略论柳宗元对传记文学的发展

A DISCUSSION OF LIU ZONGYUAN’S INFLUENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF BIOGRAPHIC LITERATURE

柳宗元根据'文以明道'的原则,继承并发展了传统史传文学借传言志的一面,其杂传把现实社会中的一群城乡劳动者作为传主,借以针砭时弊,寄寓吏治改革的理想,具有很强的现实性和思想性。某些作品已经突破了传记文学的一般框架,兼具寓言和政论的某些特点。但有的文章议论过多,以致喧宾夺主,相对地削弱了传记文学的形象性。他的《段太尉逸事状》与上述作品有所不同,它沿袭史传文学以写实为主的传统,注重写人写事,客观描述,通过真实地再现历史、再现人生含蓄地表现作者的情志,因而人物显得更为丰满动人,有血有肉。他的碑传文亦有一些熔叙事、抒情、议论于一炉的佳作,为中唐碑传文的发展作出一定的贡献。

With the principle in mind that 'the objective of writing is to make a point', Liu Zongyuan inherited and developed the moral aspect of traditional biographic literature with some of his works which go beyond the limits of biographic literature to border upon polemic and allegorical writings. For all its moral and artistic significance, the excessive comments found in some of his works may nevertheless steal the show and mar the graphicness of biographic literature. However, one of his works, the Anecdotes of Magistrate Duan, differs from the rest in that it adopts the realistic approach typical of biographic writing, lays emphasis on the objective depiction of characters and events and in the meantime conveys the author's implicit mentality. As a result, the characters appear real and alive. His many classic biographic works, which combine narration, lyricism and exposition together, also conributed to the development of biographic literature in the middle Tang Dynasty.