清华简《赤鸠之集汤之屋》篇笺释衍说

Explanatory Notes and Comments on the Chapter of “Red Turtledove” on the Bamboo Slips Collected at Tsinghua University

清华简《赤鸠之集汤之屋》篇,是目前所能见到的中国古代最早的小说文本。《赤鸠》篇简文中,“孰洀吾羹”的“洀”字,当根据战国文字的相关研究成果释读为“偷”;“汤乃”后之字当释读为“祟”,作祟之义;所谓“心疾”的合文,当根据甲骨文例释读为“疾心”的合文。《赤鸠》篇提供了中国古代最早的小说经典文本实例,是一篇脱胎于神话与古史传说的小说;文本记载可以反映出当时民众所处的社会生活环境;篇章内容所体现的道德教化意义,似乎已经受到儒家思想的影响。

The chapter of “Red Turtledove” on the bamboo slips collected at Tsinghua University is the earliest novel text in ancient China. In this chapter, the Chinese character pan should be interpreted as “stealing” according to the relevant research results of the Warring States characters;the Chinese character after tang nai should be interpreted as sui, which means haunt;the condensed character xin ji should be interpreted as the condensed character ji xin according to the text examples of oracle bone inscriptions. This chapter provides the earliest example of classical Chinese novels, which is a novel derived from mythology and ancient history. The text can reflect the social living environment of the people at that time. The moral significance embodied in the text seems to have been influenced by Confucianism.