祭文的源流与抒情特征

The Origin and Lyric Feature of the Funeral Oration

祭文是对死去的亲人、相知或所崇敬之人的哀悼祭奠之词,离不开对死者生前音容笑貌和相亲、相处种种情景或感人事迹的回忆与述说。所以,出于真情的祭文,其动人情感,实不亚于为文造情的诗。不能套西方文学理论的框框,把一些优秀的散文作品排斥于文学范围之外,而只看作"应用文"。中国的文化传统历来讲"报本追远",不忘先辈、死者所作的贡献。因此,哀祭类文字在中国产生较早,《周礼·春官·大祝》中说的"六辞"中即有"诔",《昭明文选》中设"吊文"、"祭文"和"诔"、"哀"之体。《文心雕龙》也对"哀吊"、"诔碑"有专文加以论述。虽然其体式、名称有所演变,但均要求抒发真情,而反对"谀辞巧语,虚文蔓说"。祭文在今天仍是用得着的文体。古代的祭文,也可以使我们听到古人的心声,对我们弘扬民族精神、继承优秀文化传统有一定意义。

The funeral oration is written for memorizing the relatives, friends or people respected by the writers. It frequently recalls and describes the impressive deeds of the dead. Therefore the funeral orations expressing the real feeling is equivalent to a lyric poetry. So some classical funeral orations cannot be only regarded as the ＇practical writing＇ and excluded from the field of literature. The traditional culture of China always emphasizes the contribution made by the dead and the previous generations. Therefore, the genre of funeral oration existed in China from very early. The genre of funeral orations was included in different classical works in ancient china. They all advocated the idea of expressing the real feeling. The funeral oration is still a useful genre at present. The ancient funeral orations can be used to understand our ancestors＇ feeling. It is meaningful in disseminating the spirit of China and keeping cultural traditions of China.