试论中国古代文字狱的文学根源

On Literary Sources of Wenziyu in Ancient China

文字狱横行 2 0 0 0余年 ,与中国封建社会相始终。中国封建社会的专制政治无疑是这一现象的根本原因。但中国古代传统的文学观念和诗文阐释方式也是导致文字狱产生的重要原因。弄清它们与文字狱之间的关系 ,有助于我们全面认识文字狱这一中国社会非常突出的社会现象。

Wenziyu means imprisonment of persecution of men of letters for any writing considered offensive by the imperial court.It began and ended almost simultaneously with feudalist society in China and lasted perversely for over two thousand years.The tyranny of the Chinese feudalist society was undoubtedly the basic cause for the phenomenon;however the traditional literary conception and the expression of prose and poetry in ancient China contributed greatly to its existence.The understanding of the latter point will help us acquire a comprehensive knowledge of Weiziyu,a peculiar social phenomenon in ancient China.