顾颉刚故事学范式回顾与检讨--以“孟姜女故事研究”为中心

Review and Evaluation of GU Jie-gang's Folktalology Paradigm——Focusing on the Study of MENG Jiang-nu's Story

以顾颉刚系列孟姜女故事研究为代表的"历史演进法"不仅在史学领域具有重要意义,也奠定了中国故事学最坚实的学科范式,提出了一套具有普遍意义的故事学理论命题,但是由胡适提倡、顾颉刚实践的"演进公式",其局限性也是非常明显的。局限性主要表现为一源单线的理论预设与故事生长的多向性特点之间的不相符、故事讲述的复杂多样与文献记载的偶然片面之间的矛盾,以及在材料解读过程中基于进化论假设的片面性导向。顾颉刚故事学范式的科学贡献在于突出体现了合情推理诸形式在人文科学中的恰当应用。虽然基于合情推理的上古史研究在理论上是永远不可能被证实的,但是,学术研究的尊严不在于是否能找到一个终极结论,而在于具体的研究方法和是否体现了时代的科学水平,研究过程是否合乎学术规范,研究成果是否充分体现了人类思考问题和解决问题的能力、闪烁出人类智慧的光芒。据此衡量,我们认为顾颉刚的工作是出色而伟大的。

As a famous historian,GU Jie-gang built up his fame as a folklorist in 1920's by analyzing the story of MENG Jiang-nu in the light of the historical evolution methodology,which acted as an academic model for years.HU Shi deduced GU's studies to an evolution formula.GU's formula assumed that all the stories have only one origin and evolve in one direction.But the stories spread in circumstances that may origin and transform in diversities.Since the stories do not transmit in evolution,it shows the limitations of GU's formula.The contribution of GU's Folktalology paradigm was the exercise of many science research methods in the Human Sciences and achieved fruitful academic outcome.