可预见性与不确定性:《史记》人物的结构性分析

Predictability and Uncertainty:A Structural Analysis of Characterization in Shiji

本文从文本结构的角度出发,分析司马迁(约前145-前86)史学著作《史记》中的人物塑造。其高超的人物塑造一直被认为是正史中艺术水平的高峰,原因一直被归结为外貌、语言、行为、心理等若干类别的生动描绘。然而,这些互相割裂的类别过度强调人物单一方面的描绘,实则造成了对各类人物特征之间内在关系的忽视。叙事学关于"人物"的定义强调人物的整体性,揭示出人物多个特征之间的互动。人物的文本本质实则是一个依托于稳定、统一叙事文本的,且逻辑合理的多个特征的综合体。《史记》与更早的历史叙述之间在人物塑造上最根本的区别在于其文本结构的不同:早期独立片段式的叙事单元仅仅支持碎片化的人物塑造,而《史记》统一、完整的文本结构则可实现在篇章层面上连贯、融合的人物描绘。从先秦叙事文本到《史记》,中国史学叙事经历了结构上的重大转变。司马迁创造的纪传体作为一种前所未有的文本形式通过稳定文本次序建立了篇章内部的逻辑。因此,《史记》得以通过缜密的、特定的文本次序赋予人物特征;其文本的整体性锻造了连贯、有机、完整的人物形象,显著区别于其他早期史书中碎片化或前后矛盾的人物。同时,其故事情节合理地综合了不可预知因素,使主要人物曲折的人生道路得以展现。本文认为《史记》人物性格的预见性与事件的不确定性有机融合,强化了历史过程而非事件结果的重要性。这是其有别于其他历史著作的重要原因,也是其对后世叙事文学产生巨大影响的根源之一。

Using a structural perspective,this article analyzes how characters are built in the historical work Shiji《史记》(Records of the Grand Historian),written by the Han historian Sima Qian司马迁(?145-86 BCE).While the adept charac-terization of Shiji has been considered the peak of Chinese standard histories,previous scholarship has mostly studied the portrayals of character by dividing them into categories such as appearance,speech,act,psychological penetration,and so on.The emphasis of individual aspects of character causes an overlook of their interrelations in between.Narratological definitions of characters emphasize their entirety,shedding light on the correlations between their propositions.The textual nature of characters is a logical sum of traits,which can only be achieved when the narratives are stable and unified texts.The fundamental difference between Shiji and its predecessors in characterization lies in their structural divergence:the self-contained narrative units in earlier texts only allow fragmented distribution of character traits at the episode level,whereas the unified textual structure of Shiji empowers a coherent and integrated characterization process at the account level.From pre-imperial narratives to Shiji,Chinese historical narratives underwent a significant structural transformation:Sima Qian's creation of biography as a new textual form was revolutionary in stabilizing the textual sequence and thereby establishing an internal logic within an account,which allows for his painstaking attachment of propositions to characters.Characters forged in Shiji are thus coherent,organic,whole entities,differing remarkably from those fragmented and contradictory images seen in earlier histories.Meanwhile,its storyline incorporates unpredictable elements in a logical way to throw twists and turns in the protagonists'paths.I argue that the predictability of Shiji's characters,coupled with the uncertainty of its events,prioritizes the historical process over outcome,distinguishing Shiji from other histories and explaining its influence upon narrative literature of later ages.