文化记忆和出土“书体”文本中的轶事:论清华简《保训》对文类张力的调和

Cultural Memory and Excavated Anecdotes in“Documentary”Narrative:Mediating Generic Tensions in the Baoxun Manuscript

本文分析了轶事与"书体"两种叙事模式在呈现过去时的不同之处。"书体"文本对过去的呈现是论断性的,为理解历史事件与人物构建了一个权威且真实的框架,而轶事则将道德的、修辞的、个体的、甚至颠覆性的细节纳入叙事之中,从而充实了框架。因此,这两种形式展现了它们使用过去的资源形成论述并将之发展为共享的文化记忆的不同模式。《保训》以"书体"叙述作为主体框架,而将两则轶事作为文本的核心。通过分析其框架机制、模式话语,以及其他建构文本的方式,本文探讨了轶事何以被嵌入"书体"叙述的架构之中。本文指出《保训》试图将两种大相径庭的叙述模式交织在一起。虽然以"书体"叙述的形式呈现可以忠实传达古代圣王的演说,但另一方面,文本又同时使用轶事回溯地报告与反思过去。这两种不同的时间范围与联系过去的模式呈现了一种根本的张力。文本的作者试图通过调和其语言与结构来缓和这种张力,使得轶事得以完好地嵌入不合身的框架中。最后,本文认为这种不同叙事模式的困难交织反映了公元前3世纪时传统与流行的文类在处理过去问题上的竞争。

In this article,I analyze the differences in modes of representing the past in anecdotes and documentary narrative.I argue that the documentary representation of the past is predicative,constructing authoritative and purportedly veracious frameworks for understanding past events and figures.Anecdotes,in turn,flesh out these frameworks by attributing moral,rhetorical,personal and even subversive details to these narratives.Both forms thus present different modes in how they use the resources of the past to form an argument and develop a shared,cultural memory.The Baoxun保训employs the main framework of documentary narrative,while still presenting two anecdotes as the centerpiece of the text.By analyzing the framing devices,use of formulae,and other means of structuring the text,this article explores how anecdotes are textually linked to the framework of documentary narrative.The article proposes to view the Baoxun as a text that attempts to wed two distinctive and often incommensurable narrative modes.While on the one hand presenting itself as a documentary narrative authentically presenting and preserving the speeches of the hallowed figures of antiquity,the text at the same time retroactively reports and reflects on the past through the use of anecdotes.These two distinct timeframes and modes of relating the past present a fundamental tension.I argue that the authors of the text tried to mediate this tension by harmonizing the language and structure of the text so that the anecdotes could be made to fit in their strange jacket.This article concludes by suggesting that this problematic wedding of modes of narration tells us about competition between traditional and popular genres of dealing with the past in 3^(rd)c.BCE China.