潜心八股举业:清代士绅阶层小说戏曲禁毁舆论的功利诉求

Devotion to Eight-part Essay Examination:the Utilitarian Requirements of the Public Opinions on Novels and Traditional Operas Among the Gentry in Qing Dynasty

与官方禁毁小说戏曲的法令不同,明清士绅阶层的禁毁舆论除了维护理学道统的目的,还与八股举业有着密切的联系。士绅为了让子弟潜心举业、苦练八股而呼吁禁毁小说戏曲,这种功利诉求直接影响官方政策,带动国家机器参与其中,与官方禁毁法令互为补充,在中国小说戏曲禁毁史上值得关注。

Differing from the official laws and decrees which banned and damaged novels and traditional operas, the gentry in Qing dynasty supported public opinion of forbidding and damaging them. Besides aiming to maintain the Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, the above public opinion also had close relations with eight-part essay examinations. In order to make sons and younger brothers devote themselves to the examinations and practise hard their eight-part essay writing, the gentry appealed for forbidding and damaging novels and traditional operas. This utilitarian requirement directly affected the official policy, spurred the government to participate in it, which was the complements of the official laws and decrees, so it deserves concern and attention in the Chinese history of forbidding and damaging novels and traditional operas.