论中国现代传记文学的本质属性及其他

On the Essential Property of Contemporary Biographical Literature in China

中国古代的“传”乃“释经”之意,后来“传”“记”两字连词,指的是叙述个人生平行事始末的人物传,在更多方面属于“史”的范畴。西方的“传记”一词由希腊文bios派生,具有生平或生活(life)的意思,指的是关于某一个人生平的作品,更多的时候也被认为属于历史的范畴。中国现代的“传记文学”概念则来自英语biographicalliterature,其作品指的应是以历史或现实中具体的人物为传主,以纪实为主要表现手段,集中叙述其生平,或相对完整的一段生活历程的文学作品。传记文学作品大致分为自传与他传两大类,普通的回忆录、访问记、印象记、日记、书信等,一般只可称为传记资料或历史文献。

The word “biography” is “zhuan ji” in Chinese, in which “zhuan” in ancient Chinese meant “hermeneutics of classics” and “zhuan Ji” referred to the biography of individual life stories. In this sense, “zhuan ji” should be categorized to the field of “history”. The word “biography” derived from Greek “bios”, with the concept of “life” or “life story”, refers to works of individual life stories, and is likewise categorized into the field of history. Contemporary Chinese “zhuan ji wen xue”, a notion coming from English “biographical literature”, should refer to the literary works which present an account of the life or a period of life story of a biographee from history or reality by a documentary means. Biographical literature may be divided into autobiography and biography, while memoirs, recordings of visits and impression, diaries and letters can only be defined as biographical materials or historical documents.