汉文笔谈——一个以纸笔做缄默交谈的近古传意模式

Sinitic Brushtalk as a Once Vibrant Mode of Communication:Conducting Silent Conversation Using Brush,Ink,and Paper in Early Modern East Asia

古代东亚虽言语不通,儒生却可以文房四宝做缄默互谈,此类记载千载以前已见之,是为“汉文笔谈”。这种传意模式可上溯隋唐,于清季尤盛极一时,文献甚丰,甚至出现以此做跨文化越国界的多人会议,笔谈者来自中日朝越,多为士大夫及外交官。话音声波一瞬即逝,笔谈墨宝却可千载流传。这种互动沟通以书写为本,他方典籍似未尝见之,希腊语、拉丁语亦然。汉文笔谈曾于汉字文化圈中生气勃勃,惟今已遭遗忘。文章先述这一社会语言学现象之历史背景,后指出可按Brown和Yule(1983)对层见迭出之笔谈语境分为“互动传意”“问讯传意”两类,亦会略述东西方学者对是课题之出版研究,最后提出汉文笔谈没落之因、今日仅见之残存形式。

For well over a thousand years in Sinographic East Asia,despite a lack of a shared spoken language,scholars and literati of classical Chinese(Sinitic)could conduct“silent conversation”using brush,ink and paper.This mode of communication was known as“Sinitic brushtalk”.The earliest documented brushtalk interaction may be traced back to the Sui and Tang dynasties and it culminated in the late Qing dynasty,when there was no shortage of brushtalk artifacts being compiled and published for wider dissemination,including those adapted from transcultural and cross-border interaction contexts comparable to international conferences in the modern sense.Among the most prominent brushtalkers were scholar officials,courtiers and diplomats from today's China,Japan,Korea and Vietnam.Unlike oral communication which is ephemeral and lost without a trace as soon as speech is uttered,brushtalk artifacts are relatively more endurable;some were carefully preserved and passed on as historical records.Rarely reported or mentioned in Western literary works such as classical Greek and Latin,such a writing-mediated mode of communication appears to be unique to Sinographic East Asia.Indeed,being once a vibrant method for literati from different parts of Sinographic East Asia to conduct silent conversation,Sinitic brushtalk has been all but forgotten today.This article will first outline the historical background of this sociolinguistic phenomenon.Then,following Brown and Yules(1983)classic distinction between transactional and interactional communication in discourse analysis,we propose to classify four typical and recurrent brushtalk contexts using this conceptual dichotomy.Before closing,the article will briefly review Sinitic brushtalk research contributed by scholars in the East and the West,the main reason for the demise of Sinitic brushtalk as an interactive mode of face-to-face communication,plus some evidence of“pentalk”being occasionally practiced by literate users of Sinitic in contemporary society in the digital era.