一种灵石,三部大书──从《水浒传》、《西游记》到《红楼梦》的“石头记”叙事模式

A Piece of Soul Stone,and Three Famous Great Novels:The Stone-Story Narrative Paradigm from The Water Margin,A Journey to the West to Dream of Red Mansions

从《水浒传》、《西游记》到《红楼梦》,看来差异巨大的三书,都以一块"灵石"的意象打头并契合中心人物、隐含主旨以贯穿全书,从而三书在一定程度上都可以称为"石头记"。"石头记"叙事模式源于中国古人以"天人合一"把握世界的方式和古老的石文化传统。"石头记"叙事模式的生成与存在表明,中国古代小说是一立体网状系统,各代表性作品与流派自其异处而观之各有千秋,自其同处而观之实千部一贯,无非这一巨大立体网络系统中的一个"结",因此古代小说研究不能过重作品个案与类析而忽视旁通。"石头记"叙事模式虽然是所谓"老套情节",但不能仅仅视为后先模拟甚至变相的抄袭,而应该承认其为文学发展演变一个规律性的体现,是中国古代小说叙事艺术演进中不断自我调节新变的结果。

The three novels with ostensibly great differences from The Water Margin,A Journey to the West to Dream of Red Mansions,all begin with the running-through image of a soul stone,corresponding to their kernel characters and their implied leitmotiv. In this sense,they all can be called ＂The Story of a Stone＂ to a certain degree. The ＂stone-story＂ narrative paradigm originates itself in the approach of ancient Chinese understanding the world with the ＂heaven-and-man-in-one＂ doctrine and in the age-old culture of appreciating rare stones. Its genesis and existence indicate that ancient Chinese fiction is a cubic netted system. Among its different masterpieces and schools,each has its strong points in terms of their difference; and each is the same with thousands of others in terms of their sameness. Each is but a ＂knot＂ on this systematic web. So the study of ancient Chinese fiction is not to lay emphasis on case studies and/or on analysis on different categories,so as to ignore the relationship among them all. The ＂stone-story＂ narrative paradigm is of stereotyped plots,and it is not to be considered as simulation and even plagiarism. It is to be admitted that it is the emblem of literary evolutionary law,and the result of the evolution of ancient Chinese fiction.