“帐簿”叙述与中国古代小说的文本建构

"Account Book" Style of Narrative and Textual Construction of Ancient Chinese Novels

由于古代小说通常按照史书"系之年月"的历时顺序叙述故事,而这种叙述方式又如同记账,因此我们不妨称之为"帐簿"叙述。"帐簿"叙述首先是一种"拟史"叙述。因"帐簿"叙述本身存在着时序刻板等缺陷,故张竹坡等人不满于把有意"错乱其年谱"的《金瓶梅》等小说定性为"帐簿",提出了"变帐簿以作文章"的创作追求,这实际上代表了人们对小说"如史"而"胜史"的期望。凭实说来,"帐簿"叙述曾经以其文化底蕴有功于小说的文本建构,一方面,佛教因果性的孽债观念推出了一批借还性质的"帐簿"小说;另一方面,受道教功过观念的影响而在民间社会流行的记录善行与恶行的"功过格"也催生了一批报应性质的"帐簿"小说。

Ancient Chinese novels are usually narrated chronically like history book and this is similar to the narrative style of account book, which gives rise to the name of ＂account book＂ style of narrative. It is firstly a quasi-history narration. Due to the rigid chronic order of narration, ZHANG Zhu-po and others are reluctant to define Plum in the Golden Vase as this kind of novel, which purposefully confuses narrative time. They advocate the pursuit of ＂narrating the story instead of keeping account book＂, which shows the aspiration of ＂surpassing history＂ instead of ＂quasi-history＂. In fact, ＂account book＂ style contributes to the textual construction of novels due to its culture details. On the one hand, Buddhist cause-and-effect concept propels the emergence of ＂account book＂ style of novels concerning borrowing and lending; on the other hand, Taoist merit and demerit concept leads to this kind of novel concerning good and evil and retribution.