隐喻、图像与习性:中国古代“美猿贬猴”观念新探

The View of “Apes are Superior and Monkeys are Bad” from the Perspective of Animal History: The Joint Construction of Political Metaphor, Animal Habits and Artistic Images

“美猿贬猴”是中国古代一种特殊的文化观念,特别是自唐宋王朝以降,在“党争”的催化下,猿象征君子、猴代表小人的政治隐喻遍晓士林;北宋猿猴画的发展,更使长臂猿与猕猴的形象特征及其文化寓意愈显直观;而两种动物在分布、食性和行为方面的显著不同,乃是古人对其评价大相径庭的根本原因。最终,政治隐喻的褒贬、图画形象的表现以及动物习性的差异,共同筑就了中国古代“美猿贬猴”的文化观念。

“Apes are superior and monkeys are bad” or “beautify apes and belittle monkey”, which is an interesting phenomenon in Chinese traditional animal cultural concept. Its process of evolution has been affected by multiple factors, especially in the Tang and Song Dynasties. It is generally believed that the influence of political culture is the direct reason for the differentiation of the image of apes and monkeys: in the middle and late Tang and late Song Dynasties, there was a long-standing political struggle. The theory of “gentleman and snob” became a common topic, and the political metaphor of apes symbolizing gentlemen and monkeys representing snob was popular. In fact, the significant difference in ecology and habits between macaques and gibbons is the deep reason why the ancients’ evaluation of the two is very different: macaques are widely distributed and have frequent contact with humans, and their habits are easy to leave a negative impression of crowding, noisy and destructiveness, while gibbons are very sparsely, and they leave people a positive impression of concealment, peace and fraternity, and high moral character. At the same time, with the fullness and richness of the “Ape Painting” in the Song Dynasty, there has been a subtle differentiation between gibbons and macaques in terms of artistic images, which is in line with the cultural concept of giving different values to the two animals.