將俗語當作文學: 論中國通俗小說的流傳如何擴展韓國和日本的文學範疇

Abstract

在韓國和日本, 以及越南等東亞國家, 文言文作爲一種特權語言曾有着舉足輕重的地位。 用文言文不僅給文章所要傳達的信息賦予文化權威的份量, 同時還保證了它的普遍性和永恒性。 那時人們認爲由于文言文遵循同一的體裁特点和語言學原則, 用漢語文言文寫的文章在亞洲任何時候任何地方都能被讀懂。 17世紀中國通俗小說在東亞的流傳逐漸增加, 成爲對文言文通用語地位的潛在威脇。 采用大量漢語俗話的小說在中國文化傳統中地位很低, 但是17世紀以來中國印刷的通俗小說不斷出版, 而且還常常附有像金聖嘆的贊揚其文學內涵的評点。 這些小說與儒家學說沒有直接關系。 在韓國和日本, 儒家學說作爲權權威思想體系限定了學術論文必須用文言文來寫作。 但是在這兩个國家都有大量的中國通俗小說保存下來, 說明學者文人們廣泛閱讀這些小說, 雖然記錄不多。

The intellectual traditions of Korea and Japan had adopted literary Chinese as a transparent universal language which was resistant to historical change and infused legitimacy into the topics it treated. With the explosion of printing in the late Ming Dynasty and the rise of Chinese intellectuals who defended popular literature in the 17th century, however, Chinese vernacular novels entered Korea and Japan in large numbers from the 17th century on and were widely read. In both Korea and Japan exposure to Chinese vernacular novels led to a complete reevaluation of status of vernacular literature in general. Korean and Japanese intellectuals saw in Chinese vernacular narrative a form of writing that had the full authority of the Chinese tradition, but which treated the quotidian experience of men and employed vernacular expressions. The first attempts to expand the range of the concept of literature so as to include indigenous vernacular writings was linked to the reception of the alien vernacular Chinese in both Korea and Japan. Moreover, Korean and Japanese writers employed Chinese vernacular writings within their own compositions.