大众娱乐、道德劝戒到社会批判——清中叶通俗小说讽世形态的变化

From Pleasing the Masses and Moral Admonishment to Social Criticism——The Change of the Ways of Social Criticism in the Popular Novels in the Middle of Qing Dynasty

通俗小说自产生之日起,即在道德劝戒和娱乐大众之间摇摆不定。至清代中叶,通俗小说在文人化的同时,其反映世界的方式也发生变化。这些被称为文人小说的通俗小说将道德问题提高到社会政治批判的高度,并与文人的济世情结紧密地联系在一起,社会政治批判成为个人情怀抒写的方式之一。虽然《儒林外史》、《何典》、《钟馗平鬼传》等小说讽世的形态不同,但其内在精神则是相通的。

Popular novels vibrated between moral admonishment and pleasing the masses since they came into being. In the Middle of Qing Dynasty, the manner of popular novels reflecting society changed with their significance. The moral questions were enhanced to the height of social and political criticism in the popular novels which were named novels of literati. The kind of criticism was connected with the aspiration of contributing to the society and became the main manner of expression of individual sensation. Although the ways of social criticism in such novels as RuLinWaiShi, HeDian and ZhongKuiPingGuiZhuan were different, the connotation was similar.