《孔雀东南飞》与古典叙事诗的潜流

South-East Flies of the Peacock and a Potential Flow of Classical Chinese Narrative Poetry

《孔雀东南飞》是我国古典叙事诗中最伟大的作品,而此诗的创作年代、艺术特色等重要问题,历来有较多疑问。本文从此诗的艺术特征入手,辨析、比较其叙事诗体与印、欧史诗风格的异同,说明《孔雀东南飞》在其程式、场景的铺衍反复以及"非一致性"等特征上,与史诗并无二致;并依此可以略窥中国古典诗歌之中另一潜在的"叙事诗"的传统,它与占主导地位的抒情文学"大传统"相比,多呈现出一些"异质"的因子;并在抒情传统的抑制、影响之下,或消泯,或转化,以致其真实面目不可具睹。

Kongque Dongnan Fei(South-East Flies of the Peacock)is the greatest narrative poem of ancient Chinese poetry,but there are so many problems about this poem,both chronological and artistic.This essay takes its artistic characteristics as a starting point,and tries to interpret the similarity of formulae,type-scenes and inconsistency between this narrative poem and Indian and Greek epics through comparative studies.With such characteristics,we can find a potential narrative tradition in the history of ancient Chinese poetry.Compared with the great lyrical tradition of Chinese poetry,this narrative tradition shows something heterogeneous,and with the influence and restraint of lyrical tradition,the narrative tradition either transforms or disappears.Therefore we cannot fully understand its real characteristics.