"赛珍珠"与"贤内助":《箴言》与《牛郎织女》传说中贤妻形象比较研究

"Far More Precious Than Jewels"and"The Better Half':Comparing Capable Wives in Proverbs and The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid

希伯来文学经典《箴言》和中国民间传说《牛郎织女》都塑造了能力超群的贤妻形象.希伯来贤妻植根于古代近东智慧形象,她的贤德体现在能力和敬虔方面,《箴言》用"赛珍珠"比喻贤妻.中国民间传说的织女下凡俯就牛郎,成为凡人生活上的得力助手,是名副其实的"贤内助".本文比较"赛珍珠"与"贤内助"宜家室、和邻里的能力与美德,突出表现她们为家庭和社群做出的贡献.她们各自隶属的阶层差异表明希伯来智慧传统强大的王室背景,中国贫苦农民意识深处普遍的贤妻情结使得民间传说出现大量仙女配凡夫的情节.希伯来贤妻是智慧的人格化身,体现了她与世俗分别的超越性;中国民间传说里的织女最终与牛郎离别,是天人两分宗教观念的必然结果.

The book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures and The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid in Chinese folklore both portray images of capable wives.The image of the capable wife in Proverbs is rooted in the Personified Wisdom of Ancient Near Eastern literature,and she is full of strength and piety,“far more precious than jewels.”The weaving maid in the Chinese folklore tale The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid is the helper of her husband,an ordinary cowherd,and she is a real“better half.”This paper compares the virtues and benefits that each wife brings to families and neighbors,and their contributions to families and communities.The paper explores the royal background behind the Hebrew wisdom tradition,and the enduring capable wife complex in the consciousness of Chinese peasants which had resulted in a large number of remarkable wives with ordinary husbands in folklore tales.The last section of the paper focuses on the transcendental dimension of the capable wife,showing how the capable wife in Proverbs is a personification of wisdom,embodying the transcedence of separation from the world,while the final separation of the Cowherd from the Weaver Girl is the inevitable result of the religious concept of the separation of Heaven and humanity.