作为方法的史料 ———重读鲁迅 《小说旧闻钞》

Historical Materials as a Method—Reread Lu Xun’s Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction

摘要:

儒家 “传道” 之义, 肇端自孔子, 孟子据此提出了自己的圣道传承论。 此圣道传承, 包括 “道” “学” 两面的统一。 在传道的谱系中, “ 闻而知之” 的圣人, 以内在性的倾听独知天道, 凸显了 “道” 的超越性意义; “见而知之” 的贤人, 将圣人得自于天的创作落实为制度典常, 凸显了 “道” 的实 践品格。 此 “道” 既有理性人文义的开显, 亦保有个体证会独知的超越性意义, 而不陷于非理性的神秘 主义。 孟子自觉担当圣道之传, 其 “学” 的一面, 乃由子思、 曾子而上溯宗本于孔子, 表现了一种强烈 的学术新统建构的意识和自觉。 孟子继孔子集 “圣” “学” 为一体之学统建构, 不仅是 “学” 的接续, 更 是一种道义的担当。 “道” 落实于 “学” , 乃以一种名言逻辑和理性自觉的方式十字打开, 引领社会的精 神生活, 展开为一种可大可久的活的文化传统。 孟子的圣道传承思想, 对中国思想学术的当代建构, 仍具 有重要的启示意义。

Abstract:

Lu Xun_’s Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction is a book of historical source materials，mainly covering the Zhanghui novels，volumes of Huaben novels and notebooks. It was not easy to gather these novels together. Besides，most novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties were available，so there was no need for a special collection. Therefore，Lu Xun collected historical materials and compiled them into a source book，aiming to present the history of Chinese fiction after the Song and Yuan Dynasties with his editing of and commenting on these historical materials. As a book of novel-related historical materials，Lu Xun_’s Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction is as highly appreciated in the academic community as his Collection of Ancient Fiction and Legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties ，and is often regarded as the academic preparation and by-product of his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction . Unlike these books which mainly contain the literary works，Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction is devoted to collecting the historical materials of fiction. This book was first published by Beixin Book Company in August 1926，shortly after the publication of the bound volume of A Brief History of Chinese Fiction in September 1925. It was the right time. Together with A Brief History of Chinese Fiction and Legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties which came out in two volumes in December 1927 and February 1928，these three books of Lu Xun_’s constituted a complete research system of the history of Chinese fiction combining the historical materials，historical theories and texts. Since its publication，Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction has been acknowledged. What attracts much attention is its value as a book of source materials and its basic significance as an academic accumulation before A Brief History of Chinese Fiction . In fact，the value of this book goes beyond these features. In writing this book，Lu Xun intentionally presented his view of the history of fiction based on the historical materials，going beyond the historical readings of fiction in the general sense and initiating a new way of writing the history of fiction. In this sense，this book is not only a preparation for A Brief History of Chinese Fiction，but also an extension of the academic thinking of it. Guided by the view of the history of fiction，the historical materials have become a method. It is not simple chronical sequence or causality between historical materials and historical theories. In Lu Xun_’s research system of the history of Chinese fiction，Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction and A Brief History of Chinese Fiction embody a symbiotic relationship of mutual cause and effect. To study the history of fiction，the lack of historical materials may affect the proposal of historical theories，and even cause errors，but this does not mean that the possession of historical materials will certainly produce valuable conclusions. The proposal of theory depends on the discovery of historical materials，but the discovery of historical materials also depends on the academic perspective of researchers. Historical materials scatter in all kinds of classics，and they can only be discovered and used to research the history of fiction by scholars who have the right perspective and the knowledge of the history of Chinese fiction. Systemization and interpretation are needed before they can be effectively employed by the academic community. This is also the case in the research related to the history of fiction. Lu Xun accumulated many source materials in the process of studying the history of Chinese fiction . They scattered in different types of literature before Lu Xun sorted them out and compiled them in his Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction . It was a process of reduction and subtraction，a process that turned scattered materials into useful sources in the orderly constructed framework of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction ，giving them the new status of the historical source materials that could participate in the composition of the history of fiction. It was also a process of careful selection in which Lu Xun spot the historical materials，pulled them out of their original context，and put them into his own system related to the research of Chinese fiction. This is the unique merit of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction . This paper attempts to present another possibility of creating historical materials through the interpretation of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction . As has been said above，it is Lu Xun_’s careful，serious and creative selection and compilation that contribute to the unique academic value of Historical Materials Collection of Chinese Fiction . There may be defects and even contradictions in the original materials，but selection and systemization help turn them into a relatively harmonious and balanced collection of sources that eventually becomes a methodology. As such，Lu Xun_’s work initiated a new tradition in the study of the history of fiction. Compared with the theoretic studies often considered the goal or target of research，the systemization of source materials may be only taken as the process or the means. But as far as the research on the history of Chinese fiction is concerned，the process or means is often more important and more interesting than the purpose or the result reached.