晚清《惜谷宝卷》的特点和作者

The Characteristics and Authorship of Xigu Baojuan(Precious Scroll Exhorting Respect for Staple Grains)Written in the Late Qing Dynasty

《惜谷宝卷》是晚清的一部劝善宝卷。据《中国宝卷总目》记载,《惜谷宝卷》现存有十种刊本和三种抄本,最早的是咸丰八年(1858)苏城得见斋刊本。据笔者查阅的其中八种版本显示,现存版本高度一致。可见,它不是口头流传过程中逐渐形成的,而始终是以书面的形式创造且流传。《惜谷宝卷》有四个特点:一是人物形象和背景的独特之处;二是文体简约,叙述紧凑,条理清晰;三是宝卷中体现了“三教合一”的信仰特点;四是该宝卷的劝善思想很强烈。另外,据《惜谷宝卷》现存版本的情况、四个特点以及余治的戏剧《老年福》的内容,推测《惜谷宝卷》的作者也是余治。

Xigu Baojuan is a precious scroll on morality written in the late Qing dynasty,exhorting people to respect staple grains.According to The Catalogue of Chinese Precious Scrolls,there exist ten woodblock-printed editions and three manuscripts of this precious scroll,with the oldest edition published by Sucheng Dejianzhai Bookstore in 1858.In this study,the eight editions of these are investigated,showing that the text of each edition is almost identical.This indicates that this precious scroll was neither orally circulated nor gradually formed,but it was created and circulated in the written form.It has four significant characteristics:(1)It has a unique characterization and scene setting.(2)The writing style is concise,and the narrative is clear and logical.(3)It expresses the idea of the unity of the three religions(sanjiao heyi).(4)It represents strong thoughts of moral exhortation.In addition,considering the coincidence of the contents of at least seven different editions,the four characteristics and the contents of Yu Zhi’s play Laonian Fu(Blessed Old Age),it can be inferred that Yu Zhi was also the author of Xigu Baojuan.