中国通俗小说与通俗小说史的编纂

On Chinese Popular Novels and the Compilation of Their History

中国通俗小说是中国小说的一个门类,与历代正史《艺文志》或《经籍志》著录的古体小说不是一个系统。它从整体上属于不能被纳入正统文化的民间文化,使用普通民众都能理解的通俗语言,主要描写和表现社会日常生活,具有民间性、故事性、趣味性、审美性、娱乐性及口语化等特点。其直接来源是宋元"说话",远源可上溯到先秦俳优与俳优小说。中国通俗小说史的编纂近年来虽取得了可观的成绩,但仍有进一步加强的必要。今人对于中国古代通俗小说的认识或多或少会受到现代小说观念的影响,难以完全客观地对待自己描述的对象。然而,古代通俗小说在本质上毕竟是历史的而不是现实的。因此,我们要用历史的眼光去观察它,用历史的观念去理解它,用历史的方法去解析它,用历史的态度去评论它,从而建构比较客观的符合其历史发展实际的通俗小说史。

The Chinese popular novel is a genre of Chinese novels and is not in the same system as those collected in offi- cial history books as Annals of Literary Works or Annals of Classic Works. On a whole, it belongs to the folk literature which is excluded by orthodox. It employs language that common people can understand, describes social daily life. And it is charac- terized by folk orientation, narration, interest, aesthetics, amusement and colloquialism. It originated directly from people＇s talking in Song and Yuan Dynasties. And it can be dated further back to actors and novels concerning them in pre-Qin time. Though some fruits have been achieved in the history compilation of Chinese popular novels, they are far from satisfying. Peo- ple＇s understanding of popular novels in ancient China is influenced to some extent by modern conceptions and can hardly treat the objects entirely objectively. However, the ancient popular novels, in essence, are history in stead of reality, so we should observe them from a historical perspective, understand them with historic conceptions, interpret them with historic methods, and comment them with historic attitudes. On this base, we can compile an objective history of popular novels that is in accord- ance with their practical development.