文本的“生疏”和理论的“嫁接”——评司马涛《中国皇朝末期的长篇小说》

The "unfamiliarity" of the text and the "grafting" of the theory——Comments on the novel at the end of the Chinese Dynasties by Thomas Zimmer

德国汉学家司马涛(Thomas Zimmer)所著《中国皇朝末期的长篇小说》作为西方汉学界对中国明清古典小说最为细致的一项研究成果,虽然价值突出,但问题同样存在。一方面,作者对于中国古典文学作品本身,因翻译以及自身文化背景等不同,造成其与文本之间存在着隔膜,因此理解片面会出现偏差。另一方面,作者会不自觉地站在西方的理论框架内对中国作品过度解读。这是西方学者在研究中国古典文学时存在的较普遍问题,值得我们在学习西方学者相关著作时注意。

The novel at the end of the Chinese Dynasties, written by the German sinologist Thomas Zimmer(Known as Sima Tao in Chinese), is the most meticulous research achievement on the classical novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties in the western Sinology circle. Although it is of outstanding value, the problem also exists. On the one hand, the author has a deviation in the understanding of the classical Chinese literature caused by the gap between him and the text, due to the translation and different cultural background. On the other hand, the author will unconsciously stand within the framework of western theory to overinterpret Chinese works. This is a common problem in the study of Chinese classical literature by western scholars, which deserves our attention when we study the relevant works of western scholars.