说书人与乡绅社会:晚清民国江南县域地区的文化入境与文人应对

Storytellers and Country Gentry Society:the Culture Entries and Literati Responses in the Jiangnan Counties of the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republican Era of China

江南县域地区一直是说书人涉足最广的就业场,也是乡绅群体最基本的权力空间。从乡绅对说书艺术的接受史来看,射利谋存的说书人与砥名励节的乡绅集团并非两支天然对立的势力。说书人的娱乐属性以及在某种程度上展现出的文化涵养,疏通了与乡绅的对话渠道,缓解了两者的对抗关系。清末以降,在绅权认定体系日趋瓦解、乡绅权力部分失效以及俗文化在社会改造过程中异军突起的历史语境中,说书人以世俗文化入境,对乡绅掌握的文化主权造成了挑战。为了避免权力的遗失,乡绅通过文化嫁接、身份让渡,甚至介入说书人与地方势力的纠纷,适时向对方暗示了权力的在场,明确了文化阶序,并且重新调整出了两者的生态界线,使具有传统儒教秩序的“乡望”体系得以维系。

The Jiangnan(江南)county area has always been the most wide-ranging occupation market for storytellers as well as the most basic power space for the country gentry.Judging from their acceptance of the storytelling art in the past,the country gentry,who aimed at reputation and moral integrity,were not naturally opposed to storytellers,who were in pursuit of profits and livelihoods,as we previously imagined.The entertaining attributes of storytellers,together with their cultural sophistication manifested to a certain degree,have unblocked the channels for dialogue with the country gentry and eased the confronting tension between the two.Since the late Qing Dynasty,with the abolition of the imperial examinations,the certification system of country gentry had gradually disintegrated,the power of the country gentry had partially failed,and the worldly culture had appeared all of a sudden during the period of social transformation.It was under such circumstances that storytellers made culture entries and posed challenges to the cultural sovereignty of the country gentry.To avoid the loss of powers,by means of cultural grafting and identity transferring,the country gentry even got involved in disputes between the storytellers and local authorities.They timely implied the presence of powers,clarified the cultural classes and orders,and readjusted the ecological boundaries between the two,thus preserved the traditional Confucian“local nobles”system.