走向与超越:《世说新语》“类书性”新说

Trend and Transcendence:A New Explanation to the Categorization of A New Account of Tales of the World

《世说新语》产生于类书尚未真正兴起的时代,与类书本来没有什么关系;至于齐梁类书勃兴,而类书两大显著的特征,又恰与该书“纂辑旧文”“分门隶事”的撰述方式暗相契合。宋人误将其视为类书或类书之滥觞,应即着眼于此。然而《世说新语》在类目划分上以精神为旨归,而类书则泥于外在物象;在纂辑旧文时既述且作,与类书述而不作的纂述方式也迥异其趣。一度走向类书,又驾类书而上之,《世说新语》纂述方式的成功,正是通过对类书性的超越而实现的。

A New Account of Tales of the World,which is originated in the era before the real rise of category books,has nothing to do with them originally.As for the flourishing of these category books in Qi Liang period,whose prominent features are precisely in line with this book's nature of"compilation of texts in categories",and thus in the Song Dynasty,people mistakenly regarded it as a type of category book.However,in the classification of categories,A New Account of Tales of the World focuses on the internal spirit,while the others are limited to external phenomena;furthermore,it not only compiles the old books but also makes commentary about them,which is different from the other standard category books.Therefore,A New Account of Tales of the World is inclined to be a category book but greatly beyond it.Its success of the compilation and commentary has been achieved through such transcendence of the other category books.