voice come to the reader’s eye. Additionally, he himself takes the role of a reader of the texts prior to his writing, citing his source texts’ popularity and possible clichéd reception among readers, thus mediating their reception from the outset. In such a role he connects
文本。 61 因此,王小波甚至在王耳的文字进入读者视线之前,就已经明确地宣称了自己的作家身份。此外,他本人在写作之前就扮演了文本读者的角色,引用了他的原始文本的受欢迎程度和读者中可能出现的陈词滥调的接受,从而从一开始就调解了他们的接受。在这样的角色中,他连接

61 Wang Xiaobo, The Bronze Age (Xi’an: Shaanxi Normal UP, 2003) 4. 這三篇唐傳奇膾炙人口, 歷代選本均選。讀者自會發現,我的這三篇小說,和他們也有一些關係。
61 Wang Xiaobo, The Bronze Age (Xi’an: Shaanxi Normal UP, 2003) 4. 这三篇唐传奇脍炙人口, 历代选本均选。 读者自会发现,我的这三篇小说,和他们也有一些关系。

192

himself to his own readers, providing his readers with channels of communication across limits of time, space, and roles. He openly admits the intertextual relations between source texts and his own texts, pointing them out to the reader. The Tang source texts are collected into anthologies and arguably still popular with contemporary readers, so he writes with reference to source texts that are accessible to both writer and reader. He uses the modifier “some” before
他自己对自己的读者,为他的读者提供跨越时间、空间和角色限制的交流渠道。他公开承认源文本与他自己的文本之间的互文关系,并向读者指出它们。唐代的原始文本被收集到选集中,可以说仍然受到当代读者的欢迎,因此他参考了作者和读者都可以理解的原始文本进行写作。他之前使用修饰语“一些”

the word “relation,” thereby preserving space for making his text a new source text for a future reader/writer like himself. By thus accepting the legacy of the popularity of his source texts yet denying a slavish bondage to them, Wang Xiaobo releases himself as well as his readers from the confinements of prior literary knowledge. The reader’s reading of Wang Xiaobo’s writing is also thereby redirected from a passive reception to a creative communication in the action of reading/writing that absolutely transgresses and transforms the traditional definition of reading.
“关系”一词,从而为使他的文本成为像他这样的未来读者/作者的新源文本保留了空间。通过接受其原著的流行遗产,同时否认对它们的奴役,王晓波将自己和他的读者从先前文学知识的束缚中解放出来。读者对王晓波作品的阅读,也因此从被动的接收转向了阅读/写作行为中的创造流,这绝对超越和改变了传统的阅读定义。

Generally speaking, Red Whisk Elopes at Night
红拂子在晚上私奔
and Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
are not only thematically similar; compositionally they also share many traits. In contrast,
不仅在主题上相似;在成分上,它们也具有许多共同的特征。相比之下,
The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
displays more openness in structure than the other two novellas. For example, in addition to the general preface, Wang Xiaobo also includes in
在结构上比其他两部中篇小说更加开放。例如,除了一般的序言外,王晓波还包括在
The Bronze Age
青铜时代
two separate prefaces
两个独立的前言
written for Red Whisk Elopes at Night and Looking for Peerless, respectively. The two separate prefaces recall each other in structure: both work as a reader’s “guide” and in both he states
两篇独立的序言在结构上相互呼应:两者都是读者的“指南”,并且在两者中都指出
explicitly his intended theme for the stories, telling us that Red Whisk Elopes at Night is a book about “amusement” or “fun” in life,
一本关于生活中“娱乐”或“乐趣”的书,
62 while Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
is a book about “wisdom.”
是一本关于“智慧”的书。
63 Also, each preface is affixed with a note
贴有便条
under the subtitle:About the
关于
Book” (關于這本書
关于这本书
) for Red Whisk Elopes at Night,
红拂子在晚上私奔,
and “About the Novella” (
和“关于中篇小说”(
關于這本小
关于这本小
) for Looking for the Peerless.
寻找绝世。
Wang Xiaobo provides a brief note “about the narrator Wang Er” in
王晓波在《关于叙述者王耳》中提供了简短的注释

62 Wang Xiaobo 273.

63 Wang Xiaobo 521.

each of these two notes as well. Also, in terms of textual structure,
这两个音符中的每一个也是如此。此外,在文本结构方面,
Red Whisk Elopes at Night
红拂子在晚上私奔
and Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
resemble one another. Both novellas consist of ten chapters, while
彼此。两部中篇小说都由十章组成,而
The Temple of Longevity has eight chapters in total. Besides, Red Whisk
Elopes at Night and Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
each situate “Wang Er” in a literary tradition of narrator/characters. This is so because in each text the centre of events remains the Tang characters, thus recalling Wang Xiaobo’s earlier versions of “Wang Er” in his
每一个都将“王耳”置于叙述者/人物的文学传统中。之所以如此,是因为在每篇文本中,事件的中心仍然是唐朝人物,从而让人想起王小波在他的《王二》中的早期版本的“王二”。
Tales of the Tang People
唐人故事
. In each novella, the reader witnesses Wang Er’s fantasy in his own complete narration. In contrast,
.在每一部中篇小说中,读者都在自己完整的叙述中见证了王耳的幻想。相比之下,
The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
displays a narrative complexity that makes fantasy
这让人产生幻想
read like reality. Overall, analyzed from intertextual and intratextual points of view, there is a decreasing narrative complexity in the order in which these three novellas appear in their final version; and the first two novellas
读起来像现实。总体而言,从互文性和文本内性的角度分析,这三部中篇小说在其最终版本中出现的顺序的叙事复杂性有所下降;以及前两部中篇小说
are in fact closer to each other in many
事实上,在许多方面彼此更接近
aspects. Furthermore, in his preface prepared for the last novella in the book,
方面。此外,在他为本书的最后一篇中篇小说准备的序言中,
Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
, Wang Xiaobo clearly states, “This is my first fiction of any length.”
,王晓波明确表示,“这是我任何长度的第一部小说。
64 In order to track
为了跟踪
qi’s diminution in this text, I
在这段文字中的删减,我
read the last novella first, where it appears in its barest form.
首先阅读最后一部中篇小说,它以最简陋的形式出现。

Looking for Peerless 尋找無雙 (xunzhao Wushuang)

Looking for Peerless
寻找 Peerless
is the shortest of the three novellas in
是三部中篇小说中最短的一部
The Bronze Age
青铜时代
and may be the simplest one in terms of narrative complexity. It still bears traces of Wang Xiaobo’s literary efforts from the 1980s.
1980年代的文学作品。
The narrator Wang Er, according to Wang Xiaobo’s note “About the Novella,” is an engineer in a hospital, aged 45 in the summer of 1993, and married to a Doctor Sun.
根据王晓波的笔记《关于这部中篇小说》,叙述者王二是医院的一名工程师,1993年夏天45岁,嫁给了孙医生。
65 The story Wang Er narrates is adapted from at least three Tang source texts, i.e., first, “The Biography
王耳叙述的故事至少改编自三部唐文原文,即第一《唐传》
of Peerless
的 Peerless
無雙傳
无双传
(Wushuang zhuan
无双传
) which Wang Xiaobo notes as a source
小波指出作为来源

64 Wang Xiaobo 520.

65 Wang Xiaobo 521.

text in his preface; second, “General Pan,” the same source text Wang Xiaobo uses in his “A Lover of Uncle” in Tales of The Tang People and from which he borrows for the novella the character of a Tang petty official of justice; third, “Green Longfeather綠翹 (Luqiao),66 a story of the trial and execution of a female Tang poet Yu Xuanji 魚玄機, from which Wang Er the narrator develops a sub-plot for his protagonist Peerless’ punishment and death. Wang Xiaobo also incorporates many contemporary social and cultural allusions into Wang Er’s narration of these Tang tales. Indeed, unlike in Tales of the Tang People, Wang Xiaobo mixes Tang tales and characters in his text with contemporary elements, yet writes consistently in modern standard Chinese. Wang Xiaobo thus transgresses his contemporary temporality as represented in modern Chinese language via his fantasy about the past.
序言中的文字;第二,“潘将军”,这是王小波在《唐人故事》中的《叔叔的情人》中引用的同一原文,他在中篇小说中借用了唐朝小司法官员的性格;第三,《青龙羽》綠翹(Luqiao), 66 讲述了唐女诗人余玚玄机受审被处决的故事,叙述者王耳从中发展出主人公绝世的惩罚和死亡的支线情节。王晓波在王耳对这些唐故事的叙述中也融入了许多当代社会文化典故。事实上,与《唐人故事》不同的是,王小波将唐童故事和人物在文本中与现代元素混合在一起,但始终以现代标准汉语写作。因此,汪小波通过对过去的幻想,超越了现代中国语言所表现的当代时间性。

Simple as it is in narrative terms, Looking for Peerless nevertheless displays a maturing of Wang Xiaobo’s literary talent in constructing qi. Wang Er, in the narrative, does not acknowledge his source text, even though Wang Xiaobo the writer mentions the intertextual relation in his general preface. Secondly, Wang Er’s narration is completely delivered in modern Chinese. It is as if through Wang Er’s narration Wang Xiaobo declares that while this may be a fantasy of past times, it is built in the present and articulated in contemporary language and images.
尽管在叙事上很简单,《寻找绝世》却展示了王小波在建气方面的文学才华的成熟。王耳在叙述中并不承认他的原文,尽管作者王小波在他的总序言中提到了互文关系。其次,王耳的叙述完全是用现代汉语传达的。仿佛通过王耳的叙述,王晓波宣告,虽然这可能是过去的幻想,但它是建立在现在的,并以当代的语言和图像表达出来。

Wang Er the narrator tells the story through his own contemporary idiom. His fantasy derives from both his imagination and his wide reading of the past source texts. Wang Xiaobo portrays his narrator’s efforts to surpass the barriers to expressing this fantasy in the text. Self- reflexively representing Wang Er’s process of articulating fantasy through words reveals a potential role for the reader, i.e., witnessing the construction of fantasy. In other words, the
叙述者王耳通过他自己的当代成语讲述了这个故事。他的幻想既源于他的想象力,也源于他对过去源文本的广泛阅读。王晓波在文本中描绘了他的叙述者为超越表达这种幻想的障碍所做的努力。通过自我反省的方式再现王耳通过文字表达幻想的过程,揭示了读者的潜在作用,即见证幻想的建构。换言之,

66 TPGJ 922-23.

reader, exposed to the process of making a fantasy, is thus encompassed in that fantasy’s structure. In this process, the boundary between reader and writer is miraculously broken by the force of a clumsy narrator who struggles to narrate his story. Examining the beginnings of each of the ten chapters, we can see Wang Er’s various efforts to keep the narration under his own control:
因此,读者接触到了幻想的过程,被包含在幻想的结构中。在这个过程中,读者和作家之间的界限奇迹般地被一个笨拙的叙述者的力量打破,他努力叙述他的故事。纵观十章每一章的开头,我们可以看到王耳为将叙述置于自己的掌控之下而做出的各种努力:

Ch.

Chinese text
中文文本

English translation
英文翻译

1

建元年間,王仙客到長安城裏找無雙, 據他自己說,無雙是這副模樣:……(The Bronze Age, 522)
建元年间,王仙客到长安城里找无双, 据他自己说,无双是这副模样:...... (The Bronze Age, 522)

During the reign era of Jianyuan, Wang Xianke goes into the City of Changan to look for Peerlessand according to his own words, Peerless looks like
建元统治时期,王仙科深入长安城寻找绝世,按照他自己的话说,绝世长得像

this

2

王仙客到長安城去找無雙那一年,正好是二十五歲。(544)
王仙客到长安城去找无双那一年,正好是二十五岁。 (544)

Wang Xianke sets out for the City of Chang’an in order to look for Peerless, and in that year he is exactly twenty-five years old.
王先科为了寻找绝世,动身前往长安城,而那一年的他正好二十五岁。

3

王仙客到長安城裏找無雙,長安城市這麽一個地方:……(559)
王仙客到长安城里找无双,长安城市这么一个地方:...... (559)

Wang Xianke goes into the City of Chang’an in order to look for Peerless, and the City of Chang’an is such a place: …
王仙科进入长安城,就是为了寻找绝世,而长安城就是这样的地方:......

4

小時候我常做這樣的夢,……(577)
小时候我常做这样的梦,...... (577)

In my childhood I often had such dreams:
在我的童年时代经常做这样的梦:......

5

王仙客到宣陽坊裏找無雙,無雙總是找
王仙客到宣阳坊里找无双,无双总是找不

到。(594)

Wang Xianke comes to the Xuanyang Quarter to look for Peerless, and Peerless is never to be found.
王仙科来到轩阳区寻找绝世,绝世永远也找不到。

6

建元年間,王仙客和彩萍到宣陽坊裏去找無雙,和單獨來時大不一樣。(607)
建元年间,王仙客和彩萍到宣阳坊里去找无双,和单独来时大不一样。 (607)

During the reign era of Jianyuan, Wang Xianke and Caiping go into the Xuanyang Quarter to look for Peerless, and it is very different from the time he came alone.
建元统治时期,王仙科和彩平进入玄阳区寻找绝世,与他独自一人来的时候大相径庭。

7

王仙客和彩萍在宣陽坊找無雙,我認爲宣陽坊是個古怪地方,這裏的事情誰都說不太准。(626)
王仙客和彩萍在宣阳坊找无双,我认为宣阳坊是个古怪地方,这里的事情谁都说不太准。 (626)

Wang Xianke and Caiping are looking for Peerless in the Xuanyang Quarter, and in my opinion, it is strange place and no one can account for what is happening here.
王仙科和彩萍正在玄阳区寻找绝世,在我看来,这里是个奇怪的地方,没人能解释这里发生的事情。

8

王仙客到宣陽坊來找無雙,宣陽坊是孫老闆住的地方。(642)
王仙客到宣阳坊来找无双,宣阳坊是孙老板住的地方。 (642)

Wang Xianke arrives at the Xuanyang Quarter to look for Peerless, and it is the place where Boss Sun resides.
王仙科来到玄阳区寻找绝世,正是孙老板居住的地方。

9

王仙客在宣陽坊裏找無雙時,老看見房頂上一隻兔子。(661)
王仙客在宣阳坊里找无双时,老看见房顶上一只兔子。 (661)

When Wang Xianke is looking for Peerless in the Xuanyang Quarter, he always sees a rabbit on top of the roof.
王仙科在玄阳区寻找绝世的时候,总能看到屋顶上有一只兔子。

10

我不說你就知道,在我們身邊有好多人,他們的生活就是編一個故事。(676)
我不说你就知道,在我们身边有好多人,他们的生活就是编一个故事。 (676)

Without my saying it, you already know that all around us there are so many people, and that their lives are, in every way, the weaving of a story.
不用我说,你已经知道,我们周围有这么多人,他们的生活,在各个方面,都是编织一个故事。

Fig. 4. Chapter Beginnings in Looking for Peerless
图 4.篇章开始于寻找绝世

The first four chapters show that Wang Er is still in charge of his narration. The first sentences in these four chapters all involve Wang Xianke and the object of his quest, Peerless. In Chapter 1 Wang Er is most confident and points precisely to the target Peerless in his first sentence. In Chapter 2, his narrative focus switches to Wang Xianke, the subject carrying out the quest. In Chapter 3, the City of Chang’an, the setting in which the quest takes place, intrudes to unbalance his narration. Indeed, the reader as well as Wang Er becomes lost in the narratve uncertainty of that moment. To the reader, Wang Er’s fantasy about Wang Xianke and his love Peerless shifts from a vague outline to clear-cut detail, but ironically the initiating core of the fantasy blurs in the face of the solidity of its setting. As if to catch the fleeting object of his fantasized subject, Wang Er has to let them go first so as to merge himself into “their” location. So does the reader.
前四章表明,王耳仍然负责他的叙述。这四章的第一句话都涉及到王仙科和他的追求对象——绝世。在第一章中,王耳最为自信,在第一句话中就准确地指向了目标绝世。在第二章中,他的叙述重点切换到了执行任务的主体王仙科身上。在第三章中,任务发生的背景长安城闯入了他的叙述,打破了他的叙述的平衡。的确,读者和王耳都迷失在那一刻的叙述不确定性中。对读者来说,王耳对王仙科和他的爱情《绝世》的幻想从模糊的轮廓转变为清晰的细节,但具有讽刺意味的是,幻想的起始核心在其设定的坚实面前变得模糊不清。仿佛为了抓住他幻想的对象转瞬即逝的对象,王二不得不先让他们离开,以便将自己融入到“他们”的位置。读者也是如此。

