“前身邺下刘公干”现象考释

An Explanation for the Phenomenon of“Used to Be Yexia Liu Gonggan in His Previous Lifetime”

唐代小说《玄怪录》中县吏顾总生前为刘桢;同时代小说《纂异记》写刘桢、谢庄与鲍照同游;北宋黄庭坚在诗中写下“前身邺下刘公干”;清初魏耕认为“前身知得是刘桢”;清代蒲松龄《聊斋志异·甄后》写刘仲堪是刘桢后身。这些小说、传说或诗歌构成饶有趣味的“前身刘公干”现象。形成这种现象的原因主要有三:一是刘桢才气过人,后世人们对他很敬佩;二是刘桢离经叛道,人们对他很好奇;三是刘桢创作优美,人们喜欢他的作品。

In the Tang Dynasty novel Unreliable Strange Record,the county official Gu Zong was Liu Zhen in his previous lifetime.In the contemporaneous novel A Record of Strangeness,Liu Zhen,Xie Zhuang and Bao Zhao traveled together.Huang Tingjian of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote“used to be Yexia Liu Gonggan in his previous lifetime”in the poem.In the early Qing Dynasty,Wei Geng believed that“the predecessor is Liu Zhen”.In the Qing Dynasty,Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio:Zhenhou wrote that Liu Zhongkan was the reincarnation of Liu Zhen.These novels,legends,or poems constitute an interesting phenomenon of“used to be Liu Gonggan in his previous lifetime”.There are three main reasons for this phenomenon.First,Liu Zhen is extremely talented,and people in later generations admire him very much.Second,Liu Zhen rebels against orthodoxy and people are very curious about him.Third,people like Liu Zhen’s works.