刍议笔记小说的史料价值及其与他类典籍的关系

The Historical Value of Literary Sketches and the Relation Between Literary Sketches and Other Book Types

笔记小说是一种古代特殊文体。它或者记载有趣、有价值的人、事或知识,或者在事实基础上依靠虚构的故事阐释某个道理,并以传世为目标。笔记小说内容的多向性,决定了这类典籍与小说、史书和类书等其他类别典籍有着复杂的内在关联,甚至有时难分彼此,有必要对其深入辨析。鲁迅、谢国桢等著名学者都在著述中从多个视角揭示过笔记小说的史料价值;但客观地说,笔记小说内容也不无诸多局限性。比较而言,它是包括科技文化在内的中国古代文化研究不可或缺的一类重要文献。

The literary sketches are a special style in ancient times,which either keep record of interesting and valuable people,things or knowledge,or rely on fictional stories to explain a certain truth on the basis of facts,and aim at handing down.The multidirectional property of the content of literary sketches determines that this kind of books has a complex internal relationship with the books of other types,such as novels,historical books and class books,and even sometimes cannot be separat⁃ed from each other,so it is necessary to make an in-depth analysis.Famous scholars such as Lu Xun and Xie Guozhen have revealed the historical value of literary sketches from many perspectives in their works.However,it must be pointed out that the content of literary sketches also has some limitations.Comparatively speaking,it must be an indispensable kind of important document for the study of an⁃cient Chinese culture,including science and technology culture.