“谐剧”与《西游记》作者问题考辨

A Probe into “xieju” and the Author of A Journey to the West

《西游记》著作权问题的纷争由来已久,争论的一个重要症结在于能否用传统的"文如其人"的论断,将《西游记》的著作权归于吴承恩。自《天启淮安府志》提出吴承恩"复善谐剧"的论断之后,学者们围绕着"谐剧"提出了不少观点,这其中,"谐剧"即是"喜剧"的论断甚嚣尘上。但是,由于明清两代喜剧理论的相对匮乏,加之近代喜剧理论的驳杂性,把"谐剧"臆测为"喜剧"的观点还是值得商榷的。结合相关文献,将"谐剧"理解为吴承恩的一种"秉性",可能更为妥帖。

The copyright of A Journey to the West has been a long history.One of the crucial controversial parts lies in whether we can owe the author of this classical work to WU Cheng’en with the traditional judgment“the writing mirroring its author”.Since the time when Officiallycompiled Tianqi Huaian Chronicle put forward the view that WU Cheng’en was adept in“xieju”,the scholars have put forward many views around this“xieju”,among which“xieju”was“comedy”and has been prevalent.However,due to the lack of comedy theories in Ming and Qing Dynasties and complexity of the relevant modern theories,such view classifying the xieju as comedy has yet to be consulted.According to some literature,understanding this“xieju”as WU’s temper may be more reasonable.