人的形貌描写与自然生命力的显现——中国早期文学的一个透视点

The Description of Human Figures and the Revelation of Natural Vitality:A Perspective in Early Chinese Literature

通过描写人的形貌以显现其自然生命力,是早期文学经常采用的表现方式。早期神话往往把人和动物的器官进行整合,创造出怪异的神灵形象,这些形象具有旺盛的生命力,表现出先民对人的形体器官既依赖又超越的双重心理。《诗经》在描写人的形貌时,突出人的形貌之美和自然生命力的创造性。《左传》把奇美奇丑的人物都作为破坏性力量加以表现。《庄子》中的奇美、奇丑形象,都作为正面角色出现,并具有旺盛的自然生命力和创造性功能。汉代文学继承前代文学传统,在通过形貌描写显现人的自然生命力时贯穿尚奇风尚。

To reveal the vitality of nature by describing human figures is a way of expression often seen in early Chinese literature. The early myths usually combined the human organs with the animals’ in order to create very strange images of gods which were very vigorous and vital, indicating the double psychology of the early people of both relying and transcending the human organs. Shijing emphasizes the beauty of human figures and the creativity of natural life; Zuozhuan takes both the extremely beautiful and the extremely ugly as the destructive forces; and in Zhuangzi they are positive roles functioning as both natural vitality and creative forces. The literature in Han Dynasty, from Si Maqian to Liu Xiang to Wang Chong, followed the steps of earlier literature to continue the tradition of revealing natural vitality by describing human figures.