明人对元杂剧经典地位的建构

The Construction of the Classic Status of Yuan Zaju by Literati in Ming Dynasty

元杂剧不仅是元代文学的经典,也是中国戏剧的经典。在元杂剧的经典化历程中,明人具有非常关键的作用。首先,明人将本身并不完全成熟的元杂剧进行了改良、完善,通过体制的完善、漏洞的修复、情节的充实、宾白的填补、曲文的修润等五个方面,全面提升了元杂剧的文本质量。其次,明人编集的戏曲选本使得元杂剧得以良好的流传,并在选本编集中贯穿“宗元”意识,不仅促进了元杂剧的流播,更是建构了宗崇元杂剧的经典意识。尤其是宫廷曲选也对元杂剧的经典化进行着默认,这是本被小道视之的元杂剧最终能够确立经典地位的必要条件。第三,明人树立元杂剧作家为偶像符号,他们不仅高度推崇元杂剧的辉煌成就,而且把元杂剧作家与庄子、屈原、李白、苏轼等经典作家并提,进而把“元人”作为一个整体概念树立为经典作家符号。第四,明人确立了元曲是元代“一代之文学”的思想观念,通过将元曲与唐诗等经典文学体式并列,确认其经典地位。元杂剧作为元曲的一部分,其经典地位也得以确立。

Yuan Zaju is not only the representative of Yuan Dynasty literature, but also a classical part of Chinese drama. In the canonization process of Yuan Zaju, literati in Ming Dynasty have played a crucial role.Firstly, they promoted and perfected immature Yuan Zaju in five ways, included improving the system, fixing the flaws, enriching the plots, filling in the dialogue, and refining the writing. These efforts comprehensively enhanced the text quality. Secondly, the selected anthologies of traditional Chinese opera compiled by them enabled a good dissemination of Yuan Zaju. Throughout these anthologies, they have set up the consciousness of venerating Yuan Zaju(“zong Yuan”). In particular, the selection of court tunes acquiesced the canonization of Yuan Zaju. This process was quite necessary as Yuan Zaju has once been regarded as an folk art. Thirdly, literati in Ming Dynasty idolized Yuan Zaju writers, compared the writers with great litterateurs such as Zhuangzi,Qu Yuan, Li Bai, and Su Shi. Moreover, they established the concept “Yuan Literati” as a symbol of classical writers, and regarded these writers as a collective entity. Fourthly, they set up the idea that Yuanqu was the representative literary form of the Yuan Dynasty. By placing Yuanqu alongside with other classic literary forms such as Tang poetry, the classic status of Yuan Zaju, as a component of Yuanqu, was also confirmed。