报刊搜书、征文广告对晚清小说创作的影响——以早期《申报》所载小说广告为中心

On the Effects of Newspaper Advertisements for Collecting Books and Essays on Novel Writing in the Late Qing Dynasty——A Focal Investigation of the Novel Advertisements in the Early Days of The Shen Daily

晚清时期,《申报》上刊登了一系列的搜书、征文广告,这些广告是了解当时小说市场和作家创作状况的珍贵史料。申报馆通过搜书广告广泛征集民间书稿,促成《申报馆聚珍版丛书》的出版,不但获得了丰厚的商业利润,尤使小说出版骤然升温,同时也刺激了小说(尤其是文言小说)的创作,以至在同光之际掀起一股以《儒林外史》为标准的小说创作热;同时,这一时期申报馆的征文活动,也使得以王韬为代表的一批晚清小说家脱颖而出。这些个案既反映了晚清小说市场对小说的需求状况,也反映了报刊征文广告作为经济动因,对晚清作家小说创作的影响。

In the late Qing Dynasty, The Shen Daily issued a series of advertisements for collecting books and essays, which now serve as precious historical materials to investigate the current novel market and situation of writ- ing on the part of writers. The newspaper office collected book manuscripts from society by means of book-collecting advertisement, which resulted in the appearance of The Highlighted Series of Books of the Shen Daily Office. This project earned fat commercial profits and especially caused an abrupt eruption of novel publication. It also greatly stimulated the writing of novels, particularly classic Chinese novels and led to an enthusiastic wave of novel writing in the mode of The Scholars in the times of Tongguang. The Shen Daily＇ s campaign of essay collection helped to get a large group of writers in the day headed by Wang Tao. This historical event showed the great need for novels in the novel market, and indicated the effects of newspaper advertisement for collecting books and essays as an eco- nomic dynamic factor on the novel writinz in the dav.