日本文学中的“蓬莱”意象及其流变

Research on the Images of Penglai in Japanese Literature and their Development

中国“蓬莱文化”东传后,成为日本文人墨客喜用的文学素材。“浦岛传说”等表明,蓬莱文化对日本文学的影响深远。然而,它在日本文学中的具体使用情况及其流变迄今似未见有人说明。对日本各时期文学作品的蓬莱意象加以梳理,可发现在早期史书的传说和汉诗中,日本的“蓬莱”基本再现了中国蓬莱仙岛的意境。而至平安时期,日本的物语文学对“蓬莱”意象做了选择,并细化出“仙药”“仙枝”“仙女”等具体形象。到近代,以北村透谷《蓬莱曲》为代表的诗剧则重构出新的蓬莱幻境,开辟了自由言说内心的理想“他界”。这一系列接纳、选择、重构的演进,体现了中国“蓬莱文化”日本本土化的过程。

Since Chinese Penglai culture spread eastward, it has become popular with Japanese literary men. Penglai culture had a profound effect on Japanese literature, as the Urashima Legend and other legends illustrates. However, its specific application and development in Japanese literature remains unexplained. In this paper, the author traces the images of Penglai in Japanese literary works from various periods, and finds that images of Chinese Penglai Island were almost perfectly reproduced by Japanese in early historical legends and poems. However, in the Heian period, Japanese monogatari literature made adjustments to the Penglai image, and some specific images, such as the elixir of life, the magic bough and the female fairy,were refined. In modern times, a new Penglai image has been reconstructed which is represented by Kitamura Tokoku’s poetic drama, such as the Story of Penglai, and this has opened an ideal other world in which one can give any utterance unreservedly.The localization of Chinese Penglai culture in Japan by the serial evolution of acceptance, choice and reconstruction of Penglai reflected how it was localized.