作为方法的史料——重读鲁迅《小说旧闻钞》

Historical Materials as a Method—Reread Lu Xun’s Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction

作为一部小说史料专集,鲁迅校录《小说旧闻钞》常常被视为《中国小说史略》的副产品。然而两书之关联,不限于分别承担小说史料和小说史论之职能,一起构成鲁迅的中国小说史研究体系。在《小说旧闻钞》的校录和出版过程中,鲁迅对史料进行了大幅度的删减,将杂乱纷繁的史料整合为一部系统的史料专书,有意借助史料承载并呈现自家的小说史观,作为小说史料专书的《小说旧闻钞》由此获得了独立的学术价值与生命力。该书超越了一般意义上的小说史料读本,成为小说史的另一种书写方式,与《中国小说史略》《唐宋传奇集》一并构成史料、史论与文本相结合的完整的中国小说史研究体系。《小说旧闻钞》不仅是《中国小说史略》的史料准备,还成为后者学术思路的延展。以小说史观为引领,史料也成为一种方法。《小说旧闻钞》和《中国小说史略》在鲁迅的中国小说史研究体系中体现出互为因果的共生关系。

Lu Xun’s Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction is a book of historical source materials,mainly covering the Zhanghui novels,volumes of Huaben novels and notebooks.It was not easy to gather these novels together.Besides,most novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties were available,so there was no need for a special collection.Therefore,Lu Xun collected historical materials and compiled them into a source book,aiming to present the history of Chinese fiction after the Song and Yuan Dynasties with his editing of and commenting on these historical materials.As a book of novel-related historical materials,Lu Xun’s Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction is as highly appreciated in the academic community as his Collection of Ancient Fiction and Legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties,and is often regarded as the academic preparation and by-product of his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction.Unlike these books which mainly contain the literary works,Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction is devoted to collecting the historical materials of fiction.This book was first published by Beixin Book Company in August 1926,shortly after the publication of the bound volume of A Brief History of Chinese Fiction in September 1925.It was the right time.Together with A Brief History of Chinese Fiction and Legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties which came out in two volumes in December 1927 and February 1928,these three books of Lu Xun’s constituted a complete research system of the history of Chinese fiction combining the historical materials,historical theories and texts.Since its publication,Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction has been acknowledged.What attracts much attention is its value as a book of source materials and its basic significance as an academic accumulation before A Brief History of Chinese Fiction.In fact,the value of this book goes beyond these features.In writing this book,Lu Xun intentionally presented his view of the history of fiction based on the historical materials,going beyond the historical readings of fiction in the general sense and initiating a new way of writing the history of fiction.In this sense,this book is not only a preparation for A Brief History of Chinese Fiction,but also an extension of the academic thinking of it.Guided by the view of the history of fiction,the historical materials have become a method.It is not simple chronical sequence or causality between historical materials and historical theories.In Lu Xun’s research system of the history of Chinese fiction,Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction and A Brief History of Chinese Fiction embody a symbiotic relationship of mutual cause and effect.To study the history of fiction,the lack of historical materials may affect the proposal of historical theories,and even cause errors,but this does not mean that the possession of historical materials will certainly produce valuable conclusions.The proposal of theory depends on the discovery of historical materials,but the discovery of historical materials also depends on the academic perspective of researchers.Historical materials scatter in all kinds of classics,and they can only be discovered and used to research the history of fiction by scholars who have the right perspective and the knowledge of the history of Chinese fiction.Systemization and interpretation are needed before they can be effectively employed by the academic community.This is also the case in the research related to the history of fiction.Lu Xun accumulated many source materials in the process of studying the history of Chinese fiction.They scattered in different types of literature before Lu Xun’sorted them out and compiled them in his Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction.It was a process of reduction and subtraction,a process that turned scattered materials into useful sources in the orderly constructed framework of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction,giving them the new status of the historical source materials that could participate in the composition of the history of fiction.It was also a process of careful selection in which Lu Xun’spot the historical materials,pulled them out of their original context,and put them into his own system related to the research of Chinese fiction.This is the unique merit of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction.This paper attempts to present another possibility of creating historical materials through the interpretation of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction.As has been said above,it is Lu Xun’s careful,serious and creative selection and compilation that contribute to the unique academic value of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction.There may be defects and even contradictions in the original materials,but selection and systemization help turn them into a relatively harmonious and balanced collection of sources that eventually becomes a methodology.As such,Lu Xun’s work initiated a new tradition in the study of the history of fiction.Compared with the theoretic studies often considered the goal or target of research,the systemization of source materials may be only taken as the process or the means.But as far as the research on the history of Chinese fiction is concerned,the process or means is often more important and more interesting than the purpose or the result reached.