In Chapter 4, Wang Er turns to his own inner world as the site of a quest. It is a point of departure in Wang Er’s efforts to initiate fantasy, and it implies that his previous efforts to build fantasy from historical images in external readings failed. It is as if to say that true fantasy first of all should originate from the creator’s own internal world, be it through childhood memory or youthful desire.
在第四章中,王二将自己的内心世界作为探索的地点。这是王耳开启幻想努力的一个出发点,也暗示着他之前在外部解读中从历史意象构建幻想的努力失败了。仿佛在说,真正的幻想首先应该起源于造物主自己的内心世界,无论是通过童年的记忆还是青年时期的欲望。

Chapter 5 renews as well as poignantly echoes Chapter 1. The subject,
主题
object, and setting of
的设置
the quest are all in the sentence again, yet,
又是这句话,然而,
the second half of the sentence provides a negative end to the journey, stating that the object of the quest is never to be attained. Similarly, as if to restore the lost focus, Wang Er starts his narration of the quest in the next chapter by
旅程的否定结束,表示追求的目标永远不会实现。同样,仿佛是为了找回失去的焦点,王二在下一章开始了他对探索的叙述
discussing the subject(s) of the quest; and not surprisingly, unlike the confidence in Chapter 2 with which he describes the twenty-five-year-old Wang Xianke in precise detail, all he can say about the subject in Chapter 5 is that the two subjects of the quest make the quest itself different. The diluted narrative continues in the next two chapters, where Wang Er tries to comprehend
讨论任务的主题;毫不奇怪,与第二章中他准确详细地描述二十五岁的王仙科的自信不同,他在第五章中对这个主题只能说,任务的两个主题使任务本身不同。在接下来的两章中,稀释的叙述仍在继续,王耳试图理解
through Wang Xianke’s experience the specific setting of the quest, i.e., the Xuanyang Quarter within the city of Chang’an. What Wang Er reaches in his narration, however, is a sense of increasing distance from his target. The Xuanyang Quarter, as he says, is a place where everything beyond understanding can happen, and is the home of a local boss who misleads the stranger yearning for his lost love. If the reader accepts Wang Er’s textual argument about
通过王先科的体验,确定了任务的具体设定,即长安城内的玄阳区。然而,王耳在叙述中达到的,却是一种与目标越来越远的感觉。正如他所说,玄阳区是一个一切无法理解的事情都可能发生的地方,也是当地老板的家,他误导了陌生人对他失去的爱情的渴望。如果读者接受王耳关于《王耳》的文本论证

looking for fantasy inside one’s own inner world, then Wang Xianke’s lost journey reveals the ruins of other people’s fantasies, which open up many possibilities. For example, enjoying the dramatic irony of the local boss lying to Wang Xianke, the reader may begin building a fantasy of his or her own, side by side with Wang Xianke’s frustration. Or, if the reader chooses to stay
在自己的内心世界里寻找幻想,然后王仙科的失落之旅,揭示了他人幻想的废墟,开启了许多可能性。例如,在欣赏当地老板对王仙科撒谎的戏剧性讽刺时,读者可能会开始构建自己的幻想,与王仙科的挫败感并存。或者,如果读者选择留下

outside Wang Er’s inner world, he or she may read in a more traditional way and see the fantasy collapse again.
在王耳的内心世界之外,他或她可能会以更传统的方式阅读,并再次看到幻想的破灭。

Chapter 9 is where reality and its attendant logic are fully dissolved by fantasy: before the eyes of Wang Xianke, a rabbit arrives. Wang Er successfully transforms his narration into a pure fantasy. This points to his belief that it goes without saying that fiction is fabricated around us. In Chapter 10, in concluding his story, Wang Er realizes that whatever we try to do is full of difficulties; and therefore according to his estimation, “Wang Xianke could not find Peerless.”67 This is the paradox of a failed fantasy. Exhausted by all his previous efforts, Wang Er ceases searching for fantasies external to him, and he admits that in his narrative Wang Xianke could not reach Peerless. Furthermore, the reader of the text may heed Wang Er’s conclusion and
第九章是现实及其随之而来的逻辑被幻想完全消解的地方:在王仙科的眼前,一只兔子来了。王耳成功地将他的叙述变成了纯粹的幻想。这表明他的信念是,不言而喻,小说是在我们周围捏造的。在第10章中,王耳在结束他的故事时意识到,无论我们试图做什么,都充满了困难;因此,按照他的估计,“王仙科找不到绝世”。 67 这是一个失败的幻想的悖论。由于之前的所有努力,王二已经筋疲力尽,他不再寻找外在的幻想,他承认在他的叙述中,王仙科无法达到绝世。此外,文中的读者可能会听从王二的结论,并

decide to break off reading Wang Er’s literary efforts. The text thus becomes an unfinished journey. But the text’s various transgressions serve as inspiration for the reader to start new journeys. Maybe at sometime, somewhere, somehow, he or she may accomplish his or her own fantasy as a result of reading Wang Xiaobo’s text. Then, the story of Looking for Peerless would continue. That’s the key enduring quality of qi that Wang Xiaobo achieves in this novella.
决定断绝阅读王耳的文学作品。因此,文本成为一个未完成的旅程。但是,文本中的各种过错为读者提供了灵感,让他们开始新的旅程。也许在某个时候,在某个地方,不知何故,他或她可能会因为阅读了王晓波的文字而实现自己的幻想。然后,《寻找绝世》的故事就要继续了。这就是王晓波在这部中篇小说中实现的气的关键持久品质。

Red Whisk Elopes at Night 紅拂夜奔 (Hongfu yeben)

Red Whisk Elopes at Night has two source texts: the Tang source text as noted in Chapter II, and Wang Xiaobo’s own short story “Red Whisk Elopes at Night” collected in Tales of the Tang People. This latter work casts much light on the 1990s novella Red Whisk Elopes at Night. The parallel narrative pattern of a contemporary Wang Er’s life, side by side with that of Li Jing
《红拂夜鹤》有两篇源文本:第二章记载的唐元原文,以及汪小波自己的短篇小说《红拂夜鹌》收录在《唐人故事篇》中。后一部作品对 1990 年代的中篇小说《红拂夜鹤》大有裨益。当代王耳生平与李静并存的平行叙事模式

67 Wang Xiaobo, The Bronze Age, 687.
67 王晓波,《青铜时代》,第687页。

and Red Whisk, exists also in the novella. However, Wang Xiaobo achieves greater narrative complexity here than he does in Looking for Peerless.
和红拂,也存在于中篇小说中。然而,王小波在这里实现了比他在《寻找绝世》中更大的叙事复杂性。

In the preface for Red Whisk Elopes at Night Wang Xiaobo states that his general credo in writing is that amusement (youqu 有趣) should be the raison d’être and benchmark for fiction. He complains that in historiography-oriented fiction writing, a writer feels like Dr. Faust in Goethe’s Faust: he can only helplessly lament the doomed loss of the beautiful moment. To achieve the beautiful moment, Wang Xiaobo insists on a writer’s freedom to produce the
在《红拂:夜晚的私奔》的序言中,王晓波表示,他在写作上的总信条是,娱乐(youqu 有趣)应该是小说存在的理由和基准。他抱怨说,在以史学为导向的小说写作中,作家感觉就像歌德的《浮士德》中的浮士德博士:他只能无助地哀叹注定要失去的美好时刻。为了实现美好的瞬间,王晓波坚持以作家的自由来创作

“fictional.” Later in the postscript note, “About the Book,” he introduces Wang Er, the first- person narrator/character, as he does in Looking for Peerless. The Wang Er in Red Whisk Elopes at Night is different from that in Looking for Peerless, and the difference subtly reveals Wang Xiaobo’s bold plan for constructing qi: Wang Er in Red Whisk Elopes at Night is younger (41 years old in 1993), has more training in writing (by profession he is an assistant researcher in mathematical theory in a university), and is more open to new experiences (living with a woman, Ms. Sun, but not married to her yet). Using a narrator with great potential to either cling to conventionality or break boundaries, Wang Xiaobo locates his goal in his reader’s response: “The book is as unbelievable as this person, but it contains the most truthfulness,” and announces that for “those readers who are familiar with history,” they would find the book
“虚构的。”在后记“关于这本书”中,他介绍了第一人称叙述者/人物王耳,就像他在《寻找绝世》中所做的那样。《红拂夜鹤私奔》中的王二与《寻找绝世》中的王二不同,这种不同巧妙地揭示了王晓波对建气的大胆计划:《红拂夜雁子私奔》中的王二更年轻(1993年41岁),受过更多的文字训练(按专业来说,他是一所大学的数理助理研究员), 并且对新体验持更开放的态度(与孙女士同居,但尚未与她结婚)。王小波用一个具有巨大潜力的叙述者,要么坚持常规,要么打破界限,将目标定在读者的反应中:“这本书和这个人一样令人难以置信,但它包含了最真实的东西”,并宣布对于“熟悉历史的读者”来说,他们会找到这本书

“more like a history book than a fictional work.” “That is exactly the author’s intention,” and if there is anything absurd in the book, “it is then not the author’s intention, but the true look of history.”68 Reading between the lines, these words show that Wang Xiaobo expects his readers to treat his first-person narrator as a fantasy who is also a truthful person, and to read his fiction
“与其说是一部虚构的作品,不如说更像是一本历史书。”“这正是作者的意图,”如果说书中有什么荒谬的地方,“那不是作者的意图,而是历史的真实面貌。 68 从字里行间看,这些话表明,王小波希望读者把他的第一人称叙述者当作一个幻想,也是一个真实的人,去阅读他的小说

68 Wang Xiaobo 274.

as a fantasy that is also as true as history. His expectation subverts the common sense division between fantasy and history held by most readers.
作为一种幻想,也与历史一样真实。他的期望颠覆了大多数读者对幻想和历史的常识性划分。

The status of the note itself is unusual, as it is not a note about the person in the
便笺本身的状态是不寻常的,因为它不是关于中人的状态
narrative, but a note about the book that the person in the narrative writes. If we read the note not
叙述,但叙述中的人写的关于这本书的注释。如果我们不阅读注释
as external to the narrative text but internal, the frame narrator for the tale is no longer
Wang Er but Wang Xiaobo, the writer, who provides the general narrative frame at the start. The rest of the story in Wang Er’s voice then must be read as speech by Wang Er reported by Wang Xiaobo the writer. The writing by Wang Xiaobo the writer then falls into the generic boundary of fiction rather than history: he is treating obviously fantastical elements (the story told by Wang Er) as though they were the truth. In this way, it is the very aspect of fantasy that shapes the essence of truthfulness. In other words, it is via fantasy that the factuality of history is truly revealed. His intended reader is persuaded not to read fiction in the “normal” way, but in a way that allows history to be presented in fiction, i.e., absurd, but true as it is presented. The lines
王二而是作家王晓波,他一开始就提供了大致的叙事框架。那么,以王耳的口吻讲述的故事,必须被解读为作者王小波所报道的王耳的演讲。于是,作家王小波的写作落入了小说而非历史的一般边界:他将明显的幻想元素(王耳讲述的故事)视为事实。这样一来,正是幻想的方面塑造了真实性的本质。换言之,正是通过幻想,历史的事实性才真正被揭示出来。他的目标读者被说服不要以“正常”的方式阅读小说,而是以一种允许历史在小说中呈现的方式,即荒谬的,但真实的呈现方式。线条

that divide fantasy from reality are forced to merge in the reader’s response. A writer’s fantasy is thereby made a reader’s reality. Or the reader may ignore this note about the book and follow a traditional way of reading, starting his/her journey with Wang Er’s narrative voice. Whatever choice is made, Wang Xiaobo provides an extra layer of complexity in this text that is part of the literary qi in his fiction.
幻想与现实的分界线被迫在读者的反应中融合在一起。因此,作家的幻想成为读者的现实。或者,读者可能会忽略这篇关于这本书的注释,遵循传统的阅读方式,以王耳的叙述声音开始他/她的旅程。无论做出什么选择,王小波在这个文本中都提供了额外的复杂性,这是他小说中文学气的一部分。

Such a writer’s note warns against a reader’s expectation of a totalized narrative in the fiction; instead, he or she is prepared to read the book as he or she experiences history. Details are presented to the reader’s eye, not in their comprehensible shapes as processed and contained by time and supplementary information, but in their immediate, fragmented, absolutely partial, and inevitably misleading way. Sometimes “history,” as rendered in Wang Er’s voice, is so
这样的作者注释警告读者不要期望小说中的整体叙述;相反,他或她准备在经历历史时阅读这本书。细节呈现在读者眼前,不是以它们经过时间和补充信息处理和包含的可理解的形状,而是以它们直接的、零碎的、绝对片面的、不可避免的误导性方式呈现。有时候,“历史”,正如王二的声音所呈现的那样,就是这样

similar to a reader’s contemporary perception that it is almost incomprehensible to see it as a fantasy in the reading.
类似于读者的当代观念,即在阅读中将其视为幻想几乎是不可理解的。

In Red Whisk Elopes at Night, Wang Xiaobo is even freer than in Looking for Peerless in his bold usage of modern Chinese language in writing a fantasy with a pre-modern background.
在《红拂:夜风鹌》中,王小波在大胆运用现代汉语写出一部具有前现代背景的奇幻小说上,甚至比《寻找绝世》还要自由。

All boundaries between past and present, between history and the perception of history, and
过去与现在之间的所有界限,历史与历史观念之间的所有界限,以及

between a writer’s expectation and a reader’s response are eliminated in this fantasy. The artistic freedom of roaming, or you , as I discussed in Chapter II, is fully revived in this text. He deploys a modern vernacular Chinese that is familiar to contemporary readers in this fantasy of a Tang tale full of pre-modern characters. Not only the modern Chinese language itself, but also all the symbolic powers of that language, all the connotations along with its terms and expressions, and all the associations with the images thus shaped by the language, inflect his literary world.
在这种幻想中,作家的期望和读者的反应之间被消除了。正如我在第二章所讨论的,“漫游”或“你”的艺术自由,在这篇文章中得到了充分的恢复。他在这部充满前现代人物的唐朝奇幻故事中运用了当代读者熟悉的现代白话汉语。不仅是现代汉语本身,而且这种语言的所有象征力量,所有的内涵,以及它的术语和表达方式,以及与由此形成的形象的所有联系,都影响着他的文学世界。

As early as in first chapter of Red Whisk Elopes at Night, the reader sees Li Jing living a life that is close to a contemporary reader’s experience, and yet the reader is told that the time setting is the Tang dynasty. A sense of absurdity stemming from this ironic disjuncture adds to the literary quality of qi. The reader is told that Li Jing is so intelligent and independent that he invents all kinds of instruments, among which some are beneficial to the society but earn him nothing. The only profitable instrument he invents earns him the favour of Emperor Taizong (Li Shimin) and subsequently deprives Li Jing of his freedom.69 Later in the same chapter, the narrative voice of Wang Er starts to speak in his capacity as a mathematical theorist, and claims that his great achievement is his discovery of the connection between pre-modern Chinese ballads and modern mathematical theorems. To a reader who shares a knowledge of pre-modern
早在《红拂夜风云》第一章中,读者就看到李静的生活与当代读者的经历接近,但读者却被告知时间背景是唐朝。由这种讽刺的脱节而产生的荒谬感增加了“气”的文学品质。读者被告知,李静是如此聪明和独立,以至于他发明了各种工具,其中有些对社会有益,但对他一无所获。他发明的唯一有利可图的工具为他赢得了太宗皇帝(李世民)的青睐,随后剥夺了李靖的自由。 69 在同一章的后面,王耳的叙述声音开始以数学理论家的身份发言,并声称他的伟大成就是他发现了前现代中国歌谣与现代数学定理之间的联系。致分享前现代知识的读者

