谈《史记》人物传记的衬托艺术

On the art of foil to the biography in“Shi Ji”

司马迁的《史记》在塑造人物时,大量地运用衬托这一艺术手法,并且灵活多变:或让人物两相对照,相互衬托;或虚实参用,以实托虚;或以宾衬主,对人物进行侧面烘托;或引用歌诗,渲染气氛,烘托人物;或大衬托下包含多层小衬托。他之所以如此不吝笔墨大肆运用衬托手法传写人物,是有着极为复杂的主客观方面的原因的。由于善于吸取前代成功经验并加以发展,衬托艺术经他而迈上了一个新台阶。

Various arts of foil are employed flexibly in portraiting characters in SI Ma-qians 'Shi Ji'.The delineation is manifested either by contrasting characters-using one as the foil to another, or by combining concrete description and abstract description with emphasis on the latter, or by foiling characters indirectly, or by citing poetry to promote the atmosphere and depicting the characters, or by inserting different shades of minor foils in a major one.The reasons of adopting so many ways of foil can be perceived from the aspects of both objectivity and subjectivity.SI Ma-qians promotion of the art of foil as well as his absorption from the experience of former generations makes the art of foil further developed in literary history.