从“梦”到“梦想”——从晚清科学小说《电球游》看“梦”的近代意义的发生

From Dream to Expectation--Modern Value of Dream Viewed from the Late Qing Sci-fiction of Travel on Electronic Ball

在中国古代的文学与文化中,有关“梦”的论说和绮想构成了非常重要的组成部分。然而,近代以来,伴随着西方近代科学的传入,中国人的宇宙观和世界观发生了巨大的变化,这也直接影响到了人们对于梦的理解,以及“梦”这一形式在文学书写中的运用。因此,我们可以把“梦”看作近代以来中西间思想观念和文学传统相互激荡的关键场域。而对晚清新小说,尤其是力图普及科学世界观的科学小说中有关“梦”的叙事的考察,也成为了理解近代中国想象力变化的一个重要入口。本文将以洪炳文创作于1906年的科学幻想作品《电球游》为例,思考晚清科学小说中“梦”的媒介功能的转换与近代意义的发生,并结合对同时期其他涉梦科学小说的考察,窥探近代中国所发生的时空观的转变与想象力的变迁。

The comment and imagination of dream constitute an important part in ancient Chinese literature and culture.The world outlook and cosmology of the Chinese people have undergone great changes with the modern Western science ushered in China since the modern times.This influenced directly the comprehension of dream and the its application in literary writing.Therefore,we can treat the concept of“dream”as a key field for the interaction between Chinese and Western ideas and literary traditions in modern times.A survey of the new novels of the late Qing dynasty,especially the narration of“dream”in sci-fiction which tried to popularize the scientific world view,is helpful in understanding the change of imagination in modern China.Taking Hong Bingwen’s 1906 sci-fiction“Travel on Electronic Ball”as an example,this paper focuses on the transformation of the media function of“dream”and the occurrence of modern significance in the sci-fiction of the late Qing dynasty,combines with the investigation of other sci-fictions related to dream in the same period,and explores the changes of space-time view and imagination in modern China.