由传奇到写实——试谈明清之际章回小说形象模式的转变

From Romanticism to Realism--Notes on Image Patterns in Novels Between Ming and Qing Dynasties

早期的章回小说中,主人公常常是传奇式的英雄人物。至明清之际,随着作家主体意识的加强,章回小说形象塑造模式发生了一定转变。这种转变主要表现在三个方面:审美对象的由奇趋常,审美视点由男性世界向女性世界的靠拢,以及审丑和审美的融合。其总体趋向是由"传奇"到写实。这一转型,既是对《金瓶梅》写实精神的一个延续,也是对其写实手法的一个拓展。一旦脱离了充满浪漫色彩的古典主义,作家必然开始对世俗人生的人文关怀,中国古典小说真正开始了近代化的进程。可以说,明清之际的章回小说创作,正是这一转化过程中关键的一环。

Protagonists were always described as hero in early chapternovels in China. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a great change for the figural mode of chapternovels with the enhancement of writers'active consciousness. The change mainly represented in three aspects: the aesthetic object changed from romance to common, the aesthetic focus changed from the world of male to that of female, and the introjection of the tasting mode between beauty and ugliness. The main tendency was from romanticism to realism. It was not only the continuity of realism in The Golden Lotus, but also the extension of writing reality method of it. Once divorcing from classicism which was full of romance, writers should begin to care for the life of common customs with their humanitarianism. The Chinese classical novels started their modernized course. It can be considered that the writing of chapernovels during the Ming and Qing dynasties was the key step within this change.