汉代短书:先秦两汉小说概念的联结点

Duan Shu of Han Dynasty:a Link between Pre-Qin Fiction and Fiction in Western and Eastern Han Dynasties

小说在先秦时期只是一个普通的词语概念,发展至两汉时期则变成了目录学上的分类概念。汉代短书在这一重大的转变过程中起着极为关键的作用。短书本是客观的文字载体,但在汉代儒家文化环境中,它又与尊贵的"长书"相对,具有类似于先秦小说的文化含义,因此,汉代短书能够使先秦小说一词中所蕴含的文化意义与小说的物质载体联结起来。这种联结在经典目录学著作《汉志》小说家类目中得到固定,从而完成中国早期小说概念的重大转变。

Fiction was only a common word in Pre-Qin period,but it developed into an item in bibliography in Western and Eastern Han Dynasty.During this great change,short stories of Han Dynasty(called 'Duan Shu' in ancient Chinese) played a very important part.Short stories were originally impersonal carriers of characters,but in Han Confucian cultures,they had a similar meaning of Pre-Qin fiction,which was different from letters to aristocrats(called 'Chang Shu' in ancient Chinese).Therefore,short stories of Han Dynasty were able to link the cultural meaning of Pre-Qin fiction with fictional carriers.This link could be found in Authors' Items in the Records of Han Dynasty,classical bibliographical works and thus the concept of fiction in early Chinese period achieved its great change.