传统目录学视域下《四库全书总目》所言“小说之体”的文类涵义

Literary features of the genre of novels in Anthology of Four Treasures under the perspective of traditional bibliography

在清代政统需求与传统目录学知识体系的双重制约下,《四库全书总目》所言“小说之体”以政教思想为内核,以是否包含“琐屑猥杂”的内容、“杂陈神怪”的言说方式及“旁及谈谐杂事,皆并列简编”的分类特征等“稗官之习”作为界定“小说之体”内涵的标准,并以传统书目“先道后器”的类名分类原则对“小说家类”与其他类别进行了本质区分及类别规范。此类做法是一种确定性表述或概述性表述,而非限定性表述,最终导致后世学者偏离《四库全书总目》的言说语境而对“小说之体”展开了过度诠释。

Under the dual constraints of the requirements of the political system in the Qing Dynasty and the knowledge structure of traditional bibliography, the criteria for defining the connotation of the genre of novels are stated in Anthology of Four Treasures as including state religion as the kernel, the content not being trivial and filthy, the narrative embracing gods and spirits, and the classification features of paralleling and annotating. Besides, it was also constrained by the traditional bibliographic classification criteria. These practices were a definitive or general statement rather than a restrictive one, which resulted in that later scholars deviated from the narrative context of Anthology of Four Treasures and undertook some transitional interpretations instead.