钱锺书对二十世纪中国文学的反思

Qian Zhongshu's Critical Reflections on Twentieth-Century Chinese Literature

作为现代文学家的钱锺书,一直有意疏离于整个二十世纪中国文学史之外。而作为学问家的钱锺书,也很难列于某个具体研究领域之内的学术谱系。假如沟通"文学"之"文"与"学"之异同关系,则可认识到钱锺书的学术思想和文学风格对于中国文学现代化进程具有独特的反思性价值。从他对于明季与晚清的西方文学对中国之影响的种种批评与讨论来看,他将异质文明的交流视作更具本质意义的文学生态,以此建立迥异于现代国族话语路向的世界主义文学观念。而汇通中西的学术眼光,使钱锺书在评骘近现代中国文学的热点问题时能够充分深入其所倚仗的思想资源之中,重新检览新创与因袭的虚实情况,由此呈现真正有价值的部分。钱锺书对于展示个人才能的文学形式感的重新强调,对于文学修辞与学术思想密切关联的揭示,在新时代的汉语文学环境下都有助于启发学界,激活看似陈旧、"死去"的文学资源,从而彰显和发扬作为"永恒之当下"的文学本质意义。

Qian Zhongshu, as a modern writer, had always intended to keep his distance from the history of Chinese literature in the 20th century. And as a scholar, it is also difficult to list him in some certain academic tradition within a specific research field. If we link up the similarities and differences between "Wen (literary writing)" and "Xue (scholarship)", we can realize that Qian Zhongshu's scholarly thought and literary style could have unique value of introspection for the modernization of Chinese literature. From his criticisms on the influence of Western literature on China in the late Ming and late Qing eras, Qian regarded the exchange of heterogeneous cultures, rather than some inner process, as the essential context of literature activities, thus establishing the concept of literary cosmopolitanism, that is very different from the modern national discourse. The academic vision of bridging China and the West enabled Qian Zhongshu to have adequately digged into various intellectual traditions he relied on, when he had a judging on the hot issues about modern Chinese literature. He re-examined the real conditions of the creativeness, imitation and plagiarism in literary activities, and found something truly valuable. His re-emphasis on the literary style showing the individual talent, and his revelation of the close connection between rhetorical techniques and erudite learnings, both helpful in the new era, will activate the literary resources that seems to be old and “dead”, thus highlighting and carrying forward the literary essence of the “zeitlose Gegenwart (timeless presence)”.