崇简尚韵的意境营造——古代小品文对确立文学叙事的意义

Significance of the Ancient Chinese Essay to Literary Narration

作为一个文体名目来说,小品文在现代才出现,但其实际历史却很悠久。魏晋南北朝时代就出现了小品文的第一次高潮,历经唐宋而在明季达到鼎盛。从写作上说,小品文崇尚简洁,重视情韵,既受史著尚简笔法的影响,同时也与玄学简淡玄微的旨趣相关。其哲学渊源,实为庄玄,提倡人生的艺术化,追求个体的自得自适。这种艺术化的人生态度,还文章以审美、娱乐功能;而就审美特征而言,便是崇尚简约,重视情韵。二者一在文用层面,使应用文字变成审美文字;一在审美层面,以意境作为散文叙事的重要特征,从而区别于小说叙事的以情节冲突、性格成长等为主要特征,在古代散文从应用叙事走向文学叙事的过程中,对散文文体的确立及发展,起了重要作用。

As a literary genre, the essay is a concept that came into being in modem times. It has, however, a long history with the first climax in the Wei, Jin, the Northern and Southern dynasties, and reached its heyday in the Ming dynasty through the development of Tang and Song dynasties. In terms of the style of writing, the essay puts emphasis on conciseness and tasteful appeal to feelings as a result of the influence of historic works and Chinese metaphysics, both of which focus on conciseness and perspicuity. Its theory stems from Zhuangzi＇s ideology which advocates artistic life and individual ease. This artistic life attitude endows the essay with an aesthetic and entertaining function. The twofold origins literally transformed verbal expressions into aesthetic symbols, and aesthetically featured the essay narration with an artistic conception. Thus, the essay is differentiated from fiction narration characterized by conflicts in plot and character development. It has played an important role in the establishment and development of the essay in the ancient Chinese essay＇s transformation from applied narration to literary narration. The present paper is a historical and critical review of this genre＇s in Wei, Jin, and Ming dynasties, aiming at the above-mentioned conclusions.