刘知几小说观念探析

An Analysis of Liu Zhiji’s Novel Concept

刘知几虽仍恪守《汉志》小说观念,却又非全剿袭《汉志》旧说,其小说观念不只限于街谈巷语,还包括苟谈怪异、务述妖邪之杂记。同时,他还充分认识到了方士小说的虚构特性。尽管他把街谈巷语和务述妖邪的小说纳入历史的范畴,但他也充分认识到了外传小说的文学特性,这对中国小说由古变今——从“街谈巷语”到“某种长度的虚构故事”这一发展历程来说,其意义无疑是积极的。因此,无论他对这些特性采取何种态度,都对小说的认识以及对中国小说的发展有着积极意义。

Although Liu Zhiji still strictly adheres to the novel concept of Han Zhi,he does not completely follow the old theory of Han Zhi.His novel concept contains not only the street gossip, but also the miscellanies that describe the strange things and evil spirits.At the same time, he is also fully aware of the fictional character of necromancer novels.Although he includes the street talk and the novels about demons and evil into the category of history, he also fully recognizes the literary characteristics of the alien novels, which undoubtedly has positive significance for the development process of Chinese novels from ancient times to today, from “street gossip” to “fictional stories of a certain length”.Therefore, no matter whether he takes a negative or critical attitude towards these characteristics, his understanding of novels and the development of Chinese novels are of positive significance.