69 Wang Xiaobo 281.

Chinese literature with the writer, this claim might sound more amusing than annoying. Amongst the blurred boundaries between past and present, mathematics and literature, history and fantasy, the reader finds out, with help from the narrator, that Li Jing’s great discovery of an important mathematical theorem remains unknown to anyone because he writes it out in the form of an erotic poem.70 The evidently illogical statement amuses the reader, and it also demonstrates that plausible worldly events are not the narrative core of this novella, but rather fantasy and its perception through absurdity.
与作者一起,这种说法听起来可能比令人讨厌更有趣。在过去与现在、数学与文学、历史与幻想之间模糊的界限中,读者在叙述者的帮助下发现,李静对一个重要数学定理的伟大发现,由于他以色情诗的形式写出来,所以仍然不为人知。 70 这种明显不合逻辑的陈述使读者感到有趣,也表明,似是而非的世俗事件并不是这部中篇小说的叙事核心,而是幻想和通过荒谬来感知它。

Guided and released by the freedom of roaming displayed by Wang Xiaobo in time,
在王小波及时展现出的漫游自由的指引和释放下,

language, and images, the reader is soon lost in Wang Er’s narrative voice. Li Jing of the Tang dynasty, in his clichéd romance with Red Whisk, loses much of his significance in this narrative. Instead, Wang Er starts to make comparisons between Li Jing’s mysterious research results that connect erotic poems with mathematical theory, and Wang Er’s own current, similar job. The difference between the two, as noted by Wang Er, is that Wang Er is paid by his “leaders” or “cadres” while Li Jing is kept in bondage to the Emperor. Wang Er’s conclusion is that he, as does Li Jing under the Emperor’s control, would think that there is no meaning in such a life.
语言和意象,读者很快就迷失在王耳的叙述声音中。唐朝的李靖,在他与红拂的陈词滥调的恋情中,在这个叙述中失去了大部分意义。取而代之的是,王耳开始将李静将情色诗与数学理论联系起来的神秘研究成果与王耳自己现在的类似工作进行比较。正如王耳所指出的,两者之间的区别在于,王尔是由他的“领导”或“干部”支付的,而李靖则被束缚在皇帝的奴役中。王二的结论是,他和皇帝控制下的李京一样,会认为这样的生活没有任何意义。

The rest of the narrative leaves off its description of Li Jing’s life in the city of Luoyang; instead, it now focuses upon Wang Er’s thoughts on the contemporary intellectual’s meaningless life. The seemingly illogical narrative is full of lively details that are familiar to modern audiences. For the reader, its historical absurdity bolsters its effectiveness. Qi thus emerges through transgressions of time and space produced by more complicated uses of
其余的叙述省略了对李京在洛阳城生活的描述;取而代之的是,它现在关注的是王耳对当代知识分子无意义生活的思考。看似不合逻辑的叙事,却充满了现代观众熟悉的生动细节。对于读者来说,它的历史荒谬增强了它的有效性。因此,“气”是通过更复杂的使用所产生的时间和空间的越界而出现的。

language and connotations that jar in the plot’s historical context.
语言和内涵在情节的历史背景下不相符。

The narrative becomes disjointed when Wang Er the narrator starts to insert his own contemporary life into the Tang tale he narrates, but the completeness of the narrative structure
当叙述者王耳开始将自己的当代生活插入到他所叙述的唐故事中时,叙事就变得脱节了,但叙事结构的完整性却变得不连贯了

70 Wang Xiaobo 261.

remains, existing alongside a parallel narrative strand in transpositioned time or space. For example, Chapter 1 begins with a description of Luoyang as a most magnificent city, and it ends with a ghastly rumour about “dish men” (cairen 菜人), i.e., human beings used for food.
遗骸,与平行的叙事线一起存在于移位的时间或空间中。例如,第一章一开始就描述了洛阳是最壮丽的城市,最后是关于“菜人”(cairen 菜人)的可怕谣言,即人类被用作食物。

According to Wang Er, “dish men” are recruited by the Emperor and then are served at national banquets for missionaries from foreign countries. The horrible part of the rumour is that sometimes dish men are eaten so as to preserve a hollow shell of their body; then they wake up on the plate, noticing that they have nothing but an empty husk of a body left. They would shout in alarm: “That’s the fear!”71 The rumour can be read as a political allegory of people deprived of rights, independent thought, and free will. Such a rumour forms a horrible contrast with the magnificent image of Luoyang as described in the beginning. Also, a contemporary reader of the description of Luoyang may recognize the shadow of modern Beijing in it. If so, his/her reading of the symbolic rumour may point to deeper interpretations. Meanwhile, Wang Er the narrator concludes his narrative with a reference to the city of Luoyang:
根据王耳的说法,“菜人”是由皇帝招募的,然后在国宴上为外国传教士服务。谣言的可怕之处在于,有时菜肴人被吃掉,以保持他们身体的空壳;然后他们在盘子上醒来,注意到他们只剩下一具空尸体。他们会惊恐地喊道:“这就是恐惧! 71 这个谣言可以被解读为一个政治寓言,即人们被剥夺了权利、独立思想和自由意志。这样的谣言与开头描述的洛阳的壮丽形象形成了可怕的对比。此外,对洛阳描述的当代读者可能会从中看出现代北京的影子。如果是这样,他/她对象征性谣言的解读可能会指向更深层次的解释。与此同时,叙述者王耳在叙述的结尾提到了洛阳市:

As far as I know, applicants for dish men positions are numerous every time the emperor starts to recruit them, because they all want to live in Luoyang for a few days before they are eaten. I can hardly make sense of it, for Luoyang is nothing but a muddy puddle. Besides, mosquitoes swarm there. But many people do not agree. To them, Luoyang is the centre of the universe, and it is where the sun rises. It is the greatest city anytime, anywhere.72
据我所知,每次皇帝开始招收菜男职位的申请者都很多,因为他们都想在洛阳住几天,然后再被吃掉。我几乎无法理解,因为洛阳只不过是一个泥泞的水坑。此外,蚊子在那里蜂拥而至。但很多人不同意。对他们来说,洛阳是宇宙的中心,也是太阳升起的地方。无论何时何地,它都是最伟大的城市。 72

The contrast between Wang Er’s down-to-earth yet superficial analysis of dish men’s “choices,” and his equally factual presentation of his opposite view of Luoyang enacts a paradox in its effect in the reader. The apparent fantasy in Wang Er’s literary words is indeed the reality of
王耳对菜人“选择”的实事求是而肤浅的分析,与同样实事求是地呈现他对洛阳的相反观点,两者在读者心中形成了一种悖论。王耳文学话语中明显的幻想,确实是事实。

71 Wang Xiaobo 306.

72 Wang Xiaobo 306.

actual life if read between the lines. In this case, Wang Er’s fantasy is not the opposite of his desire, but a subversive reflection of a deplorable reality. That reality’s core is veiled by a narrative voice that relates the narrator’s reflections upon his historical fantasy. Simultaneously, the reader, involved in the process of reading as well as in the construction of a fantasy through reading, crosses a dividing line and encounters the text in that transgressive manner.
如果在字里行间阅读,则实际生活。在这种情况下,王二的幻想并不是与他的愿望相反,而是对一个可悲现实的颠覆性反映。这一现实的核心被一种叙述的声音所掩盖,这种声音将叙述者的反思与他的历史幻想联系起来。同时,读者在参与阅读过程以及通过阅读构建幻想的过程中,越过了分界线,以这种越界的方式与文本相遇。

In Red Whisk Elopes at Night, Wang Xiaobo thus familiarizes an absurd fantasy of a historical past to achieve a sense of qi. Subtle use of the first-person narrative voice and bold experiments with modern Chinese language, as well as the language’s words, expressions, and images--all these help Wang Xiaobo transgress the limits of time and space in the narration.
在《红拂私奔》中,王小波通过熟悉一个荒诞的、对历史往事的幻想,达到一种气感。对第一人称叙述语态的巧妙运用和对现代汉语的大胆实验,以及语言的文字、表情和图像——所有这些都帮助王晓波在叙述中超越了时间和空间的限制。

Wang Xiaobo also creates a sense of distantiation in his text by inserting short “summaries” before most chapters narrated by Wang Er. The nine “summaries” are all short paragraphs in a pseudo-third-person voice, briefly summarizing the events in the chapters to follow, and providing key words that are thematically essential to these chapters’ narratives. These “summaries” sometimes emphasize that Wang Er is “the author,” and that “the author” is
王小波还通过在王二叙述的大多数章节前插入简短的“摘要”,在他的文本中营造了一种疏离感。这九个“摘要”都是伪第三人称的短段落,简要总结了接下来各章中的事件,并提供了对这些章节叙述主题至关重要的关键词。这些“摘要”有时强调,王耳是“作者”,而“作者”是

writing the text in relation to “the author’s” reality. In addition, from time to time, in these “summaries” Wang Xiaobo provides clues for an intertextual reading of the text narrated by Wang Er. For example, in the preface to Chapter VIII, he writes: “The content of this chapter is influenced by Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and the author closely resembles Kafka the great
根据“作者”的现实来撰写文本。此外,在这些“摘要”中,王晓波不时为王耳所叙述的文本提供互文解读的线索。例如,在第八章的序言中,他写道:“这一章的内容受到卡夫卡的《变形记》的影响,作者与卡夫卡大帝非常相似

master in personality.”73 The reader then reads with an intertextual awareness that in this chapter the Curly-Bearded Guest is transformed into a slimy, flat fish, with “soft and bent bones,” and “portrait-like facial features” after he becomes the King of Japan.74 The fish-shaped Curly- Bearded Guest develops “fishy virtues” that are defined as making love without emotion, acting
人格大师。 73 然后,读者以一种互文的意识阅读,在这一章中,卷胡子客人在成为日本国王后变成了一条黏糊糊的扁鱼,“骨头柔软而弯曲”,和“肖像般的面部特征”。 74 鱼形的卷发胡须客人发展出“鱼腥的美德”,这些美德被定义为没有情感的做爱,行动

73 Wang Xiaobo 448.

74 Wang Xiaobo 465.

“obedient and content in one’s place, […] never to rebel,” and installing “fishy virtues” as national laws.
“顺从和满足于自己的位置,[...]永不反抗“,并将”腥味美德“确立为国家法律。
75 Inserted in the narrative text of the fantasy is also Wang Er’s fragmentary account of his experience as an assistant to a “leader” who is reminiscent of the Curly-Bearded Guest.
在奇幻的叙述文本中,还插入了王二对自己作为“领导”助手的经历的零碎叙述,这个“领导”让人想起卷胡子客人。
Wang Er’s
Er's的
narrative tone is eloquent when he articulates his depression
抑郁症
and frustration at the fact that he has to feign obedience to his leader. He is also eloquent in analyzing the hollowness in his leader’s personality and research. This mood might be familiar to readers in similar situations, thus arousing
事实上,他必须假装服从他的领袖。他还雄辩地分析了领导者的性格和研究中的空洞性。在类似情况下,这种情绪对于读者来说可能很熟悉,从而引起共鸣
sympathy. When Wang Er narrates Japanese subjects’ relations with their King, the fish-shaped Curly-Bearded Guest, he portrays it as a form of false worship and instinctive fear. These responses to higher rank may be distanced from each other in space and time, but they share an essential insincerity. Therefore, no matter whether it is the familiarization of details and defamiliarization of voices, or vice versa, the reader encounters a fantasy that reflects an underlying reality.
Er 叙述了日本臣民与他们的国王的关系,即鱼形卷胡子客人,他将其描绘成一种虚假的崇拜和本能的恐惧形式。这些对更高等级的回应可能在空间和时间上彼此相距甚远,但它们都有一个本质的不真诚。因此,无论是对细节的熟悉和声音的陌生化,还是反之亦然,读者都会遇到反映潜在现实的幻想。

In Red Whisk Elopes at Night the narrative does not stress the sequence of plot events; instead, the events become a mere locus where human perception of a single event can travel across time and space, moving beyond the regular comprehension of the physical world.
在《红拂私奔之夜》中,叙事并不强调情节事件的顺序;取而代之的是,这些事件变成了一个纯粹的场所,人类对单一事件的感知可以跨越时间和空间,超越了对物理世界的常规理解。

Consequently, creative use of language creates a qi that transgresses the limits of normality. Absurd details are offered in a mode of alternating familiarization and defamiliarization.
因此,创造性地使用语言会产生一种超越正常界限的气。荒谬的细节以熟悉和陌生化的交替模式提供。

Furthermore, the reader is offered, in Wang Xiaobo’s “summaries,” a sophisticated approach for reading the texts via rich intertextual references. The fantasy thus presented in Red Whisk Elopes at Night is indeed another kind of reality in the sense that it is either contrary to surface reality or beneath it. Red Whisk Elopes at Night provides a loose plot that covers diverse characters and a long span of time mixing the stories of Li Jing, Red Whisk and the Curly-
此外,在王晓波的“摘要”中,为读者提供了一种通过丰富的互文引用来阅读文本的复杂方法。《红拂:夜晚的私奔》中呈现的幻想确实是另一种现实,从某种意义上说,它要么与表面现实相悖,要么在表面现实之下。《红拂子夜鹌猫破》提供了一个松散的情节,涵盖了不同的角色和长时间跨度,混合了李静、红拂和卷毛的故事。

Bearded Guest, along with information about Wang Er’s own private and intellectual life. The
大胡子客人,以及有关王二自己的私人和知识分子生活的信息。这

75 Wang Xiaobo 466.

reader, reminded incessantly by the “summaries” and by Wang Er’s lively modern Chinese language in his narration of premodern events, is made fully aware of the disjunctures in the temporality of the writing and thus has his or her attention drawn to the everlasting truth of fantasy in the writing rather a conventional sense of verismilitude.
读者在“摘要”和王耳生动的现代汉语叙述前现代事件的叙述中不断提醒着读者,充分意识到写作时间性的脱节性,从而将注意力吸引到写作中幻想的永恒真理上,而不是传统的真实感上。

The Temple of Longevity 萬壽寺 (Wanshou si)

The Temple of Longevity has been positively reviewed
检讨
by many critics. However,
然而
as with other
与其他
fictional works by
虚构作品
Wang Xiaobo, it seems critics are
小波,看来批评者是
most eager to decode
最渴望解码
its political and cultural meanings, and pay little attention to its sense of
它的政治和文化意义,而很少注意它的意义
qi. For example, Fang Wei considers it Wang
.比如,方伟就认为是王
Xiaobo’s work of fiction with “the freest style,” and interprets Wang Er’s
Er's的
repeated efforts to give clues about his own writing as a symbolic gesture to escape from reality.
努力提供有关他自己写作的线索,作为逃避现实的象征性姿态。
76 The text’s S/M scenes also cause much debate. Fang Wei argues that these scenes display Wang Xiaobo’s inevitable involvement in his own contemporary political world. My critical focus is more on
文本的 S/M 场景也引起了很多争论。方伟认为,这些场景表明了王晓波不可避免地卷入了他自己的当代政治世界。我的批判性重点更多地放在
the aesthetic and literary features through which Wang Xiaobo constructs
王晓波通过的审美和文学特质进行建构
qi. In my reading of
.在我的阅读中
The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
the S/M scenes are parts of Wang
S/M 场景是 Wang 的一部分
Er’s depicted fantasy life that reveal suppressed desires. Wang Er’s suppressed desire can be read as a subversive reflection of his everyday life through words and narration. Fang Wei also notices the narrator’s complex voice in the story,
揭示被压抑的欲望的生活。王耳被压抑的欲望,可以被解读为通过文字和叙述对他日常生活的颠覆性反映。方伟也注意到了叙述者在故事中复杂的语气,
yet his critical focus on political and social meanings leads him to understand the multiple levels hidden in the voice as instruments for displaying a “dialogue” between values represented by the “context” and the “individual” in the events. Fang Wei speaks little of the poetics of this complex voice, though. The “dialogical pattern” in the narrative text, however,
然而,他对政治和社会意义的批判性关注使他理解了隐藏在声音中的多个层次,作为展示“背景”所代表的价值观与事件中的“个人”之间的“对话”的工具。不过,方伟很少谈到这种复杂声音的诗意。然而,叙述文本中的“对话模式”,

