《儒林外史》中士人的人生定位與形塑策略

Abstract

本論文以《儒林外史》中的士人書寫為研究對象，通過細讀、文本分析、理論應用等方法，注重小說內部理路與小說作者作意的雙重邏輯軌道，綜合分析了書中所呈現出來的士人的人生定位以及形塑策略。本論文觀察的重點在於，《儒林外史》中的士人群體如何通過與周遭歷史與環境的互動來定位自我、肯定自我的存在？如何選擇人生道路，并通過什麼樣的方式將其加以貫徹？如何認知自我及處境，并對於建構自我形象做了怎樣的嘗試？作為士人群體之一員的吳敬梓本人，在書寫這些士人形象及故事的時候，寄託了怎樣的思想與情感？《儒林外史》作為小說的文體特性使其可以通過描繪具體情境來表現人物，從而使得外在環境與人物認知發展之間的互動關係尤為凸顯，因此，本論文選擇從歷史、空間、境遇三個方面著手分析以上問題，希望以這三個互相交織的維度，為《儒林外史》中的士人人物勾勒出綜合可感的坐標軸，以便於觀察其中不同士人的多樣化選擇及其最終成效。 本論文共分為五章。第一章是緒論部分，提出了本論文的研究動機起源於《儒林外史》專注描寫士人仕業的寫作特色，選擇從士人的角度切入分析小說，討論有關士人人生定位以及形塑策略的問題。第二章題為「歷史典範的追尋與失落」，是以小說中內嵌的歷史典範為線索，探索士人對於典範的追模及其成效問題，分為「儒家士人典範及其用世理想的變異」以及「入世為官以外的典範選擇及其偏移」兩部分進行梳理。第三章題為「家園的建構與旅途的調整」，主要把握的是小說中的空間線索，從靜態的空間「地方·家園·歸屬」與動態的空間「旅行·見聞·認同」兩方面入手，借用人文主義地理學相關概念的論述，來觀察士人是如何在與空間的互動關係中為自己的人生定位并建構自己的形象。第四章題為「生命境遇中的不幸與磨練」，從前兩章較為外部的歷史線索與空間線索，轉移到更貼近小說敘事內部的人物生命線索，擇取了「災禍」、「疾病」、「死亡」三點分別進行討論，觀察這些不幸的遭遇帶給士人在人格建構方面怎樣的影響，以及士人自身又是怎樣去面對與承擔這一份磨練，并從中形塑自我。第五章為結論，主要總結了前文的要點，同時也在與本論文所談及的士人議題相關文獻的比較中，嘗試指出本論文在《儒林外史》研究史的地位與意義，並提出了未來可以著手進一步研究的方向。 本論文通過三條貫穿全書的線索來觀察士人的定位與形塑問題，有著與前行研究相當不同的取徑，也給小說的觀看帶來了新的角度，拓展了分析的可能性。尤其是空間與個人境遇部分，在以往的討論中較少為人提及，而事實上他們在影響士人自我定位與自我形塑方面顯然扮演了極為重要的角色。通過本論文的分析討論可以看到，在《儒林外史》中存在著對於士人自身定位與形塑問題的強烈關注。本論文所談及的士人自我定位問題，不局限於士人的職業選擇或者仕/隱區分，還進一步深入到了士人的內心世界，對能影響他們認知自我、關照人生的種種因素進行了分析，也看到了士人的不同選擇：或抵抗外界狀況而依從本心，或受到環境刺激而不斷變遷。而在形塑策略問題上可以發現，士人作為主體，會利用身邊的既有資源，包括歷史概念、空間素材、物質藥品等等，來進行自我包裝并建構自身面對他者與自我時的形象。儘管在吳敬梓的辯證思維下，此類努力往往會落入反諷的語境，或無法真正如期實現，然而，相比起結果的一致性失落，過程的豐富性更是小說所著力表現的部分，也從中提出了多元思考與實踐的可能性。明白這些，或許也可以幫助後來的讀者去進一步接近這部小說，理解它所體現出來的對於士人的關懷，以及它所面對的時代現實狀況。

This thesis analyzes the literati writing in The Scholars with an approach combined with close reading, text analysis and application of critical theory. It makes a comprehensive exploration of life orientation and shaping strategy of literati figures represented in the novel. This thesis mainly focuses on the following questions: how do literati make their life orientations and self-affirmation through the interactions with historical and geographical environments? How do they determine their ways of life and try to stick to them? How do they recognize themselves and the situation they are facing? What kind of attempts they have made to construct their images? As one of those literati, what are the author Wu Jingzi’s real concerns by writing literati figures and their stories? With a genre of novel, The Scholars has the advantages to represent literati activities in vivid scenarios, which makes the interactions of environments and the literati figures much more obvious. Therefore, this thesis chooses to discuss the above question from three different dimensions: historical models, spatial environments and life experience. As such, a coordinate axis consist of these three dimensions has been set up, which makes it possible to observe the diversity of choices and their final results of the literati figures in the novel. This Thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is “Introduction.” It states that this research is inspired by the writing feature of The Scholars, which particularly focuses on the career of literati. The second chapter is “The Pursuit of Historical Model and Its Failure”. Following the historical clues inside of the novel, this chapter explores literati’s pursuits of historical models and the outcomes in two sections: first is “The Ideal Confucian Literati Models with Participation in the Society and Its Variation,” second is “Other Role Models and Their Deviations besides the Participation in the Society and the Eagerness of Being an Official.” The third chapter is “The Construction of Home and the Adjustment in the Travel.” Adopting the conceptions from humanistic geography, this chapter observes how literati make self-orientations and construct self-images during the interaction with the space around them. It includes two parts: first is “Place, Home and Affiliation” and second is “Travel, Knowledge and Identity.” The forth chapter is “The Misfortune and Suffering in the Lifetime.” Instead of the relatively outside clues of history and space as stated in the former chapters, this chapter focuses mainly on the narrative plots and settings of the life of literati characters. It consists with three parts: “Disaster,” “Illness” and “Death,” which give a comprehensive exploration of the influences on identity constructions brought by these misfortunes as well as the diverse response made by literati in the novel. The final chapter is “Conclusion,” which concludes the main points as discussed in the previous chapters and demonstrates the value of this research. This thesis follows three clues to observe the self-orientation and shaping of literati, whose approach is quite different from conventional researches. It provides a new prospective to this novel and expands the research possibilities. Especially the spatial and suffering experience, which can be rarely seen in the previous research, play an important role in literati’s self-orientation and identity shaping. This thesis discovers the author’s strong concentration on the problem of literati’s life orientations and shaping strategies. In this thesis, literati’s self-orientation is not limited to their career selections or the preference of officialdom or seclusion; in fact, more discussions are based on the touch of the inner world of literati, which presents the different choices made by literati: following ones’ heart to resisting the disturbance from the outside world, or adapting oneself to the environment, or a complicated combination of both. On the discussion of shaping strategy, this thesis implies that literati, as subjects, take advantages of existed resources such as historic concepts, spatial materials, and medical matters to construct their figures in front of other people or themselves. Although under the dialectical thinking of Wu Jingzi those efforts would not be achievable or even deteriorate into irony, the practice itself is much more productive compared to the doomed failure ending. This also raises the possibility of diverse thinking on the attitude towards literati identity as well as the main idea of the novel. By embracing those intentions, readers may get closer to this novel with a better understanding on its real concern to literati and the reality of its age.