首创之功与文体新变——论姚鼐的“赠序”文体意识及其创作价值

Firsts and New Stylistic Changes——On Yao Nai’s Awareness of the“Preface”Style and His Creative Value

清代桐城派散文家姚鼐选编的《古文辞类纂》具有非常高的文体学价值,就“赠序”而言,姚鼐的文体意识非常明确。在文章的辨体上,姚鼐不仅首次将“赠序”从“序跋”中区分开来,在追本“赠序”起源时也主动跳过“诗序”,使“赠序”获得独立地位,而且总结出“赠序”在宋、明时期的不同变体;在文章的选择与分类上,姚鼐心目中的“赠序”典范逐渐强化并确立,集中体现在《古文辞类纂》中。同时,姚鼐对“赠序”的独特认识和感悟使得他在创作这类文章时既因袭先贤,也由于自己的文心、文则和所处的社会环境等因素,最终于写作内容、思想结构及创作手法上都不乏新变,从而进一步拓宽了“赠序”的写法。

Yao Nai’s selective compilation of The Classified Compilation of Ancient Articles is of great stylistic value.In terms of stylistic classification,Yao Nai’s“gift preface”is very stylistic,distinguishing for the first time between“gift preface”and“preface and postscript”.Yao Nai’s choice of chapters in the“gift preface”demonstrates his subjectivity and purposefulness.Yao Nai’s unique understanding of the“gift preface”genre led him not only to learn from the sages,but also to show many new changes in his writing of the“gift preface”genre due to his own heart,rules,and the social environment in which he lived.These changes include the content of the essay,its ideological structure,and its compositional techniques,thus further widen the scope of the“gift preface”genre.