明清通俗小说中玄女形象的重构与伦理反思

Reconstruction of the image of Empyrean Fairy in popular fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties and the relevant ethical reflections

黄帝蚩尤战争神话在汉代完成了儒家政治神话的转型,其中的玄女确立了君权神授和辅助仁义之君平定人间祸乱的形象内涵。在《宣和遗事》中,叛乱者获得玄女支持,使玄女形象内涵发生深刻变化。围绕天命和忠义,《水浒传》等明清通俗小说展开了对玄女形象内涵的重构,这种重构包含着小说家对明清时期日益强化的君主专制和程朱理学的质疑与反思,也是与明清之际启蒙思想家对君主专制、君权神授等内容的反思、批判相呼应的。

The transformation of the myth of the war between Yellow Emperor and Chiyou to a Confucian political myth had been completed in the Han dynasty,during which the figure of Empyrean Fairy had been characterized as a supporter of the divine right of kings and an assistant to the righteous emperors’settling human disasters.In Xuanhe Stories,a righteous rebel was supported by Empyrean Fairy,a dramatic change in her image and implications.With the theme of destiny and loyalty,the popular fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties like The Water Margin reconstructed the image and implications of Empyrean Fairy.This reconstruction revealed the novelists’reflections on and questioning the increasingly strengthened feudal autocracy and neo-Confucianism during the period of the Ming and Qing dynasties,and conformed to the enlightened thinkers’reflections and criticism on feudal autocracy and the divine right of kings in the period of the late Ming dynasty and the early Qing dynasty.