“拍案”何以“惊奇”?——“二拍”传奇艺术论

How Does the Audience "Pound the Table" and "Exclaim with Admiration": On the Artistic Attraction in Two-volume Amazing Stories edited by Ling Mengchu in the Ming Dynasty

凌濛初创作“二拍”的主要用意之一,就是为了让读者“拍案惊奇”。为此,他有意选取那些“可新听睹、佐谈谐”的新奇之事来加以演绎,总是煞费苦心、千方百计地将发端于现实的故事传奇化,并且还有意通过叙述视角的变换或限知视角的采用等来增强叙事的吸引力。作者这种刻意求“奇”的创作精神,既与文人笔记、宋元话本以奇动人的创作传统一脉相承,同时又表现出以“教”驭“奇”和寓“教”于“奇”的个性特点,丰富了“奇”的思想意蕴,不过也使“二拍”之奇带上了失真之病和“诰诫连篇”之弊。

One of Ling Mengchu's main intentions of the two-volume Amazing Stories is to make the readers feel surprised about the stories.Therefore,he intentionally chooses the stories that can make the readers feel novel.He takes great pains to romanticize the stories of daily life,deliberately changes the narrative perspectives and uses the bound perspective to enhance the attractiveness.His pursuit of novel spirit,not only conforms to the tradition of scholar's notes and scripts for storytelling in Song and Yuan Dynasties,but also shows the characteristics of 'implying instruction in novelty' and 'controlling novelty in instruction'.However,it also makes the novelty of Amazing Stories tinged with the trace of distorting and preaching.