文本生成与书写困境——《明右副都御史忠襄蔡公传》与魏禧的文章观

Text Generation and Writing Predicament:Biography of Cai Maode,Vice Right Censor-in-Chief in the Ming Dynasty,with a Posthumous Title of“Zhong Xiang”and the Manifestations of Wei Xi's Concepts on Essay Writing

魏禧为蔡懋德所作的《明右副都御史忠襄蔡公传》,实为在行状基础上采取多种叙事策略缀辑而成。其生成模式体现出魏禧文章观的矛盾:在史实层面,“得法戒之意”消解了信史的严肃与准确;在叙述层面,写作中的谀辞则有碍价值评判的客观与真实:矛盾之原因有四:一是魏禧论人以大节为主的传记书写观念,二是魏禧疲于应付文债而致文章草草,三是易代遗民意识对历史真实性的遮蔽,四是传记文体固有的情理冲突。透过此传的分析,可以探察传记文体的文本生成机制与书写困境。

The Biography of Cai Maode,Vice Right Censor-in-Chief in the Ming Dynasty,with a Posthumous Tile of“Zhong Xiang”is an essay written by Wei Xi for Cai Maode,compiled through a variety of narrative strategies based on the methods of writing a biographical sketch of a deceased person.The generation patterns of the biography reflect the contradiction in Wei Xi's essay writing concepts:in terms of historical facts,his writing principle of“taking the truth reflected in the events to edify and warn future generations”dissolves the seriousness and accuracy required by the historical biography writings;in terms of narrative strategies,the flattering words in his writing practices prevent readers from making an objective and truthful evaluation.There are mainly four reasons:first,Wei Xi pays attention to important issues based on the methods of writing a brief biographical sketch of a deceased person when writing biographies;second,he had too many essays to finish hastily;third,the mentality of adherents of a former dynasty obscured the truth of history;fourth,biographical writings inherently contradict.By analyzing this biography,the text generation mechanism and the writing predicament of biography as a genre can be explored.