76 Fang Wei 109, 114. Fang’s critical focus is very much on the political interpretation of the S/M scenes designed in the story, especially between Red Thread and Xue Song, between Young Prostitute and Red Thread, and between the Female Assassin and Red Thread.
76 方伟, 109, 114.方的批判重点非常集中在对故事中设计的S/M场景的政治解读上,尤其是红线和薛松之间,年轻和红线之间,以及女刺客和红线之间。

does cause some critics to complain on aesthetic grounds. Wang Aisong, for example, notes that the “dialogical pattern” degrades the fluency of the text and breaks the narrative rhythm.77 In his opinion, Wang Xiaobo’s efforts to exhaust multiple possibilities of narrating one story spoil the “artistry” of fiction writing.78
确实导致一些评论家以审美为由抱怨。例如,王爱松指出,“对话模式”降低了文本的流畅性,打破了叙事节奏。 77 在他看来,王晓波试图穷尽叙述一个故事的多种可能性,破坏了小说写作的“艺术性”。 78

I would argue that, far from spoiling the “artistry” of fiction writing, Wang Xiaobo
我认为,王小波非但没有破坏小说写作的“艺术性”,反而
offers a new point of departure for Chinese fiction in
为中国小说提供了一个新的出发点
The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
. The qi that Wang Xiaobo defines in the book multiplies readerly responses as readers are forced to negotiate different paths to a new point. If the reader believes that the writer of the text is the sole producer of textual meaning, then Wang Aisong’s complaint of Wang Xiaobo’s lack of “artistry”
王晓波在书中定义的,当读者被迫通过不同的途径来达到一个新的观点时,读者的反应成倍增加。如果读者认为文本的作者是文本意义的唯一生产者,那么王爱松就抱怨王小波缺乏“艺术性”
is understandable.
可理解的。
For such readers,
这样的读者,
while he resides beyond the published text, Wang Xiaobo as the writer is always the sole authority to provide a “truly” comprehensive perception of the world(s) represented within the text. In this model, if the writer leaves any space for competing interpretations, then it signals the writer’s failure to contain the meanings of his text. On the other hand, if the reader believes that the text is a space where writer and reader meet across time and space to share messages, as I described in Chapter I, then Wang Xiaobo’s literary
作为作者,王晓波始终是对文本所代表的世界提供“真实”全面感知的唯一权威。在这个模型中,如果作者为相互竞争的解释留下了任何空间,那么它就表明作者未能包含其文本的含义。另一方面,如果读者认为文本是作者和读者跨越时空相遇以分享信息的空间,正如我在第一章中所描述的那样,那么王晓波的文学作品
moves in
搬进来
The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
provide a perfect field for such an exchange. Indeed, it
为这样的交流提供了一个完美的领域。事实上,它
is the latter
笑声
type of autonomous readers for whom Wang Xiaobo writes--his texts may even be seen as using
被视为使用
a sense of qi to grant his readers the freedom to roam within the realm of multiple
赋予他的读者在多元领域中漫游的自由
interpretations.

However, even under the more traditional model of writer as god, Wang Aisong’s complaint is unreasonable, for he fails to distinguish Wang Xiaobo the writer, from Wang Er the
然而,即使在更传统的以作家为神的模式下,王爱松的抱怨也是无理有据的,因为他没有区分作家王小波和作家王耳。

first-person narrator, from Wang Er the character. Under the collaborative writer/reader model,
第一人称叙述者,出自王耳这个角色。在协作作者/读者模式下,

77 Wang Aisong, Cultural Positions and Narrative Arts of Contemporary Writers (dangdai zuojia de wenhua lichang yu xushi yishu 當代作家的文化立場與叙事藝術 [Nanjing: Nangjing UP, 2004]) 308.
77 王爱松:《当代作家的文化立场与叙事艺术》,第308页。

78 Wang Aisong 311.

the text Wang Xiaobo provides can be viewed as intentionally and explicitly challenging the belief that the writer is the sole reliable source of textual meaning. Meaning is instead negotiated in the text between the writer, who leaves early, and the reader, who comes late. Such a
王晓波提供的文本可以被看作是有意和明确地挑战了作者是文本意义的唯一可靠来源的信念。相反,意义是在文本中由早退的作者和迟到的读者之间协商的。这样的

challenge necessitates the breaching of “fluency” in the text and yet prioritizes the lyrical force of language in creating poetic connections between writer and reader within the text. The text of The Temple of Longevity illustrates such a challenge and the possible meanings thus produced by such transgressions.
《挑战》要求打破文本中的“流畅性”,但又优先考虑语言的抒情力量,在文本中创造作者和读者之间的诗意联系。《长寿神殿》的文字说明了这样的挑战,以及这种过犯可能产生的意义。

The first of the three novellas in The Bronze Age, The Temple of Longevity displays the most prominent qualities of qi in all of Wang Xiaobo’s fiction. The general preface for The Bronze Age can be read as devoted mostly to this masterpiece of writing, given that the other two novellas each have their own minor preface. In this “general” preface Wang Xiaobo stresses the relevance of poetic rhythm and lyrical language to good fiction writing. He also applauds the great contributions of modern Chinese poets/translators, who have helped the formation of modern literary Chinese, a language that according to his own words is best designed for writing poetry and fiction.
作为《青铜时代》三部中篇小说中的第一部,《万岁神殿》展现了王小波所有小说中最突出的气质。《青铜时代》的一般序言可以看作是主要针对这部杰作的,因为其他两部中篇小说都有自己的小序言。在这篇“总则”序言中,王晓波强调了诗歌节奏和抒情语言与优秀小说写作的相关性。他还赞扬了现代中国诗人/翻译家的巨大贡献,他们帮助形成了现代文学中文,用他自己的话说,这种语言最适合写诗和小说。

Wang Xiaobo’s promotion of literariness in modern Chinese fiction via these statements conveniently answers the questions that I raised at the outset of my dissertation. To Wang Xiaobo, a modern literary Chinese language, suitable for writing both fiction and poetry, is instrumental in helping him valorize human perceptions over an account of bare events narrated in a text. Wang Xiaobo thus opposes the elimination or domestication of qi in fiction. Instead, he adds a new aspect to it through his unique understanding of fiction, fantasy, and the processes of communication with the reader through the symbolic power of language. Below, I analyze the
汪晓波通过这些陈述对中国现代小说文学性的推广,方便地回答了我在论文开始时提出的问题。对王晓波来说,一门既适合写小说又适合写诗的现代文学语言,在帮助他评估人类对文本中叙述的裸露事件的认知方面发挥了重要作用。因此,王晓波反对小说中气的消除或驯化。相反,他通过对小说、幻想以及通过语言的象征力量与读者交流的过程的独特理解,为它增加了一个新的方面。下面,我分析了

poetics of qi in The Temple of Longevity. The story exemplifies his writing in this category, and he engages almost all the techniques I have discussed before, but now with full maturity.
《长寿神殿》中的气诗学。这个故事体现了他在这个类别中的写作,他几乎采用了我之前讨论过的所有技巧,但现在已经完全成熟了。

Wang Er again appears in The Temple of Longevity as a first-person narrator. He loses his memory in the beginning and thus turns himself into an unwitting reader of his own manuscript. Such an identity conveniently dissolves potential barriers between reader and writer, between writer and text, and between reader and text. Wang Er as the amnesia patient reading his own past, acquires a privileged position that allows him to roam across restrictions freely. Transgressing the frame narrative he himself has written, he is the reader/writer revising it forever. Trying to comprehend a forgotten part of his self in this writing, he is a reader who makes new discoveries in the reading process. Interacting with other characters beyond his earlier text but inside his current journey to find himself, he literally lives through the creation
王二再次以第一人称叙述者的身份出现在《长寿神殿》中。他一开始就失去了记忆,因此在不知不觉中变成了自己手稿的读者。这种身份方便地消除了读者与作者之间、作者与文本之间以及读者与文本之间的潜在障碍。王二作为失忆症患者,阅读着自己的过去,获得了特权地位,使他可以自由地跨越限制。他超越了他自己写的框架叙述,他是永远修改它的读者/作家。在这篇文章中,他试图理解自己被遗忘的部分,他是一个在阅读过程中有新发现的读者。与他早期文本之外的其他角色互动,但在他当前寻找自我的旅程中,他确实生活在创造中

of meaning in writing and reading. The literary quality of qi finds its freest form of expression in this novella.
写作和阅读的意义。“气”的文学品质在这部中篇小说中得到了最自由的表达形式。

In his efforts to decode and rewrite a familiar manuscript, Wang Er comes to realize that he himself writes the unfinished story about Xue Song and Red Thread. He remembers that his “real” social identity is a research assistant in the field of history studies and that his work station is located within the Temple of Longevity. As in all of Wang Xiaobo’s other
在努力解码和重写一份熟悉的手稿时,王耳意识到他自己写了关于薛松和红线的未完成的故事。他记得,他的“真实”社会身份是历史研究领域的研究助理,他的工作站位于长寿神庙内。就像王小波的所有其他作品一样

historiography fantasies, Research Assistant Wang Er’s contemporary world is analogous to the Tang tale he selects to re-write. Yet Wang Er’s reading/re-writing of the Tang source text is transformative and at times subversive. For example, when re-telling the Tang tale of marvels in his modern version, Wang Er at a certain point identifies himself as Xue Song’s young lover in
史学幻想中,研究助理王二的当代世界与他选择改写的唐故事相似。然而,王耳对唐代原文的解读/改写是变革性的,有时甚至是颠覆性的。例如,在现代版本中重述唐朝的奇迹故事时,王耳在某个时刻将自己认定为薛松的年轻情人。

the capital city of Chang’an. It is a move that not only transgresses the line between the writer and the character, but also between genders. Once that line is crossed, he starts composing a
首都长安。这一举动不仅超越了作家和角色之间的界限,而且也超越了性别之间的界限。一旦越过这条线,他就开始创作

new story within the frame story. With the force of literary transgression made possible by his amnesia, Wang Er the narrator escapes almost all boundaries. He no longer consistently identifies himself with any single one character in his fiction and thus finds himself at ease in his own fantasy.
框架故事中的新故事。凭借健忘症带来的文学越界的力量,叙述者王耳几乎摆脱了所有的界限。他不再始终将自己与小说中的任何一个角色联系起来,因此发现自己在自己的幻想中自在。

The risk of such a freedom of roaming is also implied in Wang Xiaobo’s writing. For example, when Wang Er, the writer suffering from amnesia, is aware of the division between himself and the forgotten self who wrote the manuscript, he becomes a more critical reader. His narrative then opens up broader interpretive horizons for himself and for the reader of the narrative about his reading of his narrative. However, once his narration drags him completely into the writing and provides a complete realization of his new meanings, then the text is so heavily revised by him that he, the amnesia patient, becomes the new authoritative author, supplanting the pre-amnesia version of his self. The reader of the text is then excluded from his narration as he, the new author of new meanings, approaches the end of his project to fix the meaning and leaves little space for any other interpretation. This exploration into the risks associated with the freedom of roaming
这种自由漫游的风险也隐含在王晓波的文字中。例如,当患有健忘症的作家王耳意识到自己与写稿子的被遗忘的自我之间的分裂时,他就变成了一个更具批判性的读者。然后,他的叙述为他自己和叙述的读者打开了更广阔的解释视野,了解他对叙述的解读。然而,一旦他的叙述将他完全拖入写作中,并提供了对他的新含义的完全实现,那么文本就会被他如此严重地修改,以至于他,健忘症患者,成为新的权威作者,取代了他健忘症前的自我版本。然后,文本的读者被排除在他的叙述之外,因为他,新含义的新作者,接近他修复意义的项目的尾声,几乎没有留下任何其他解释的空间。这种对与漫游自由相关的风险的探索
in creating qi is something new for Wang
对王来说是新事物
Er. Indeed, in
的。事实上,在
The Temple of Longevity, Wang Er’s
Er's的
journey into the land of fantasy gradually becomes a lonely quest for possibilities for his own identity that constantly threatens to slip away from him. In “Red Thread Steals the Casket” in
孤独地寻求自己身份的可能性,不断威胁着要从他身边溜走。在《红线偷棺材》中
Tales of the Tang People,
唐人故事,
Wang Er the narrator often quotes from “historical documents” in order to defend himself, but in the latter half of the narrative in
叙述者王耳为了为自己辩护,经常引用“史料记载”,但在叙述的后半部分
The Temple of Longevity,
长寿寺,
Wang Er as the first-person narrator sounds increasingly
作为第一人称叙述者的呃听起来越来越多
indifferent to his intended reader and does not bother to explain at all. At some points, Wang Er’s narrative reads like a monologue. For example, in the last chapter of the novella, Wang Er describes the
对他的目标读者漠不关心,根本不费心解释。在某些时候,王耳的叙述读起来像是独白。例如,在中篇小说的最后一章中,王耳描述了

landscape of the city of Chang’an, and his text is carefully structured, so no space is left for the
长安城的风景,他的文字结构严密,所以没有留下任何空间留给

210

reader’s inference of other possible interpreations. It is “Wang Er’s” Chang’an and only that. Yet the reader is also aware that this is a Wang Er re-assembled by Wang Xiaobo piece by piece, for Wang Er’s previous narration shows the reader his quest for memories. At the end, when Wang Er, after being incessantly criticized by his factual wife, the “woman in white,” exhausts his narrative and finally concludes his tale, he has to fully acknowledge his factual life. Then he finds himself ultimately separated from his fantasy and must return to everyday worldliness. He is thereby apparently re-connected with his readers again as he now shares with his readers the despair of witnessing a collapsed fantasy; he becomes the object of their reading rather than the author of his own story.
读者对其他可能的干预的推断。是“王二”的长安,也仅此而已。但读者也知道,这是王小波一步一步重新组装的王耳,因为王耳之前的叙述向读者展示了他对记忆的追寻。最后,当王二在被他的事实妻子“白衣女人”不断批评后,用尽了他的叙述,最后结束了他的故事,他不得不完全承认自己的真实生活。然后他发现自己最终与他的幻想分离,必须回到日常世俗。因此,他显然再次与他的读者重新建立了联系,因为他现在与他的读者分享了目睹一个崩溃的幻想的绝望;他成为他们阅读的对象,而不是他自己故事的作者。

This interpretation of The Temple of Longevity’s ending is not the only possible one, though. Read in the context of the whole narrative, such a desperate ending can point in a different direction. Indeed, for a reader willing to join Wang Xiaobo’s textual trip across various borders, the ending could be an example of the ultimate cooperation of writer and reader in creating literary fantasy.
不过,这种对《长寿神殿》结局的解释并不是唯一可能的解释。从整个叙事的背景来看,这样的绝望结局可以指向一个不同的方向。的确,对于一个愿意加入王小波跨越国界的文本之旅的读者来说,这个结局可能是作家和读者在创造文学幻想时最终合作的一个例子。

The multiple positions of the first-person narrator also make possible the double and subtly intertwined plots. On the one hand, we have a story of how Wang Er finds his lost memory through reading, re-writing, and completing his own draft before he even knows it is his own manuscript; on the other hand, we have a tale of Xue Song and Red Thread that is
第一人称叙述者的多重位置也使双重和微妙交织的情节成为可能。一方面,我们有一个故事,讲述了王耳如何通过阅读、重写和完成自己的草稿来找到他失去的记忆,甚至在他不知道这是自己的手稿之前;另一方面,我们有一个关于薛松和红线的故事,那就是

intratextually adapted from Wang Xiaobo’s “Red Thread Steals the Casket.” Wang Xiaobo adds more characters to the 1990s version, and pays less attention to the events in the tale of Xue Song and Red Thread. Unlike the 1980s tale, the reader comes to know the novella’s minor characters in the same way that Wang Er gropes for a full knowledge of his own actual life. As with “Red Thread Steals the Casket,” the frame story of the novella tells how Xue Song leaves
文内改编自王晓波的《红线偷棺材》。王小波在1990年代的版本中增加了更多的人物,对薛松和红线故事中的事件关注较少。与1980年代的故事不同,读者了解中篇小说中的次要人物的方式与王二为自己的实际生活提供全面了解的方式相同。与《红线偷棺材》一样,这部中篇小说的框架故事讲述了薛松是如何离开的

Chang’an for the Miao region in southeastern China in pursuit of fame and honor. There, his rival, General Tian, attempts to assassinate him, but he
长安为中国东南部苗族地区追求名利和荣誉。在那里,他的对手田将军试图暗杀他,但他
is rescued by
被救出
the talents of his lover
他爱人的才能
Red Thread. Within such a frame, the novella develops a fantasy that contains so many minor characters full of vitality and subversive potential that, textually speaking, it threatens to break through
红线。在这样的框架下,这部中篇小说发展出一种幻想,其中包含了如此多充满生命力和颠覆潜力的次要人物,从文本上讲,它有可能突破
the narrative frame. For example, the novella presents very characterizations
特征
of two sets of contrasting minor characters: the aged and young prostitutes who live in Xue Song’s barracks, and the male and female assassins. These newly added characters enlarge the space in the text where the reader can extend his/her interpretation. Also, the delicate balance between enriching the narrative through these characters and potentially breaking through the frame narrative with these characters’ own minor narratives, reminds the reader of Wang Er’s various narrative positions. This balance adds challenge and amusement to the reader’s experience of the text, and it becomes part of Wang Xiaobo’s special quality of
一组对比鲜明的小人物:住在薛松军营的老年和年轻的,以及男性和女性刺客。这些新添加的字符扩大了文本中的空间,读者可以在其中扩展他/她的解释。此外,通过这些人物丰富叙事,与可能用这些人物自身的次要叙事突破框架叙事之间的微妙平衡,让读者想起了王耳的各种叙事立场。这种平衡为读者对文本的体验增添了挑战和趣味,也成为王晓波特殊品质的一部分。
qi.

