李存孝形象与五代史故事的传播——兼论古代通俗小说的文人化

The Figure of Li Cunxiao and the Transmission of Folk Tales concerning the History of the Five Dynasties: Transformation by Literatures of the Ancient Popular Novel

“五代史”是宋元时期民间说话、戏曲的重要题材,其中有关李存孝的描写尤为突出。杂剧、《新编五代史平话》和《残唐五代史演义传》中均有李存孝形象,但杂剧和《残唐五代史演义传》保存了民间讲史的基本内容,而《新编五代史平话》的改编写定者则参考史籍,对讲史内容作了重大调整,在主题与结构上向正史靠拢,可以看作是古代通俗小说文人化的肇始。

History of the Five Dynasties is an important source for folk tales of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The episode concerning Li Cunxiao is the most prominent. Through comparisons between the figure of Li Cunxiao in plays, in the New Edition of Tales from the Five Dynasties and in Historical Novels of Late Tang through the Five Dynasties, this paper points out that Li Cunxiao is the primary protagonist of plays and novels. Li is a hero in the war, loyal and honest but dies tragically of conspiracies. This figure is different from orthodox history but it represents the mainstream folk tale tradition during the Five Dynasties Period. It shows the general social psychology of sympathy toward heroes. These two books preserve the basic content of folk historical interpretations. The editor of the New Edition of Tales from the Five Dynasties consulted historical sources and significantly altered the content of the historical interpretations so that they moved closer to orthodox histories. The figure of Li Cunxiao loses its significance whose descriptions follow the orthodox history and become very brief. Thus, the New Edition of Tales from the Five Dynasties cannot be the texts of the folk tales of Song and Yuan Dynasties but literary works mixed with folk tales and historic records (mainly Zizhitongjian). It may be regarded as the beginning of a formal scholastic literary tradition in classical pop novels.