汉唐“徐福东渡”故事的“层累造成”

On the“Gradual Accumulation”of the Stories on“Xu Fu’s Eastward Journey”in the Han and Tang Dynasties

自秦汉至唐代,徐福东渡故事乃是一种“层累造成”。最初《史记》对此记载不过数百字,随着汉唐间人们对海洋、求仙以及外部世界的各种认知不断附会其上,其内容逐渐扩充,最终形成了唐代笔记小说中有关徐福东渡的独特记载。而徐福东渡故事在汉唐时期更是充当了帝王盲信鬼神、滥用民力的象征,且作为帝国的政治教训而存在,在当时的话语和认知中有着深远的影响,这同样暗含“层累”之意味。

From the Qin and Han Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty,the story of Xu Fu’s Eastward Journey had been a kind of gradual accumulation.Initially it was a story of only several hundred words in Historical Records.But with people’s further cognitions of the ocean,immortal search and the external world between the Han and Tang Dynasties,different contents had been continuously added to the story,thus finally forming a unique record of Xu Fu in the Tang Dynasty’s literary sketches.In the Han and Tang Dynasties,the story of Xu Fu’s Eastward Journey became a symbol of emperors’blind belief in ghosts and gods and abuse of financial resources of the people,and remained as a political lesson of the Empire.There was a far-reaching significance in the discourse and cognition at that time,also implying the meaning of“gradual accumulation”.