“弃诸生”与“习古文辞”——魏禧的人生选择与身份认同

“Giving up Identity as an Official”and“Learning Articles from Old times”——Wei Xi's Life Choice and Identity

同明清易代之际众多士子一样,魏禧(1624--1681)在顺治初年自觉地选择了“弃诸生”的社会行为,因而陷入一种身份迷失的窘境。为了重新确认自己的社会身份,魏禧希图以“习古文辞”的“立言”方式,实现生命的价值,并达臻生命的不朽。魏禧选择“弃诸生”的社会行为,得以摆脱八股文对士子文字书写的约束,全身心地“习古文辞”,从而成就了“布衣之文”的文化价值。魏禧卓绝的古文造诣,使他在文人士大夫社交圈里赢得崇高声誉,得以获荐博学宏词科试。这一“征君”身份的确立与认可,对魏禧古文成为清初古文的典型起到极其重要的作用。

Like many scholars at the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties,Wei Xi (1624-1681) consciously chose the social behavior of "giving up identity as an official" in the early Shunzhi reign,and thus fell into a dilemma of identity loss.In order to reconfirm his social identity,Wei Xi tried to realize the value of life and achieve the immortality of life through the method of "learning articles from old times".The social behavior of "giving up identity as an official" allowed him to get rid of the constraints of the eight-legged essay on writing,and to learn articles from old times wholeheartedly,thus achieving the cultural value of the "the commoner’s prose".Wei Xi’s outstanding attainments in ancient prose won a high reputation in the social circle of literati and officials,and he was recommended for the examination.In the process of Wei Xi’s ancient prose becoming a typical ancient prose in the early Qing Dynasty,the establishment and recognition of the identity of Zhengjun played an extremely important role.