Wang Xiaobo’s skillful experiments with the transgressing aspect of the identity of his first-person narrator open more possibilities for the reader in experiencing the text. The reader is challenged by such trangressions and must respond to the challenge through active reading to make sense from the story. Wang Xiaobo the writer also challenges himself in the act of writing. For example, in the final two chapters, the double narratives gradually become one in Wang
王晓波巧妙地实验了第一人称叙述者身份的越界性,为读者在体验文本时打开了更多的可能性。读者受到这种违法行为的挑战,必须通过积极阅读来回应挑战,才能从故事中理解。作家王晓波也在写作行为上挑战自我。比如在最后两章中,双重叙事在王氏身上逐渐成为一体

Er’s narration. Using the first-person voice, Wang Xiaobo twists Wang Er’s narration into a
二的旁白。王晓波使用第一人称的声音,将王二的叙述扭曲成一个

monologue, where Wang Er and Xue Song finally become one as Wang Er’s “monologue” gets more and more delusional. Then, in his efforts to continue telling the tale, he comes to a
独白,王二和薛松终于合二为一,王二的“独白”越来越妄想。然后,在他努力继续讲述这个故事的过程中,他得出了一个

revelation, claiming himself/herself to be Xue Song’s lover. In other words, Wang Er the narrator becomes many figures in the text. The reader has been following Wang Er’s long
启示,声称自己是薛松的情人。换言之,叙述者王耳在文本中成为了许多人物。读者一直关注着王耳的著作

progress towards this moment, and if he or she accepts all the previous fantasies of Wang Er, he or she would probably accept the last fantasy as well.
向这一刻迈进,如果他或她接受了王二之前的所有幻想,他或她可能也会接受最后的幻想。

That being said, The Temple of Longevity is also a fantasy in which acts of reading and re-writing are tentatively decoded; it thus exemplifies a new outlet for a “dying” fiction. Wang Xiaobo the writer endows Wang Er with the identity of a historian/writer suffering from amnesia. The text narrated by such a first-person yet fragmentary voice cannot possibly be closed; instead, in order to present the process of assembling lost pieces of events, the text has to appear seductively ambiguous, inviting the reader’s interpretation.
话虽如此,《长寿神殿》也是一个幻想,其中阅读和重写的行为被试探性地解码;因此,它为“垂死的”小说提供了一个新的出路。作家王晓波赋予了王耳一个患有健忘症的历史学家/作家的身份。由这样一个第一人称而又零碎的声音叙述的文本不可能被封闭;取而代之的是,为了呈现将丢失的事件片段组装起来的过程,文本必须显得诱人的模棱两可,邀请读者进行解释。

Wang Xiaobo’s intertextual construction of
王晓波的互文建构
qi is more ambitious here than in any of his other
在这里,他比他的任何其他人都更有野心
stories. For example, Wang Er, as the reader/writer/editor
读者/作家/编辑
of his own text, gradually recalls his other readings in life, among which are works by Patrick Modiano, Kafka, and the Tang source text of the novella “Red Thread.” Every time Wang Er mentions these potential source texts, he shows how he integrates elements of those readings into his own “writing”. For example,
回忆起他生活中的其他阅读,其中包括帕特里克·莫迪亚诺、卡夫卡的作品和中篇小说《红线》的唐代原文。每次提到这些可能的原始文本时,王耳都展示了他如何将这些阅读的元素融入到自己的“写作”中。例如
Rue des Boutiques Obscures
晦涩难懂的商店街
by Modiano appears in the first line of the novella, and this conveniently helps Wang Er begin his narrative. After the first line quoted from
莫迪亚诺的诗篇出现在中篇小说的第一行,这方便地帮助了王耳开始他的叙述。在第一行之后引用自
Rue des Boutiques Obscures
晦涩难懂的商店街
, Wang Er relates his perception of that book as an object in his physical world: its location (“on the windowsill”), its colourful cover (“in black and yellow”), its paper quality (“rough”) , and its surroundings (a patient’s room in early morning sunshine).
,王耳讲述了他对那本书作为他物理世界中的一个物体的感知:它的位置(“窗台上”)、彩色的封面(“黑色和黄色”)、它的纸张质量(“粗糙”)和它的周围环境(清晨阳光下的病房)。
79 The sequence of the narration is fragmentary, conforming to the perspective of an immediate observer. It thus displays Wang Er’s perceptions as being immediate, familiar, and accessible to the reader. We might note, however, that the content of the book is not mentioned. Only the surface reality of the book registers with Wang Er the observer, yet he feels that he must be its
叙述的顺序是零碎的,符合直接观察者的视角。因此,它显示了王耳的感知是直接的、熟悉的和读者可以理解的。然而,我们可能会注意到,这本书的内容没有被提及。只有书的表面现实与观察者王耳有关,但他觉得自己一定是它的

owner and must have read it at some point in the past. And yet, Wang Er is not certain to whom
所有者,并且必须在过去某个时候阅读过它。然而,王二并不确定对谁

79 Wang Xiaobo, The Bronze Age, 5.
79 王晓波,《青铜时代》,第5页。

the book belongs; he feels that it might belong to someone else, and so it is with a somewhat uneasy heart he takes it. After a long period of temporary ownership, he finally claims it as his own. Then later he realizes that he was in fact the legitimate owner all along. When he is discharged from the hospital, he leaves the book there, giving up ownership of the physical object. But, by this time, his thorough reading of it has already made him the virtual owner of its content. He leaves the hospital and starts his journey of self-discovery, just like the protagonist in Rue des Boutiques Obscures. In Wang Xiaobo’s story, the act of reading literally changes Wang Er’s life.
这本书属于;他觉得它可能属于别人,所以他怀着某种不安的心情接受了它。经过长时间的临时所有权,他终于将其据为己有。后来他意识到,他实际上一直都是合法的所有者。当他从医院出院时,他把书留在那里,放弃了对实物的所有权。但是,到这个时候,他对它的透彻阅读已经使他成为其内容的虚拟所有者。他离开医院,开始了他的自我发现之旅,就像《Rue des Boutiques Obscures》中的主人公一样。在王小波的故事中,读书的行为确实改变了王二的一生。

Wang Er is indeed a reader of Modiano’s text and he is changed by his act of reading. The copy of Rue des Boutiques Obscures is a clear example of the destiny of the text. Once published, Modiano the writer cannot do anything to change the text that has gone out into the world; waiting between the covers, the text belongs to no one until it is read. The meaning that Modiano inscribes in his writing awaits decoding by Wang Er the reader. Wang Er first hesitates before the meaningless object; only by taking the book and reading the text therein does he finally own it. The fate of Rue des Boutiques Obscures foreshadows that of Wang Er’s own manuscript in The Temple of Longevity.
王耳确实是莫迪亚诺文本的读者,他的阅读行为改变了他。Rue des Boutiques Obscures 的副本是文本命运的一个明显例子。一旦出版,作家莫迪亚诺就无法做任何事情来改变已经走向世界的文本;在封面之间等待,文本在被阅读之前不属于任何人。莫迪亚诺铭刻在自己作品中的意義,有待读者王耳来解读。王二在无意义的客体面前先是犹豫了一下;只有拿起这本书,阅读其中的文字,他才能最终拥有它。《晦涩的精品街》的命运,预示着王二自己在《长寿神殿》中的手稿的命运。

The beginning chapter of The Temple of Longevity sets up Wang Er as a first-person narrator/reader, and by allowing Modiano to be nothing but a name related to Rue des Boutiques Obscures, the narrative in Wang Er’s voice turns the book into an object of Wang Er’s reading, thus prioritizing Wang Er the reader over Modiano the writer in disclosing the message encoded in a published text. The portrayal of such productive reading is positive, considering that Wang Er, not unlike the readers who face the text narrated by Wang Er, also searches for his own
《长寿神殿》开篇将王耳设定为第一人称叙述者/读者,通过让莫迪亚诺只不过是一个与《朦胧街》有关的名字,王耳声音的叙述将书变成了王耳阅读的对象,从而在揭示已发表的文本中编码的信息时,将读者王耳置于作者莫迪亚诺之上。考虑到王耳与面对王耳叙述的文本的读者不同,也在寻找自己的文字,这种富有成效的阅读的刻画是积极的

factual memory through reading. In this sense the reader of Wang Er’s narrative is similarly
通过阅读获得事实记忆。从这个意义上说,王耳叙述的读者也是类似的

prepared for the next part of the text. Wang Er returns to his actual life facing his own
为文本的下一部分做准备。王二回归到自己的现实生活中,面对自己

manuscript without recognizing his ownership and authorship of it: “In front of me lies a tale. I have no choice other than reading it.”80 Then he continues: “I open the volume randomly, and it happens to be the beginning of the tale.”81 He finds that it is a tale about Red Thread, and Wang Er applies his experience with Modiano’s text to the text about Red Thread:
手稿,却不承认他的所有权和作者身份:“在我面前躺着一个故事。除了阅读它,我别无选择。 80 然后他继续说:“我随机打开了这本书,它恰好是故事的开始。 81 他发现这是一个关于红线的故事,王二将他对莫迪亚诺文本的经验应用到了关于红线的文本中:

If I were not the writer of the tale, then no one could be, even though I do not recall any part of the tale. The manuscripts lie here, just like Rue des Boutiques Obscures on the windowsill at the hospital. If I had not come to claim it, then no one would. There are objects without owners in this world, exactly because there are memories lost by people.82
如果我不是这个故事的作者,那么没有人能是,即使我不记得这个故事的任何部分。手稿就躺在这里,就像医院窗台上的 Rue des Boutiques Obscures 一样。如果我没有来认领它,那么没有人会来认领它。这个世界上有没有主人的物品,正是因为人们失去了记忆。 82

Wang Er the reader is now the writer. The text awaits Wang Er’s interpretation, and the message the writer, who is the former self of Wang Er, leaves in the text beforehand is now subject to Wang Er’s revising and interpretation through reading. If the reader of The Temple of Longevity accepts Wang Er’s act of revision as legitimate, then the dramatic irony here emphasizes freedom in the act of reading. In the novella, it is Wang Er’s act of decoding his own message that he encoded before and later forgot. His loss of past memory makes his conventionally legitimate re-writing of his own old text a virtual violation of the text in his capacity as an active reader: as a reader/former writer, he changes the text from time to time without consulting the permission of his lost former self, and yet is entitled to such transforming actions.
王耳,读者,现在是作者。文本等待着王耳的解读,而作者作为王耳的前身,事先在文本中留下的信息,现在正受制于王耳通过阅读进行修改和解释。如果说《长寿寺》的读者认为王耳的修改行为是合理的,那么这里的戏剧性讽刺则强调了阅读行为的自由。在中篇小说中,是王二解码自己信息的行为,他之前编码了,后来忘记了。他失去了过去的记忆,使他以积极读者的身份对他自己的旧文本进行传统上合法的重写,实际上违反了文本:作为读者/前作家,他在未经失去的前自我许可的情况下不时更改文本,但有权采取这种改变行动。

Such a controversy caused by textual dramatic irony is crucial to Wang Xiaobo’s
这种由文本戏剧性讽刺引发的争议,对王小波的《王小波》至关重要。
qi in The Temple of Longevity. The appeal of the seemingly vulnerable text, the hesitation
犹豫
to violate it as a reader, the incredulity at the potentiality
作为读者,它对潜力的怀疑
implied in its incompleteness--all these sentiments
隐含在它的不完备性中——所有这些情绪

80 Wang Xiaobo 8.

81 Wang Xiaobo 8.

82 Wang Xiaobo 8.

find subtle and precise expression in the narrator’s own words, his pauses in narration, and his repeated efforts to experiment with the development of textual events. Therefore, while Wang Aisong labels such interruptions of the narrative as violations of artistry, I argue that they are the contrary. Instead, I believe Wang Xiaobo’s poetics of reading and writing fiction through qi are embodied in his presentation of these interruptions, in Wang Er’s reacquisition of confidence in re-writing, and in the increasingly independent tales of fantasy appearing in Wang Er’s text. The fantasy in the unfinished tale in the manuscript falls under the control of Wang Er, the self- defined independent reader. The text enveloping Wang Er’s reading acts subsequently reveals
在叙述者自己的话语中寻找微妙而精确的表达,在叙述中的停顿,以及他反复尝试文本事件发展的努力。因此,尽管王爱松将这种叙事的中断称为违反艺术性的现象,但我认为它们恰恰相反。相反,我认为王小波通过气来阅读和写作小说的诗学,体现在他对这些中断的呈现中,体现在王耳重新写作中重新获得信心,体现在王耳文本中出现的日益独立的幻想故事中。手稿中未完成的故事中的幻想,落在了王耳这个自我定义的独立读者的控制之下。包裹在王耳读书身子上的文字,随后揭示了

that Wang Er’s readerly revisions are indeed Wang Er’s desires as a writer.
那王耳的读者修缯,确实是王耳作为一个作家的愿望。

Wang Er’s interruptions in his narrative, which occur more often during his reading of the first three chapters, indicate his urge to violate the existent texts. Wang Er the reader claims the manuscript as his own yet finds it unfamiliar to his own perceptions. He reads it and tries his best to interpret it, but is frequently frustrated in his attempts to perform “faithful” interpretations. As he encounters different beginnings of the same tale, he complains:
王耳在阅读前三章时,叙述中的打断较为频繁,这表明他有违反现有文本的冲动。读者王耳声称这部手稿是他自己的,但又觉得它对他自己的认知并不熟悉。他阅读它并尽力解释它,但在尝试进行“忠实”的解释时经常受挫。当他遇到同一个故事的不同开头时,他抱怨道:

There is a smell of dissent in this manuscript….I firmly want to reject it. I could only keep what is written by me, if it were not —— then what is the point of having it?83
這份手稿中有一股異議的味道......我堅決地想拒絕它。我只能保留我写的东西,如果不是——那拥有它有什么意义呢? 83

...

I do not like the turn of events, for I already identified myself with Xue Song. …the color of the tale is thus changed.84
我不喜欢事态的转变,因为我已经把自己和薛松站在一起了。…故事的颜色就这样改变了。 84

...

In the Temple of Longevity, I read, ...85
在长寿神庙里,我读到,...... 85

83 Wang Xiaobo 9.

84 Wang Xiaobo 16.

...

The writer of the manuscript thus branches out his narrative…86
因此,手稿的作者扩展了他的叙述...... 86

...

I vaguely feel that the tale, starting at a slow pace and messing about with many clues, hardly implies any meaning. Let it be put away like that.87
我隐约感觉到,这个故事开始得很慢,夹杂着许多线索,几乎没有任何意义。就这样把它收起来吧。 87

...

