赋意与附会:植物的文化意义之生成

Meaning-attribution and Strained Interpretation:Formation of Plant's Cultural Meaning

植物的文化意义并不天然地存在于植物自身,而是被人们赋予的。考察古人赋予植物以意义(即赋意)的几种路径,认为君子比德、文化名人的倡导鼓吹,以及文化传统中广泛的互文性,是植物文化意义生成及传承的主要方式。赋意过程常常是合理的、自圆其说的,但也会以随意、牵强的方式(即附会)进行,由此产生的文化意义在继承、弘扬中不断被扩展和强调,始终呈现着开放的态势。植物文化的建构应该在已有的文化传统中汲取营养,在继承与发展的过程中壮大成势。

This paper examines ways of meaning-attribution of plants by interpreting plenty of ancient documents in perspectives of cultural studies. It concludes that the main three ways of meaning-attribution of plants are image analogy between plants and virtuous men, advocacy from cultural liberties, and intertextuality of cultural traditions. It claims that meaning-attribution of plants seems reasonable and self- closured in many cases, and also somewhat casual and arbitrary. Plant＇s cultural meaning is extended and underlined constantly.