古文家钱基博对文学革命的退让与反击

The Retreat from and a Counterattack on the Literary Revolution by Qian Jibo, a Scholar of Classical Chinese Language

对于文学革命、新诗运动以至新文化运动的意义,自发端之初以迄当代,素有争议。作为古文家和认同"中体西用"思想的开明守旧派,钱基博对胡适及其所倡导的新文化运动和新诗运动经历了由退让到反击的转变,彰显了中国新文学史单向叙事的否定之维。他在出版于1930年代的《现代中国文学史》一书中,沿袭"甲寅派"的观点将胡适暗比"不思道德"、诡谲多诈的汉代权臣朱博,又在同时期劝诫其子勿效胡适、徐志摩,而应学习南朝名臣王僧虔在乱世的"处法";对于闻一多、朱湘等新诗人提倡格律、用典和模仿古人,他认为是"新体诗之穷而当变,思复其初"的征兆。本文探讨了钱基博对胡适及新文化运动、新诗运动的评价,揭示了他对文学革命所持态度的微妙转变,并对其守旧诗观加以反思。对于新诗的体例与新诗的成就,笔者认为,天道有常,文体代兴,不为格律、声韵所缚的自由诗乃新诗主流,其中佳制,实非胡适、周作人等人尝试之作所可及。

There has always been a dispute about the significance of the Literary Revolution, the New Poetry Movement and even the New Culture Movement ever since their inception. As a scholar of classical Chinese language and an enlightened traditionalist who identifies with the ideology of ‘Zhongti xiyong’, that of the Chinese studies as the foundation and the Western studies for practical use, Qian Jibo experienced a retreat from and a counterattack on the New Culture Movement and the New Poetry Movement as promoted by Hu Shi, demonstrating the dimension of negation in terms of single-directional narration in the history of new Chinese literature. In his book, A History of Modern Chinese Literature, published in the 1930 s, he based his view on that of the Jiayin School, comparing Hu Shi to Zhu Bo, a powerful minister in the Han dynasty, one that was immoral and cunning, while, at the same time, advising his own son to not follow Hu Shi and Xu Zhimo, instead learning the ways from Wang Sengqian, a well-known minister in the Southern Dynasties. He regarded the promotion of rules and forms of classical poetic composition, the use of allusions and the imitation of ancient men of letters by such poets as Wen Yiduo and Zhu Xiang as signs of the‘new poetry seeking a return to its origin when it has exhausted itself’. This article discusses Qian＇s comments on Hu Shi, the New Culture Movement and the New Poetry Movement, revealing his subtle change of attitude towards the Literary Revolution and reflecting on his concepts of the old poetry. It is this writer＇s opinion that, in relation to the rules of new poetry and its achievements, free verse, free from the old rules regarding style and sound, is the mainstream of new poetry as part of a natural law, and the fine works of such poetry are not something that trial work by either Hu Shi or Zhou Zuoren could ever match.