近代白话通史修撰中的体裁、语言与格式问题——吕思勉《白话本国史》的几个探索

The Genre,Language,and Style in the Writing of Vernacular General History:A Study of LV Si-mian’s Vernacular History of China

在中国近代新史学与语体文兴起的脉络中,“白话修史”是其中一个重要的变革取向。近代白话通史的修撰,大体上沿着宋代以来的口语说史与近代新书面语(语体文)创制两个方向前行。1922年完稿的吕思勉著《白话本国史》在白话通史的体裁、语言与格式等修史形式问题上作了有意识的探索,与此前二十多年间的近代白话演史多有区格。作为中国20世纪文学革命与新史学革命的“事中人”,吕思勉始终实践在重建书面语与新通史的第一线,却又与文学革命及史学革命皆保持着相当冷静的距离。他并没有陷于文−白及述−著二元对立的框架内,而是以更为整体的视野去考虑国文、国史的重建问题。他对于“白话文”的追求在于既取其“浅”与宽,又希望保留它与原始史籍的“精神”纽带。其实践方向是包括史钞体裁、新国语文体与新征引格式在内的整体化方案,以求重建近代中国叙史(尤其是通史)的新书面形式。这种探索在当时中西新旧逐渐对立的时代语境中是颇为独特与深刻的。

“Writing vernacular general history”was an important change in the rise of new history and vernacular language in modern China.It followed two directions:the tradition of telling historical stories started in the Song Dynasty and the new written form created based on the colloquial in the modern period.Completed in 1922,LV Si-mian’s Vernacular History of China made conscious exploration into the genre,language,and style in the writing of vernacular history,which differentiates the work from modern vernacular history that followed the tradition of telling historical stories in the previous two decades.As an“insider”of China’s literature revolution and historical revolution in the 20th century,LV Si-mian consistently worked in the front lines of rebuilding written language and new general history,whereas keeping the two revolutions at arm’s length.Rather than taking an either-or approach to the relationship between the classical and the vernacular and that between paraphrasing and writing,his approach was more holist when he considered the problem of rebuilding national language and national history.He sought a“vernacular language”that is“easy”and unformalized while maintaining its“spiritual”tie to primary sources.To rebuild the new written form of writing of Chinese history,especially general Chinese history,his practice directs to a whole scheme that includes historical excerpt,the genre of new national language,and the new style of quotation.Such exploration was distinctive and far-reaching in a time when the opposition between the Chinese and the West on the one hand and the new and the old on the other gradually came into being.