古典小说阐释中的“奇书”视野和“名著”视野

The Perspective of“Masterworks”and“Great Classical Novels”in Interpretation of Classic Chinese Novels

“奇书”视野,是晚明清初流行的一种阐释路径,其特点是把“四大奇书”的主旨纳入儒学的框架;“名著”视野,是五四以来逐渐流行的一种阐释路径,其特点是以“革命”话语阐释“四大名著”。这两种阐释路径,都有各自的历史因缘和文本依据,所以能产生巨大的影响,而它们都不能定于一尊,则是因为有以偏概全之嫌。补救的方法,是将两种视野互相参照,尽可能避免盲人摸象的失误。

The so-called“Masterworks”perspective refers to a prevalent interpretive approach during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.Its characteristic was to incorporate the themes of the“the Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel”into the framework of Confucianism.The“Great Classical Novels”perspective,on the other hand,gradually gained popularity since the May Fourth Movement,characterized by interpreting the“the Four Great Classical Novels”through a“revolutionary”discourse.Both interpretive approaches have their own historical contexts and textual foundations,which can exert significant influence.However,they cannot be considered the ultimate and exclusive approach as they have the tendency to generalize based on partial viewpoints.The remedy to this problem is to cross-reference these two perspectives and to compare them,thereby avoiding the error of blindly interpreting the whole based on limited understanding.