I really can’t make any sense of my thoughts in the past.88
我真的无法理解我过去的想法。 88

Wang Er claims authorship of the text from the beginning, but refers to the author in the third- person as “the writer.” His frustration at his failure to comprehend his own message in the text aligns him more with the text’s other readers and, in an extended sense, with us, the readers of Wang Xiaobo’s text.
王耳从一开始就声称自己是文本的作者,但在第三人称中称作者为“作者”。他对自己未能理解自己在文本中的信息感到沮丧,这使他与文本的其他读者更加一致,从广义上讲,也与我们这些王晓波文本的读者保持一致。

Wang Er’s criticism of the writing technique becomes more forceful with Chapter II of the manuscript. He reads the text as a writer, concerning himself with the possibility of plot continuity,89 the narrative artistry,90 the reader’s response to certain plot developments,91 and the extent to which a reader’s imagination is allowed to veer from the text.92 He compares three possible ways to narrate the same event, claiming that if there is any better way of narration, then all the other alternatives should be deleted.93 He compares and analyzes fragments of his
王耳对写作技巧的批判,在手稿第二章中愈发有力。他以作家的身份阅读文本,关注情节连续性的可能性、 89 叙事艺术性、 90 读者对某些情节发展的反应, 91 以及允许读者的想象力偏离文本的程度。 92 他比较了叙述同一事件的三种可能方式,声称如果有更好的叙述方式,那么所有其他替代方案都应该被删除。 93 他比较和分析了他的片段

85 Wang Xiaobo 18.

86 Wang Xiaobo 22.

87 Wang Xiaobo 27.

88 Wang Xiaobo 39.

89 Wang Xiaobo 42.

90 Wang Xiaobo 43.

91 Wang Xiaobo 44.

92 Wang Xiaobo 45.

93 Wang Xiaobo 48-53.

own narrative and, in spite of his efforts to write consistently, he finds himself bound to, as well as driven outward by, many sub-generic elements of fiction writing.94
他自己的叙述,尽管他努力始终如一地写作,但他发现自己被小说写作的许多亚通用元素所束缚,并被小说写作中的许多亚通用元素所驱使。 94

After Wang Er adapts his writerly reader’s reflective approach to the text, with Chapter III he finds himself more frequently in agreement with Wang Er, the earlier writer of the text.
在王耳将作家读者的反思方法应用于文本之后,在第三章中,他发现自己更频繁地与文本的早期作者王耳达成一致。
He also shows more confidence in experimenting with various generic elements of fiction. With his acceptance of his identity as the writer of the text, all fantasies become possible in his writing.
他在尝试小说的各种通用元素时也表现出更大的信心。随着他接受了自己作为文本作者的身份,所有的幻想在他的写作中都成为可能。
Yet he is soon annoyed by the challenges facing
面临的挑战
a writer who tries to communicate with his reader through the text: directly addressing the reader as “you,” he envies the external reader’s ability to adopt a stance of uncommitted indifference toward a text. Wang Er laments his
与他的读者一起阅读文本:直接称呼读者为“你”,他羡慕外部读者能够对文本采取一种不坚定的漠不关心的立场。王二感叹道
own newly-discovered
新发现
position as writer, a position which causes him to lose the privilege of indifference that belongs to a reader. To him the position of writer means a deplorable permanent
属于读者的冷漠。对他来说,作家的地位意味着一种可悲的永久地位
association
协会
with and responsibility for the written text.95 In a reversal of conventional values, the external reader’s inability to do anything to the text becomes a desirable privilege of freedom, while Wang Er’s power to re-build his fantasies as he likes becomes a burdensome
在传统价值观中,外部读者对文本无能为力,成为一种令人向往的自由特权,而王二随心所欲地重建幻想的权力则成为一种负担
responsibility.

Wang Er the newly-restored writer is also frustrated by the seeming impossibility of presenting
新近复职的作家王耳也对看似无法呈现而感到沮丧
everything
万事
he wants to about himself
他自己
in the text. No matter
how hard he tries, there is always a part of his reality and his perception of that reality that is barred from entrance to his text, due to the boundaries of time, space, gender, or even of fantasy.
始终是他现实的一部分,也是他对现实的感知的一部分,由于时间、空间、性别甚至幻想的界限,这种现实被禁止进入他的文本。
96 The act of writing the text,
撰写文本的行为,
it seems, selects part of him and allows that part into the writing but at the same time severs it from the rest of him. The part of himself that is admitted into the text finds an affinity with many
将它与他的其余部分割裂开来。被接纳到文本中的他自己的一部分与许多人找到了亲和力
similar elements derived from the many
从许多派生出的相似元素
source texts behind the writing, and is inexorably
源文本背后的写作,是不可避免的

94 Wang Xiaobo 65.

95 Wang Xiaobo 87.

96 Wang Xiaobo 93.

drawn apart from the self that writes. Naturally the intertextual relation of his own writing with his previous reading of source texts makes him ask: “Why did I write down the tale? I could not possibly be Defoe, nor Kafka, not even Fowles. I bear little resemblance to anyone, least of all to the guy who wrote down all these words--who on earth am I?”97 In his fiction, he both is and is not Wang Er. His text is full of his past, as well as of the present he lives in, and both are inscribed in the text for a future reader. To Wang Er, the text is by its very nature an intersection of previous texts he has read; it is also a vehicle to preserve part of the writer for the reader’s interpretation. The writer is severed from his/her writing once the action of writing is completed, leaving part of him/her in the text, a part that is subject to change when it is interpreted by the reader.
与写作的自我分开。自然而然地,他自己的写作与他之前对原始文本的阅读之间的互文关系使他问道:“我为什么要写下这个故事?我不可能是笛福,也不可能是卡夫卡,甚至不可能是福尔斯。我和任何人都没有什么相似之处,尤其是和那个写下这些话的人——我到底是谁? 97 在他的小说中,他既是王耳,又不是王耳。他的文字充满了他的过去,也充满了他所生活的现在,两者都被铭刻在文本中,供未来的读者阅读。对王耳来说,这部文本就其本质而言是他与以前读过的文本的交叉点;它也是保留作者部分内容供读者解释的工具。一旦写作行动完成,作者就被从他/她的写作中分离出来,在文本中留下他/她的一部分,这部分在读者解释时可能会发生变化。

In his approach to the next three chapters, Wang Er gains authority as a writer, yet because he has successfully acquired the identity of a reader previously, the text here continues as a dialogue between the narrator/writer and the reader(s). Wang Er’s wife, the lady in white, also plays the roles of his first reader, first critic, and sometimes a tentative proxy for Wang Er the reader. When in dialogue with his text, Wang Er uses auxiliary verbs such as “should,”
在接下来的三章中,王耳获得了作为作家的权威,但由于他之前已经成功地获得了读者的身份,所以这里的文本继续作为叙述者/作家与读者之间的对话。王二的妻子,白衣女士,也扮演着他的第一读者、第一批评者的角色,有时还扮演着王二这个读者的试探性代理人。在与他的文本对话时,王耳使用助动词,如“应该”,

“must,” and “can” to assert his determination to rewrite the text of the past in the present,98 and he “sees” himself in his text about Red Thread and Xue Song. Lost in his own vision and at a loss as to where the text will lead the story, he finds that the scenes of fantasy that he creates “swallow” his thoughts time and time again.99 At times, Wang Er seems to be able to restore himself to the position of a writer who travels freely between the text and a surface reality
“必须”和“能够”来表明他决心在现在改写过去的文本, 98 他在关于红线和薛松的文本中“看到”了自己。他迷失在自己的视野中,不知文本将把故事引向何方,他发现他创造的幻想场景一次又一次地“吞噬”了他的思想。 99 有时,王耳似乎能够将自己恢复到一个在文本和表面现实之间自由穿梭的作家的位置

external to the text. It is “my tale” now,100 he says, intertextually related to “my old
文本外部。他说, 100 它现在是“我的故事”,与“我的旧故事”互文相关

97 Wang Xiaobo 101.

98 Wang Xiaobo 106.

99 Wang Xiaobo 120-21.

100 Wang Xiaobo 141.

manuscripts,”101 inspired by “my memory,”102 and affected by a “life” that is as trivial as what happens on “my dinner table.”103
手稿“ 101 ,受到”我的记忆“的启发, 102 并受到”生活“的影响,这种”生活“就像”我的餐桌上“发生的事情一样微不足道。 103

Wang Er’s hard-won self-confidence and self-assertion as a writer is challenged by his wife, the lady in white, who points out where literary clichés are used in Wang Er’s text.
王耳作为作家来之不易的自信和自信,遭到了他的妻子白衣女士的挑战,白衣女士指出了王耳的文字中哪里使用了文学陈词滥调。
104 She thus denies Wang Er’s originality as a writer, as well as the possibility for originality based on intertextuality. Wang Er responds with exhaustive experiments in narrative plots and lyrical descriptions of fantasies of metamorphoses.
因此,她否定了王耳作为作家的独创性,也否定了基于互文性而产生的独创性的可能性。王耳以详尽的实验作为回应,在叙事情节和对蜕变幻想的抒情描述上。
105 Wang Er directly addresses his writing in
王耳直接在《
Chapter IV and admits that it is adapted from a Tang source text, claiming that all the main characters in his tale are named after counterparts in the Tang tale. However, he continues: “Once
第四章并承认它改编自唐朝的原始文本,声称他的故事中的所有主要人物都是以唐朝故事中的对应物命名的。然而,他继续说:“曾经
so explained, the tale is lost to me, and Red Thread and Xue Song are lost to me, too. But I don’t think these are significant losses. What is significant to
不要以为这些是重大损失。什么对
me is that I acquired some changes in
在以下方面进行了一些更改
myself through
通过
my writing.”106 This is the key
这是关键
point in Wang Xiaobo’s quality
在王晓波的品质上加点
of qi as exemplified in the first-person narrator Wang Er: the writing transforms the writer. Speaking from a writer’s position to his future reader, Wang Er implies that part of him is added to the text, and thus lost to his self when he stops writing. At the same time, it is not a lost cause.
正如第一人称叙述者王耳所体现的那样:写作改变了作家。王耳从一个作家的立场上对未来的读者来说,暗示着他的一部分被添加到文本中,从而在他停止写作时失去了自我。同时,它也不是一个失败的事业。

Indeed, his writing returns to strike back at his lived surface reality. In other words, when his self emerges from his act of writing, it is changed by his writing.
事实上,他的写作回归,是为了回击他活生生的表面现实。换言之,当他的自我从他的写作行为中浮现出来时,他的写作就会改变自我。

The second time Wang Er mentions the intertextual relationship between the Tang source text and his own text, he says:
王耳第二次提到唐文原文与自己的文本之间的互文关系,他说:

101 Wang Xiaobo 143.

102 Wang Xiaobo 145.

103 Wang Xiaobo 151.

104 Wang Xiaobo 152.

105 Wang Xiaobo 175.

106 Wang Xiaobo 190. My emphasis.

All those readers who have read Ballad of Sweet Lake107 know the ending of the tale about Red Thread stealing the casket…. Feminist literary critics think… and I think their views are insightful…. I have no objections to them, yet what I want to say is, there indeed is a possibility that…. After I thus portray Xue Song [in my narrative], I break away from any relation with these characters. …I then remember what I promised to my leader. …I decide that a promise is a promise, so I am using the
所有读过《甜湖 107 歌谣》的读者都知道红线偷棺材的故事的结局......女权主义文学评论家认为......我认为他们的观点很有见地......我不反对他们,但我想说的是,确实存在一种可能性......在我这样描绘薛松之后,我与这些人物断绝了任何关系。…然后我想起了我对我的领导所承诺的。…我认为 promise 就是 promise,所以我正在使用

fiction for my research paper. …The lady in white is so excited at my decision that she rolls on our double-bed, which makes me quite happy…. Yet later she says to me: Don’t take it for true. …What confuses me the most is: what can I take for true, what can I not?108
我的研究论文的小说。…白衣女士对我的决定感到非常兴奋,以至于她在我们的双人床上打滚,这让我非常高兴。但后来她对我说:不要把它当作真的。…最让我困惑的是:我能认为什么是真实的,我不能认为是真的? 108

Between the seemingly tongue-in-cheek lines, Wang Er is portrayed as a serious modern writer writing at the intersection of past texts and his own production of self, of past readings and future texts to be read, of shared literary codes and his own individual views, and of his fantasy of the real world and the real presentation of his fantasy.
在看似诙谐的字里行间,王耳被描绘成一个严肃的现代作家,他写作的交汇点是过去的文本和他自己的自我生产,是过去的阅读和未来要阅读的文本,是共同的文学准则和他自己的个人观点,是他对现实世界的幻想和他幻想的真实呈现。

In Chapter VII, Wang Er’s first-person voice gets ever stronger until it overwhelms the conventional division between a narrator and character(s) in his narration. The clear-cut chronological flow of events is completely blurred so as to present Wang Er’s suppressed desires and his visionary reflections on his internal world: all appear as a fantasy articulated in words. To Wang Er, “the thing that actually happens in the world,” no matter how much it resembles a fantasy, “is not a tale.”109 It is only in his tale that he can portray his leader as a
在第七章中,王耳的第一人称声音越来越强烈,直到它压倒了他叙述中叙述者和人物之间的传统划分。清晰的时间顺序的事件流逝完全模糊不清,从而呈现了王耳被压抑的欲望和他对内心世界的幻觉反思:所有这些都以文字表达的幻想出现。对王耳来说,“世界上实际发生的事情”,无论多么像幻想,“都不是故事”。 109 只有在他的故事中,他才能将他的领导者描绘成一个

107 Ballad of Sweet Lake Ganze yao 甘澤謠)is the original title for the collection of Tang tales by Yuan Jiao in which “Red Thread” is included.
107 《甘澤謠》是袁娇的唐童话集的原名,其中收录了《红线》。

108 Wang Xiaobo, The Bronze Age, 207-8.
108 王晓波,《青铜时代》207-8。

109 Wang Xiaobo 213.

“pander,” and his wife as a young girl waiting for his rescue from the pander’s control.110 Meanwhile in Wang Er’s “real life,” Wang Er’s leader talking to Wang Er is unaware of Wang Er being “not a single person, but a micro-universe; …and also a certain broad time and space,
“拉皮条”,他的妻子作为一个年轻的女孩,等待他从拉皮条的控制中解救出来。 110 同时,在王耳的“真实生活”中,王耳的领导与王耳交谈时,并不知道王耳“不是一个人,而是一个微观宇宙;…以及也有一定的广阔的时空,

…with much lyrical force, as well as malicious power….”111 Wang Er thus evokes his fantasy to counteract and even transform his depressing physical reality. Reality and fantasy intersect with one another frequently and naturally in this chapter, and the text thereby generates reading pleasure. Wang Xiaobo explores the power of transgression through qi in his literary
…具有很大的抒情力量,以及恶意的力量......” 111 因此,王耳唤起了他的幻想,以抵消甚至改变他压抑的物理现实。在这一章中,现实与幻想频繁而自然地相互交织,文本因此产生了阅读乐趣。王晓波在他的文学作品中探讨了气越界的力量

experiments, echoed in Wang Er’s displays of true freedom of roaming in his fantasy narrative; as he declares: “Fiction is not restricted. I could be at any time, at any place. I could be anyone. I can as well refuse to be at any time, or at any place. I could as well refuse to be anyone. If it were not so, then what is the necessity for fiction?”112
实验,与王耳在奇幻叙事中真正自由漫游的展现相呼应;正如他所宣称的:“小说不受限制。我可以在任何时间、任何地方。我可以是任何人。我也可以拒绝在任何时间或任何地方。我也可以拒绝成为任何人。如果不是这样,那么小说的必要性是什么? 112

