论《镜花缘》与清代才学小说

On Romance of Mirrored Flowers and Novels concerning Talents and Their Learning of Qing Dynasty

才学小说是清代通俗小说的一个特殊门类,适应着当时的社会政治形势和文化需求,同时也是士人逃避政治迫害和展示才华的一种尝试。康熙后期成书的《女仙外史》是其滥觞,乾隆、嘉庆时期出现的《野叟曝言》《蟫史》《燕山外史》《草木春秋演义》是其发展,而《镜花缘》则代表了才学小说的最高成就并确立了才学小说作为通俗小说一个类别的小说史地位。不过,通俗小说只有采用通俗的文体讲述通俗的故事,才能获得最佳的通俗效果。而才学小说在小说中大谈知识与学问,多游离于人物描写之外,不但破坏了人物形象的完整,阻碍了故事情节的发展,而且也损害了小说营造的意境,违背了小说以人物塑造为职志的艺术规律,因而是不可取的,也是难以获得读者认可的。故道光以后才学小说式微,仅有《如意君传》《白鱼亭》等为其余响。

The novels concerning talents and their learning were a special type of popular novels in Qing Dynasty. And they adapted themselves to the social and political situation and met the cultural demands of that time. Meanwhile, they were an attempt for the literati to avoid political persecution and exhibit their talents. The novel A Legend of Fairies published in the late years of Emperor Kangxi was the earliest example. And the novels Words of an Unknown Old Man, A History of Moths, An Unofficial History of Mount Yah and Spring and Autumn of Grass and Woods appeared in the periods of Emperors Qianlong and Jiaqing and were the development of A Legend of Fairies. However, Romance of Mirrored Flowers repre- sented the highest achievement of novels concerning talents and their learning and established their status as a special type. Nevertheless, only when the popular novels show their popular stories in popular stylistics can they obtain the optimal popular effect. As for the novels concerning talents and their learning, they boast learning and knowledge, which is mostly beyond the description of their characters. This not only has destroyed the image of characters as a whole and hindered the plots from de- velopment, hut has damaged the atmosphere constructed by novels and violated the artistic rules of which novels take figure shaping as their main task. In this sense, it is unadvisable and hard to be accepted by readers. Consequently, such novels declined after the period of Emperor Daoguang and only A Biography of Satisfying Men and Pavilion of White Fish have been considered as their successors.