《金瓶梅》为“家庭小说”简论——一个关于明清小说分类的个案分析

On Golden Lotus as a Family Novel——An Analysis on the Classification of Ming-qing Novels

鲁迅虽称《金瓶梅》为“人情小说”或“世情书”，但他也指出此书“著此一家， 骂尽诸色”的特点。若就“人情——世情”小说内部深入研究，则从题材及其叙事结构而言 ，《金瓶梅》还可以而且应当称之为“家庭小说”。它影响后世衍出《林兰香》、《醒世姻 缘传》、《红楼梦》、《歧路灯》诸书，构成家庭小说的系列，其规律往往是后来者从前作 反面取材或立意而成新创。这是《周易》之所谓“通变”的体现，在小说史上是普遍的现象 。在承认《金瓶梅》为“人情小说”或“世情小说”代表作的前提下，明清小说分类中应把 《金瓶梅》——《红楼梦》一脉如实称为“家庭小说”。

Though Luxun viewed Golden Lotus as a 'human novel' or a 'social work ', he also pointed out that this book had criticized all the bad things in that society. If we make further study on its theme and structure, we'll find it can also be treated as a 'family novel'. It was so important that it had great influ ence on the writing of the later books such as The Story of Three Ladies, The Bon ds of Matrimony, The Dream of Red Mansion, The Lamp of Forked Road, which form eda series of “family novels'. All these books were inspired and inno vated by s ome aspects of Golden Lotus and achieved their own characteristics. That is called 'conversion' in the Book of Changes and is common in the history of novel writing.