The final chapter of The Temple of Longevity
长寿
is a beautiful prose narrative in a confident writer’s voice, tinged with a poignant touch that belongs to a first-person narrator. Time as represented by the chronological flow of events is completely broken, and a fundamentally human perception of events, as free as it is intangible, emerges. It is more lyrical than prosaic, and
是一部以自信的作家声音呈现的优美散文叙事,带有属于第一人称叙述者的凄美笔触。由事件的时间流动所代表的时间被完全打破,一种从根本上说是人类对事件的感知出现了,这种感知既自由又是无形的。它比平淡无奇更抒情,而且
the city of Chang’an in
长安 在
this chapter is more like a fantasy materializing in physical
物理的
reality in words. Yet once the journey to gain the writer’s full position ends, the text’s openness to its readers closes down. The text, now fully exhausted by the reader’s reading, retreats into memory and, together with the meaning produced by the reader, becomes a past. It is in this chapter of
用言语。然而,一旦获得作者全部地位的旅程结束,文本对读者的开放性就关闭了。文本现在被读者的阅读完全耗尽,退回到记忆中,与读者产生的意义一起成为过去。正是在这一章中
The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
that Wang Xiaobo reduces the importance of representing reality with verisimilitude and simultaneously displays the lyrical force of modern literary Chinese. With the power of modern literary Chinese, he represents the physical world of
认为王小波降低了真实再现现实的重要性,同时也展现了中国现代文学的抒情力。他以现代文学中国的力量,代表了

110 Wang Xiaobo 217.

111 Wang Xiaobo 217.

112 Wang Xiaobo 235.

Chang’an as perceived by Wang Er, which is actually Wang Er’s fantasy of Chang’an rendered into a tangible text.
王耳所感知的长安,其实就是王耳对长安的幻想,被渲染成有形的文本。

The final chapter of The Temple of Longevity
长寿神庙
is truly a conclusion as it closes every
一个结论,因为它关闭了每一个
door that Wang Xiaobo opened via his first-person
第一人称
narrator Wang Er. The source story of Red Thread and
Thread 和
Xue Song ceases to frame Wang Er’s
Er's的
narrative; instead, the text becomes nothing more than Wang Er’s monologue about his perception of his life and world, with only faint echoes of his past readings. The three subsections in this closing chapter are about the same events, as perceived and narrated separately
比起王耳关于自己对自己生活和世界的感知的独白,只有对他过去的解读的微弱回声。本章结束语中的三个小节是关于相同的事件,分别被感知和叙述
by Wang Er in the city of Chang’an in the past, and in the city of Beijing in the present. Wang Er’s narrating the same events in different forms confirms his success at transgressing restrictions of time and space. He reveals through his narratives that Chang’an and Beijing are
二在昔日的长安市,现在在北京市。王耳以不同的形式叙述相同的事件,证实了他突破时间和空间限制的成功。他通过他的叙述揭示了长安和北京是
de facto
事实上
the same city in his fantasy. Time cannot restrict Wang Er’s representations of his true perception of these two cities in different times. He reveals that all these events may as well occur at the same time through his perceptions. Time markers such as “a thousand years ago” or “in the year of 1975” appear in his sentences, but his vivid sensual memory
他幻想中的同一个城市。时间限制不了王耳对自己在不同时代对这两座城市的真实认知的表征。他揭示了所有这些事件也可能通过他的感知同时发生。“一千年前”或“1975年”等时间标记出现在他的句子中,但他生动的感性记忆
of events essentially
本质上
blurs the time difference.
差异。
His narrating voice, claiming the story as its own, displays its powerful self-assertion. It is as if after an initial sputtering start in previous chapters the narrative finally
作为它自己,展示了它强大的自我主张。仿佛在前几章最初的断断续续之后,叙述终于结束了
gains full momentum, pouring
蓄势待发,倾盆大雨
out its lyrical force for the reader in the closing chapter. Wang Xiaobo’s artistry is fully displayed in the transition from Wang Er’s initial doubts and clumsiness in narration to the ultimate lyrical, uninterrupted narrative hat chronicles his inner world in the final chapter.
在最后一章中为读者展现出它的抒情力量。王小波的艺术性,在从王耳最初的疑惑和叙述的笨拙,到最后一章中最终抒情、不间断的叙述帽,讲述他的内心世界的过渡,充分展现了他的艺术性。

Once fantasy helps Wang Er transgress boundaries of time and space, his actual workplace at the quiet Temple of Longevity shifts in his perception. The same transformation
曾经幻想帮助王耳超越了时间和空间的界限,他在寂静的长寿神殿的实际工作场所在他的认知中发生了变化。同样的转变

happens to his perception of his family life in his small attic.113 Wang Er’s Chang’an is such a place that “in this city, no names of people or places matter, what matters is its essence.” In contrast, Wang Er’s narration of the same events set in Beijing assumes a different style: unlike the soothing rhythmic description of Chang’an in his fantasy that emphasizes the “essence” of the city over particulars, his sentences in the Beijing version display clear references to the actual city layouts of Beijing. Beijng is presented as concrete, hard and emotionless: “It’s full of names. I have a Grandma, a cousin, and myself, all having our own names. We live on a street in the east part of the city, and the street has its own name.”114 The repetitive syntax in such statements implies the coldness and fixity of everyday reality, which the narrator frequently tries to escape or to forget even as it is the very memory that he once lost and now seeks to recover.
碰巧他在自己的小阁楼上对自己的家庭生活的看法。 113 王耳笔下的长安就是这样一个地方,“在这个城市里,人名、地名都不重要,重要的是它的本质。与此形成鲜明对比的是,王耳对以北京为背景的同一事件的叙述,则呈现出不同的风格:与《长安》中强调城市“本质”胜于细节的舒缓节奏描写不同,他在北京版的句子中,明显地提到了北京的实际城市布局。北京被呈现为具体、坚硬和没有感情的形象:“它充满了名字。我有一个奶奶,一个堂兄,还有我自己,都有自己的名字。我们住在城市东部的一条街上,这条街有自己的名字。 114 这种陈述中的重复句法暗示了日常现实的冷酷和固定,叙述者经常试图逃避或忘记这些现实,即使这是他曾经失去的记忆,现在又试图恢复。

The urge to break the bondage of the physical world and produce fantasy finds voice repeatedly in sentences such as “I am still in the City of Chang’an.”115 Memory seamlessly
打破物质世界的束缚,产生幻想的冲动在诸如“我还在长安城”之类的句子中反复出现。 115 无缝内存

merges into Wang Er’s present perceptions without distracting the reader from the pleasure of reading. Wang Xiaobo displays linguistic dexterity in engaging lyrical forces embedded in the modern Chinese language. He uses poetic rhythms to project Wang Er’s Chang’an fantasy onto his everyday life in Beijing. Beyond that, Wang Er’s narrative focuses largely on moments, images, and sensual fragments, which make the transgression of temporal and spatial limits not only possible but even inevitable.
融入王耳当下的感知,又不分散读者对阅读乐趣的注意力。王晓波在吸引现代汉语抒情力量方面展现了语言的灵巧性。他用诗意的节奏,将王耳的长安幻想投射到他在北京的日常生活中。除此之外,王耳的叙事主要集中在瞬间、图像和感性片段上,这使得对时间和空间限制的突破不仅是可能的,甚至是不可避免的。

The last subsection in the last chapter contains the climax as well as the poignant ending of the whole novella. When Wang Er says, “My past is not a piece of vagueness anymore. One day in the past I had a wedding,”116 the split between the physical world and fantasy resumes via
最后一章的最后一小节包含了整部中篇小说的高潮和凄美的结局。当王耳说:“我的过去不再是一片模糊。过去的某一天,我举行了婚礼,“ 116 物理世界和幻想之间的分裂通过以下方式恢复

113 Wang Xiaobo 249-50.

114 Wang Xiaobo 250.

115 Wang Xiaobo 255.

116 Wang Xiaobo 264.

the re-establishment of boundaries. The narrator tries, unlike in the first three chapters, to stem the split, trying to merge the two again by mixing two types of narratives, which is evident in statements such as, “I part with the lady in white in the City of Chang’an,” or “In my own story, it is way past midnight,” or “At present, I have no place to go other than the City of Chang’an.”117 Yet these efforts to merge the two narratives only betray his awareness of their differences. The more he tries, the more obvious the incongruities between the two versions become. The final blow of reality lands home, and Wang Er says, “When everything inevitably falls into reality, my story is going to end.”118 It is at this final moment that he again addresses the external reader:
重新划定边界。与前三章不同,叙述者试图阻止分裂,试图通过混合两种类型的叙述来再次将两者融合在一起,这在诸如“我与长安城的白衣女士分手”或“在我自己的故事中,已经过了午夜”或“目前, 除了长安城,我别无他法。 117 然而,这些将这两种叙述融合在一起的努力只会暴露他对它们差异的认识。他尝试得越多,两个版本之间的不协调就越明显。现实的最后一击落地,王二说:“当一切都不可避免地落入现实时,我的故事就要结束了。 118 正是在这最后一刻,他再次向外部读者发表讲话:

You’ve already known how this story ends: I merge with the past self and we become one person. The lady in white merges with the young girl in the past and they become one person. I then merge with her and we become less. The so-called reality is thus helplessly dull.119
你已经知道这个故事的结局:我与过去的自己融合,我们成为一个人。白衣女士与过去的年轻女孩融合,他们成为一个人。然后我和她融合在一起,我们变得不那么少了。因此,所谓的现实是无奈的沉闷。 119

The separation inevitably divides the past and present, the physical world and Wang Er’s fantasy of it. If the reader wants to reject the separation so clearly stated in Wang Er’s conclusion and wants to keep the possibilities of fantasy alive, then he or she must start a new story
这种分离,必然将过去与现在、物质世界与王二对它的幻想割裂开来。如果读者想要拒绝王耳的结论中如此明确地表达的分离,并希望保持幻想的可能性,那么他或她必须开始一个新的故事
by himself or herself. But if one passively
他或她自己。但如果一个被动地
accepts the narrator’s voice, then the end of the text is
接受叙述者的声音,那么文本的结尾是
the end of
的结束
one’s reading. In this
一个人在读书。在这个
case, the text, together
案例,文本,一起
with the writer’s message and the reader’s interpretation, die together as the reading ends. Wang Xiaobo gives his readers this choice in Wang Er’s last gesture. Wang Er lies down in bed, recalling his past, staring into the darkness
和读者的解读,随着阅读的结束而一起消亡。王小波在王耳的最后姿态中,给了读者这个选择。王二躺在床上,回想着自己的过往,凝视着黑暗
in despair. He knows that the next morning everything
万事
will end as his story ends, as he has already warned the reader. To him, the prior union of fantasy and the physical world must
他已经警告过读者。对他来说,幻想和物质世界的先前结合必须

117 Wang Xiaobo 268-9.

118 Wang Xiaobo 270.

119 Wang Xiaobo 270.

inevitably dissolve, and he must eventually face everyday reality. Wang Er then turns away from addressing the reader directly, as if by this arrangement Wang Xiaobo opens up an interpretive gap to for the reader to fill in. The reader can choose to follow Wang Er and leave the text, or to remain in the the text and enter it perhaps at another time and at another location. The fiction is therefore ended, and yet not ended entirely. The literary quality of qi thus created by Wang Xiaobo redeems the amnesic Wang Er in his act of writing and reading, and thus holds out the possibility to do this again for readers to come.
不可避免地解散,他最终必须面对日常现实。于是,王耳不再直接对读者讲话,仿佛通过这种安排,王晓波为读者打开了一个解释的空白。读者可以选择跟随王耳离开文本,也可以选择留在文本中,或许在另一个时间、另一个地点进入。因此,小说结束了,但并没有完全结束。王小波所创造的“气”的文学品质,救赎了健忘症的王耳在写作和阅读的行为中,从而为后来的读者提供了再次这样做的可能性。

Conclusion

In this chapter, I have discussed Wang Xiaobo’s views on writing fantasy in fiction, and studied his two major works that elaborate his mode of qi. In Tales of the Tang People, Wang Xiaobo is aware of his own identity as reader/writer, and in his texts there is explicit evidence to show intertextual links with source texts. The intertextual relationship between Wang Xiaobo’s text and Tang texts is more imitational than transformational. He borrows heavily from Tang source texts in terms of characters, narrative frames, and even major dramatic conflicts, and he inserts his contemporary presence through the complexity of the first-person narrative voice, as well as through his clumsy experiments with various Chinese language styles in narration. When the same Tang source texts later travel into The Bronze Age, however, an essential change happens to the intertextual relation between Wang Xiaobo’s writing and his Tang source texts.
在这一章中,我讨论了王晓波关于在小说中写奇幻的观点,并研究了他阐述其气模式的两部主要作品。在《唐人故事》中,王晓波意识到自己作为读者/作家的身份,在他的文本中有明确的证据显示与源文本之间存在互文联系。王晓波文本与唐代文本之间的互文关系与其说是转化,不如说是模仿。他在人物、叙事框架甚至重大戏剧冲突方面大量借鉴了唐代原文,并通过第一人称叙述声音的复杂性,以及在叙述中对各种中国语言风格的笨拙实验,插入了他的当代存在。然而,当同样的唐代源文本后来进入青铜时代时,王晓波的文字与他的唐代源文本之间的互文关系发生了本质的变化。

Unlike the overtly imitative style and a merely implicit literary urge to transform the source, Wang Xiaobo creates his own contemporary solution to the question of how to revive and enrich that tradition. In the three novellas collected as The Bronze Age he displays fully the literary quality of qi, as well as its effects on the reader. Through his experiments with modern Chinese
与公然的模仿风格和仅仅隐含的改变源头的文学冲动不同,王晓波为如何复兴和丰富这一传统的问题创造了自己的当代解决方案。在《青铜时代》收录的三部中篇小说中,他充分展示了气的文学品质及其对读者的影响。通过他对现代汉语的实验

literary language Wang Xiaobo explores its transgressive force. The increasing complexity of the first-person narrator Wang Er throughout the three novellas opens a new direction for fiction: with the literary transgression enacted in and by qi, human perceptions of reality can cross limits of time and space both for the writer and the reader, both within and without the written text.
文学语言汪晓波探究其越界力量。在三部中篇小说中,第一人称叙述者王耳的复杂性日益增加,为小说开辟了一条新的方向:随着气中和气的文学越界,人类对现实的感知可以跨越作者和读者的时间和空间限制,无论是在书面文本内部还是外部。

Beyond the traditional engagement of lyrical language and intergeneric crossings common to the shaping of qi in fiction of ages past, The Bronze Age adds a new dimension of irony to the tradition that is mainly realized though Wang Xiaobo’s use of Wang Er in the
《青铜时代》超越了过去时代小说中常见的抒情语言和气形常见的传统交错,为这一传统增添了新的反讽维度,而这种反讽主要是通过王小波在《青铜时代》中对王耳的使用来实现的。

narration. The three tales about the three Tang women with a common “Red” in their names are extended into longer narratives, but the epistemological structure in these tales is fragmented and undermined by the first-person narrator, Wang Er. Wang Xiaobo gives his first-person narrator multiple positions as a critical reader of past texts, as a write of new ones, and as the main character in his own narrative. Wang Xiaobo’s deft handling of Wang Er’s multiple positions in the narrative brings a new level of sophistication and complexity to literary qi in the long history of Chinese literature.
叙事。关于三个名字中有一个共同的“红色”的唐女的故事,被延伸到更长的叙述中,但这些故事中的认识论结构被第一人称叙述者王耳分割和破坏。 王晓波赋予他的第一人称叙述者多重位置,作为对过去文本的批判性读者,作为新文本的书写, 并作为他自己叙述中的主角。王晓波巧妙地处理了王耳在叙事中的多重位置,使中国文学长河史上的文学气的复杂度和复杂性达到了一个新的高度。

Chapter VI Conclusion
第六章 结语

In these chapters I have explored the emergence, decline, and revival of qi in Chinese fiction. Qi was the means for members of the literati in the Tang dynasty to transgress the restrictions of historiography through an aesthetic pursuit of freedom of roaming. Qi was also a vital force in fiction for post-Tang writers who saw through the spell of Neo-Confucian conventionalism in writing; for the Republican writers who distanced themselves from the danger of being overwhelmed by the call of social and political needs; and for fiction writers in the 1980s and 1990s who looked past a recent history of Socialist Realism to the long tradition of Chinese literature, and fashioned their contemporary interpretation of this special quality in Chinese fiction.
在这些章节中,我探讨了中国小说中“气奇”的出现、衰落和复兴。“气”是唐代文人通过对漫游自由的审美追求,超越史学限制的手段。对于后唐作家来说,齐也是小说中的重要力量,他们在写作中看穿了新儒家传统主义的魔咒;对于共和党作家来说,他们远离了被社会和政治需求的召唤压倒的危险;以及1980年代和1990年代的小说作家,他们回顾了社会主义现实主义的近代史,着眼于中国文学的悠久传统,并在中国小说中塑造了对这种特殊品质的当代解读。

