晚清描写工人生活的第一部文言短篇小说——论恽铁樵的《工人小史》

On the First Short Story in Classical Chinese Portraying Workers' Life in the Late Qing Dynasty——Yun Tie-qiao's A Sketch of Workers

晚清短篇小说获得了重要的发展,特别是社会短篇小说显示了比长篇更大的优势,恽铁樵的《工人小史》就是其中一部突出的代表。它作为中国文学史上的第一部反映上海工人生活和命运的短篇作品,虽用文言写成,但详细地描绘了上海工人的出身史、被压迫史、日常生活史、被虐史、牺牲史和精神史,在思想和艺术两个方面都表现了中国短篇小说从传统向现代过渡的特点,在文学史上具有一定的认识价值。

Short stories achieved an important development in the late Qing Dynasty, and social short stories, in particular, displayed more superiority to novels, Yun Tie-qiao＇s A Sketch of Workers being an outstanding masterpiece. As the first short story portraying the life and fate of Shanghai workers in Chinese literary history, A Sketch of Workers, though in classical Chinese, makes a vivid description of Shanghai workers＇ origin, their oppression, their daily life, their maltreatment, their sacrifice and their spirit. Given its thought and artistic achievements, the short story can be regarded as a transitional one from tradition to modernity, which has some academic significance in the history of Chinese literature.