《四库全书总目》“小说家类”序文发微

On the Preface of the Category of Novelists in Si Ku Quan Shu Zong Mu

《四库全书总目》"子部""小说家类"序文虽然只有200余字,但涉及小说多个方面的问题,具有不可忽视的价值。四库馆臣在继承并理性辨析前人观点的基础上,追溯了小说的起源,表达了他们对小说虚构性质的认知理念,对小说流派的辨析,对小说价值功用的阐述,从中也可见出《四库全书》不收唐传奇与通俗小说的原因所在。

The preface of the category of novelists in Si Ku Quart Shu Zong Mu had only 200 words. But the preface involved many questions on novels and had non-ignorable value. The off＇leers compiling Si Ku Quart Shu Zong Mu dialectically inherited the former viewpoints and reviewed the origin of novels. They expressed their cognitive concept on novelistic fictional nature, discriminated the schools of fiction and expounded novelistic value. Thus we can know why legend and popular fiction written in the Tang Dynasty were not in Si Ku Quan Shu Zong Mu.