清代戏曲家蔡荣莲生平若干问题考辨

A Textual Research on Several Matters about the Life of Cai Ronglian,a Dramatist in the Qing Dynasty

清代戏曲家蔡荣莲撰有杂剧《支机石传奇》一种。以往戏曲研究者仅据剧中序跋等记述蔡氏名号、家世及其科举、仕宦,结论多有模糊不清甚至讹误之处。其实,蔡氏尚有《明志斋诗草》二卷存世,其中关涉其生平事迹之材料甚多。今据《明志斋诗草》等对蔡氏生平进行考辨可知:蔡荣莲,字金炬,后改名嘉佺,字偓仙,一字子卓。江西省新建县仪凤乡大塘里前湖坊村人。十八岁即补诸生,却六踬乡闱,道光十七年(1837)方中举人。此后四应会试,均无功而返。道光二十六年春,以大挑举人选江西德兴县学训导。赴任不久,患疟,逝于归乡途中。

Cai Ronglian,a dramatist in the Qing Dynasty,wrote a kind of drama Legend of Zhiji Stone.In the past,opera researchers only described Cai's name,family background,imperial examinations,and officialdom based on the preface and postscript in the play,and their conclusions were often ambiguous or even corrupted.In fact,Cai still has two volumes of Mingzhizhai Draft Poems in existenee,in which there are many materials related to his life and deeds.Today,according to Mingzhizhai Draft Poems and other studies on Cai's life,we can see that Cai Ronglian,courtesy name Jinju,was later renamed Jiaquan,courtesy name Woxian,and also courtesy name Zizhuo.A native of Qianhufang Village,Datangli,Yifeng Township,Xinjian County,Jiangxi Province.At the age of eighteen,he was a student who entered Sinology,but he failed six times in the township examination,and he was succeeded only in the 17th year of Daoguang(1837).Since then,he has participated in the metropolitan examination four times,all of which have been unsuccessful.In the spring of the twenty-sixth year of Daoguang,he became a school instructor in Dexing County,Jiangxi Province through the"big challenge".Shortly after taking office,he contracted malaria and died on the way home.