19世纪英国汉学家亚历山大《貂蝉》剧本研究

British Sinologist Alexander and His Teaou-Shin in the 19th Century

1869年,英国业余汉学家亚历山大(George Gardiner Alexander)根据《三国演义》中的“连环计”,创作了五幕剧《貂蝉》(Teaou-Shin:A Drama from the Chinese),开创了以西方戏剧改编三国故事的先河,创造性地完成了从中国小说到西方戏剧的文体转换,使这部著名的东方“演义”在英语世界迎来了“后起的生命”(afterlife)。然而,长久以来,学术界对于亚历山大其人其作均缺乏研究,这为本文的写作提供了契机。本文在广泛搜集第一手英文文献的基础上,结合亚历山大的来华背景与学术著述,探讨他对“连环计”故事的情节改编与重构,分析了他对人物形象的设置与塑造,同时联系当时的英国戏剧生态与中西文化交流,总结《貂蝉》一剧在19世纪的文化接受与学术贡献。

In 1869, inspired by “serial plan” stories in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, British amateur sinologist Alexander(George Gardiner Alexander) wrote a five-act drama TeaouShin(Teaou-Shin:A Drama from the Chinese), paving the way for dramatic adaption of Three Kingdoms stories in the West by this groundbreaking transformation of Chinese novel into Western drama. After that, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the famous oriental historical romance, was ushered to the “afterlife” in the English-speaking world. For a long time, however,Alexander and his works remains foreign to researchers. Based on first-hand English materials,this paper reviews Alexander’s trip to China and his academic writings. It’s found that Alexander’s adaptation and reconstruction of “serial plan” stories and characterization techniques is worth noticing. The paper also looks into the British drama ecology at that time and cultural exchange between China and the West so as to evaluate the cultural acceptance of Teaou-Shin and its academic contribution in the 19th century.