I therefore selected texts steeped in qi in order to trace its ups and downs between the Tang dynasty and the end of the last century, where it takes such lively and various forms in Wang Xiaobo’s tales adapted from the Tang tales of marvels. I found that, except for the Tang dynasty and in Wang Xiaobo, qi has often been marginalized and reduced in Chinese fiction. However, it is equally evident that even from such a marginalized and reduced position, qi still enabled its writers to provide new perspectives, thereby inspiring readers in unpredictable ways.
因此,我选择了一些充满气息的文本,以追溯唐朝到上世纪末之间的风风雨雨,在王小波根据唐朝奇观故事改编的故事中,它以如此生动和多样的形式出现。我发现,除了唐代和王小波之外,气在中国小说中也经常被边缘化和减少。然而,同样明显的是,即使处于如此边缘化和沦落的位置,“气”仍然使其作者能够提供新的视角,从而以不可预测的方式激励读者。

The revival of qi in fiction of the 1980s and 1990s was a gradual process. Different writers present highly individualized forms of literary qi. In works like The King of Chess, Red Sorghum, “Classical Love” and My Life as Emperor, the writers mainly use qi as an element to add lyrical force to their works so that they present an alternative understanding of reality. In Wang Xiaobo’s two major works, which are textually and generically related to the Tang tales of marvels, qi is thoroughly situated in a contemporary literary context. The intertextual
1980年代和1990年代小说中气的复兴是一个渐进的过程。不同的作家呈现出高度个体化的文学气形式。在《棋王》、《红高粱》、《古典之爱》和《我的皇帝人生》等作品中,作家们主要以气为元素,为作品增添抒情力,呈现出对现实的另一种理解。在王晓波的两部主要作品中,在文本和通用上都与唐朝的奇迹故事有关,气被彻底置于当代文学语境中。互文性

210

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comparison between the Tang tales of marvels and Wang Xiaobo’s Tales of the Tang People, and also between those two sets of texts and his last literary project The Bronze Age, reveals much about how he constructs his literary quality of qi and how he deploys literary qi to create a sense of disjunctive irony. He enriches the definition of qi that began with the Tang tales of marvels, making it a transformative force relevant to today’s Chinese fiction.
将唐代的《奇事记》与王晓波的《唐人故事》进行比较,以及将这两套文本与他的上一部文学作品《青铜时代》进行比较,揭示了他如何建构自己的文学气质,以及他如何运用文学气来创造一种分离的讽刺感。他丰富了从唐朝奇迹故事开始的气的定义,使其成为与当今中国小说相关的变革力量。

Indeed, if we go beyond the Tang dynasty and discuss the umbrella concept of classical Chinese fiction, or
的确,如果我们超越唐朝,讨论中国古典小说的总括概念,或者
xiaoshuo, in its pre-Tang formation and nature, we see that
,在其前唐的形成和性质中,我们看到
xiaoshuo was born first as a subordinate supplement to grand historical narratives, as well as a source of reading pleasure created through free fabrication and literary beauty.
它最初是作为宏大历史叙事的从属补充而诞生的,也是通过自由编造和文学美感而创造的阅读乐趣的源泉。
Until the Tang dynasty, however, aesthetic and literary
然而,直到唐代,审美和文学
pursuits in xiaoshuo had always been secondary
一直都是次要的
to historical and political ones, and the writing of
到历史和政治的,以及写作
xiaoshuo had long been bound within the generic restriction of biographies and other forms of historical writings. The literary quality of
受到传记和其他形式的历史著作的一般限制的约束。文学品质
qi in the Tang tales of marvels, however, made it possible for members of the Tang literati to write down what was perceived in the images the world left in their minds. For writers with the emancipated spirit of
然而,在唐朝的奇迹故事中,唐朝文人有可能写下世界在他们脑海中留下的图像中所感知到的东西。对于具有解放精神的作家
you , or freedom of roaming,
或漫游自由,
qi can thus be understood as the skilful literary application of genres and values in constructing these images. It is human fantasy
因此,可以理解为体裁和价值观在构建这些图像时对体裁和价值的巧妙文学应用。这是人类的幻想
created in words. With such freedom, the Tang literati roamed between the restrictions of genres like historiographical biography and lyrical poetry. This transformative poetic power works to dissolve the narrative frame in a text such as “An Explication of the Lament from Xiang River.” The literary experiments with literary transgressions and the actual responses from fellow members of the literati
用文字创造。有了这样的自由,唐朝文人就在史学传记和抒情诗等体裁的限制之间游荡。这种变革性的诗意力量在《湘江哀歌解读》等文本中消解了叙事框架。文学僭越的文学实验和文人同仁的实际反应
who witnessed such experiments were also recorded
记录
in such tales as Yingying’s
莹莹
Story and The Tale of Li Wa.
李华的故事。
The significant shift of focus from the political and practical purposes of writing to the literary ones generated, justified, and historically validated the thematic changes.
重点从写作的政治和实践目的向文学目的的重大转移,产生、证明和历史验证了主题的变化。

Themes of transgression in tales like “The Tale of Curly-Bearded Guest,” “Kunlun Slave,” and “Red Thread” subvert the restrictions of generic biography writing. Indeed, they introduce a new literature to the reader: a literature that does not present what is already there in a person’s eye, but constructs what might be, and what is only in the writer’s imagination.
《卷胡子客的故事》、《昆仑奴》、《红线》等故事中的越界题材,颠覆了一般传记写作的局限性。事实上,它们向读者介绍了一种新的文学:这种文学不是呈现一个人眼中已经存在的东西,而是构建可能的东西,而且只是在作家的想象中。

The literary quality of
文学品质
qi did not thrive after the Tang dynasty, and the tendency to contain fiction writing within the boundaries of political and social needs increased in times of social turmoil. In short, the practical and political mission of
唐朝以后没有兴盛起来,在社会动荡时期,将小说写作限制在政治和社会需要的范围内的倾向有所增加。简而言之,实践和政治使命
xiaoshuo again dominated the writing and reading
再次主导了写作和阅读
of fiction after the Tang
唐朝以后的小说
dynasty. Weak as
王朝。弱如
qi was, it did not die out, though. Instead, in its sporadic expressions in
不过,它并没有消亡。取而代之的是,在其零星的表达中
Liaozhai, Border Town, and Chuanqi, it survived and continued to display its transformative power and vitality as used by writers who valued human perceptions of events through the lens of the imagination over mere impressions through the senses.
它幸存下来并继续展示其变革的力量和生命力,正如作家所使用的那样,他们重视人类通过想象力对事件的感知,而不是仅仅通过感官的印象。
These expressions
表达 式
add to the possible forms qi may take in Chinese fiction. For example, in the Qing dynasty, the other-worldly values present in Pu Songling’s lyrical portrayal of female fox spirits create a quality of
例如,在清代,蒲松龄对女性狐狸精的抒情刻画中所呈现的超凡脱俗的价值观,造就了一种
qi in his longer romantic records of the strange and supernatural. In
在他关于奇怪和超自然现象的较长浪漫的记录中。在
the 1930s and 1940s, Shen Congwen and Zhang Ailing challenged the dominant mood of their time and managed to bring
他们那个时代的主导情绪,并设法带来
qi back to Chinese fiction.
回到中国小说。

After half a century’s bondage to politics, qi gave new power to Chinese fiction writers of the 1980s and 1990s. When they resumed their quest for qi, they recovered freedom of roaming and crossed, in their fiction, all kinds of barriers that had once contained them within political, social and even cultural bounds. Step by step, qi released its subversive power of literary transgression. For example, Ah Cheng breaks the spell of politics by presenting the traditional Chinese philosophical belief in freedom of roaming via his characterization of a King of Chess. Mo Yan successfully goes beyond imitation of traditional lyrical lines, reaching a
在被政治束缚了半个世纪之后,气赋予了1980年代和1990年代的中国小说作家新的力量。当他们重新寻求气时,他们恢复了漫游自由,并在他们的小说中跨越了曾经将他们限制在政治、社会甚至文化界限内的各种障碍。一步步,气释放出其文学越界的颠覆力量。例如,阿成打破了政治的魔咒,通过他对国际象棋王的刻画,呈现了中国传统的自由漫游哲学信仰。莫言成功地超越了对传统抒情台词的模仿,达到了一个

214

hallucinatory domain where past, present and future meet in a first-person narrative voice. Yu Hua subversively adapts a traditional clichéd romance of the scholar and the beauty, and by a parody of that very genre he gives it a new postmodern twist. Su Tong displays highly subjective perceptions of history and fantasy in his two works of historical fiction, and clearly reveals a preference for fantasy as it fosters the strongest sense of qi.
过去、现在和未来以第一人称叙述声音相遇的幻觉领域。余华颠覆性地改编了书生与美女的传统陈词滥调的浪漫故事,并通过对这一类型的模仿,赋予了它新的后现代转折。苏桐在两部历史小说作品中表现出对历史和奇幻的高度主观感悟,清楚地表明了对奇幻的偏爱,因为奇幻培养了最强烈的气感。

In these writers’ works, qi works as a transformative and transgressive literary force within the narrative frame. When we turn to Wang Xiaobo, we find a writer who is completely devoted to the quality of qi and displays it thoroughly, consistently, and persistently in his short career of fiction writing. He adds to the tradition of qi in fiction by his undaunted resistance to boundaries external to literary values. He also openly invites his small readership to forge qi with him in his fantasies. Two of his major works, Tales of the Tang People and The Bronze Age (published respectively in the 1980s and 1990s), represent his quality of qi in fiction, first in its early development and then in its maturity. In Tales of the Tang People, the intertextual
在这些作家的作品中,“气”在叙事框架内作为一种变革和超越的文学力量发挥作用。当我们转向王小波时,我们发现他是一位完全致力于气质的作家,并在他短暂的小说写作生涯中彻底、一贯、执着地将其表现出来。他通过无畏地抵抗文学价值之外的界限,为小说中的气的传统增添了色彩。他还公开邀请他的小读者在他的幻想中与他一起锻造气。他的两部主要作品《唐人故事》和《青铜时代》(分别出版于1980年代和1990年代)代表了他在小说中的气质,首先是气的早期发展,然后是成熟的气。在《唐人故事》中,互文的

relationship between Wang Xiaobo’s text and the Tang text is more imitational than transformational. He borrows heavily from the Tang source texts in terms of characters, narrative frames, and even major dramatic conflicts, but he inserts his contemporary presence through the complexity of the first-person narrative voice and through his experiments with various Chinese language styles in narration. When the same Tang source texts travel to The Bronze Age, however, an essential change happens to the intertextual relation between Wang Xiaobo’s writing and his Tang texts through the intratextual transformations he creates.
王小波的文本与唐文本之间的关系与其说是转化,不如说是模仿。他在人物、叙事框架甚至重大的戏剧冲突方面大量借鉴了唐代原文,但他通过第一人称叙述声音的复杂性和在叙述中对各种中国语言风格的实验,插入了他的当代存在。然而,当同样的唐代源文本穿越到青铜时代时,王晓波的文字与他的唐代文本之间的互文关系通过他创造的文本内转换发生了本质的变化。

In the three novellas collected in The Bronze Age, Wang Xiaobo elaborates qi in a contemporary context. His experiments with modern Chinese literary language explore its full transformative force, and his enrichment of the first-person narrator Wang Er throughout the
在《青铜时代》收录的三部中篇小说中,王晓波在当代语境中阐述了气。他对中国现代文学语言的实验探索了其全部的变革力量,并在整个过程中丰富了第一人称叙述者王耳的创作。

three novellas opens new directions for fiction writing: via literary transgression in and by qi, perceptions of events through imagination can cross the limits of time and space both for the writer and the reader. In addition to the traditional use of lyrical language and intergeneric crossing common to qi in fiction since the Tang dynasty, Wang Xiaobo adds a dimension of
三部中篇小说为小说写作开辟了新的方向:通过气中的文学越界和气的文学越界,通过想象对事件的感知,对作者和读者来说都可以跨越时间和空间的界限。除了自唐代以来小说中常见的传统抒情语言和气的系际交叉使用外,王小波还增加了一个维度

irony to the tradition. It is mainly realized by Wang Xiaobo’s use of Wang Er in the narration. Wang Xiaobo gives this first-person narrator multiple positions: as a critical reader of the past texts, a writer of new ones, a main character in his own narratives, and even a namely alter ego for Wang Xiaobo the actual writer. Wang Er’s complex narration makes the humour of qi more ironic and sophisticated in a literary sense.
对传统的讽刺。主要是通过王晓波在叙述中对王耳的运用来实现的。王晓波赋予了这个第一人称叙述者的多重身份:作为过去文本的批判性读者,作为新文本的作者,作为他自己叙述中的主角,甚至是汪小波作为真实作者的另一个自我。王耳复杂的叙述,使得气的幽默在文学意义上更具讽刺性和老练性。

Shaped by the generic requirements of historiography, Chinese xiaoshuo was forced historically to prioritize its political and practical functions above its literary ones. The philosophical freedom of roaming liberated Tang writers from this historical burden, allowing them to create a sense of qi in their bold generic transgressions and subsequent thematic transgressions. The lyrical force of literary language helped the Tang literati establish in chuanqi tales of marvels the first xiaoshuo that upended the hierarchy of the practical and the literary.
受史学的一般要求的影响,中国小书在历史上被迫将其政治和实践功能置于文学功能之上。游荡的哲学自由,将唐代作家从这种历史包袱中解放出来,使他们能够在大胆的笼统的过犯和随后的主题过犯中创造出一种气感。文学语言的抒情力,帮助唐朝文人《传气奇事》确立了第一部颠覆了实用与文学等级制度的小书。

Twelve hundred years later, the same literary quality of qi helped subvert the political agenda imposed on xiaoshuo, through similar experiments with lyrical language, generic transgression in creating fictional worlds, and experiments with narrative form. Such a seemingly apolitical literary quality can actually turn out to be more world-changing than literature with an explicitly political agenda, as happens in Wang Xiaobo’s The Temple of Longevity: the act of writing changes the writer, and the act of reading changes the reader, all thanks to the use of qi in the text. Indeed, in his last literary project, Wang Xiaobo seems to have revealed the mystery of the meaning-making experience in the text as the object of writing and reading. Finally, I would
一千二百年后,“气”的同样文学品质通过类似的抒情语言实验、创造虚构世界的一般性越界以及叙事形式的实验,帮助颠覆了强加给小朔的政治议程。这种看似非政治性的文学品质,实际上比具有明确政治目的的文学更能改变世界,就像王小波的《长寿神殿》中发生的那样:写作行为改变了作者,阅读行为改变了读者,这一切都要归功于文本中气的使用。事实上,在他最后的文学作品中,王晓波似乎已经揭示了文本作为写作和阅读对象的意义建构经验的奥秘。最后,我会

argue that, by echoing a very old tradition of fiction writing, Wang Xiaobo offers a new point of departure for Chinese fiction. The qi that Wang Xiaobo defines multiplies readerly responses as readers are forced to negotiate different paths to a new point. That being said, Wang Xiaobo brings a new power to literary quality of qi through his complexly-layered narrative and narrator, in both of which acts of reading and re-writing are tentatively decoded. The qi in Wang
他认为,通过呼应一个非常古老的小说写作传统,王小波为中国小说提供了一个新的出发点。王晓波定义的“气”使读者的反应成倍增加,因为读者被迫通过不同的途径来达到一个新的点。话虽如此,王晓波通过他错综复杂的叙述和叙述者,为气的文学品质带来了一种新的力量,在这两种叙述和重写行为中,阅读和重写的行为都被试探性地解码。王中的气

Xiaobo’s writing thus exemplifies a new outlet for a “dying” fiction.
因此,小波的写作为“垂死的”小说提供了一个新的出路。

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