“才女命穷”与“福慧双修”——清代江南才女的文学生态与诗学理想

“Miserable talented women”and“cultivation of both blessings and wisdom”:the literary ecology and poetic ideal of Jiangnan talented women in the Qing Dynasty

闺秀诗学中“才女命穷”与传统诗学中“诗人薄命”的内涵及诗学意义既有联系又有明显的性别差异。闺秀诗学中的“诗能穷人”并不是性别观照下的集体想象或文人书写方式,而是才女文学生态环境的真实写照。但才女在“诗能穷人”的境遇中坚持创作,坚信“才即是福”“诗即是福”,并将“福慧双修”作为自己的诗学理想。清代江南数以千计的才女在充满穷愁的文学生态中践行着“诗穷而后工”的诗学观,明知“诗能穷人”却勉力为之,不仅创造了辉煌灿烂的女性文学,更凸显了才女对自身生命价值与文学理想的执着追求,从而使闺秀诗学中的“穷而后工”更具有深刻的性别内涵与理论价值。

The connotation and poetic significance of“miserable talented women”in female poetics and“poets doomed to poor fate”in traditional poetics are both related and quite different concerning the gender.In female poetry,the phenomenon of“poetry leading to misfortune”is not the collective imagination or the writing style of literati under the perspective of gender,but a true portrayal of the ecological environment of talented women’s literature.Those talented women,however,persisted in writing under the miserable situation.They firmly believed that“talent is good fortune”and“poetry is good fortune”and regarded“cultivation of both blessings and wisdom”as their poetic ideal.Thousands of talented women in the south of Yangtze River in the Qing Dynasty practiced the poetic idea of“being disgraced,one’s writing would be skillful”in the literary ecology full of poverty.They knew that“poetry begets misfortune”,but still worked hard and by so doing,they not only created brilliant female literature,but also highlighted talented women’s persistent pursuit of their own life value and literary ideal,which further enriched the gender connotation and the theory of“being disgraced,one’s writing would be skillful”in female poetics.