施叔青《行過洛津》中的歷史書寫與鄉土想像

Historiography and ＂Hsiang-tu＂ Imagination in Shih Shu-ching's ＂Walking Through Lo-chin＂

本文試圖從歷史書寫與鄉土想像的角度閱讀施叔青的《行過洛津》。《行過洛津》以古城鹿港的興衰為背景，從漢人移民如何落地生根、與原住民相處開始，描寫兩三百年前清領時期鹿港不同階層、種族、性別的眾生相。《行過洛津》參雜大量史料，然而當許多歷史事跡、社會組織、文化形式、禮俗儀典早已被淡忘，甚至消失之際，旅居國外多年的施叔青究竟以什麼角度呈現兩三百年前的故鄉？本文認為《行過洛津》主要情節聚焦於孌童、纏足和閹割恐懼，似乎是藉由搭上九○年代以來性別議題熱潮來跨越時間的距離，但它產生了奇觀化的問題，同時它也銘刻了現在與過去的差異。由主要情節輻射出去的另一焦點，則是有關外來者與本地人、帝國與邊陲不同卻部分重疊的位置之描寫。這一部分則大致是以對位式書寫並置、對照兩種觀點，並呼應當今中國中心與台灣中心的角力和交涉。這兩個層面的歷史書寫有所重疊，且需放在小說將鄉土想像歷史化的視野來看。敘述者統攝洛津古今的視野構成本書核心的鄉土想像，在性別和國族議題之外，其聚焦於商港的興衰改寫了傳統鄉土小說以農漁村為主的意象。其對商業活動既認同又批判的態度隱含了對現代性的雙重視野，暗示現代性與台灣的複雜關係。

This article studies the historiography and ＂tsiang-tu＂ (or homeland) imagination in Shih Shu-ching's novel ＂Walking Through Lo-chin＂. Set in the port-city Lu-gang two or three hundred years ago when Han immigrants settled down and interacted with the natives (including aborigines), the novel gives a panorama of local life by portraying people from different classes, races and genders. While the novel blends in a lot of historical material, it begs the question as to the perspective of the author-who has lived abroad for many years-in portraying the historical past of her hometown, when a lot of historical facts, social organizations, cultural forms and rituals have either been forgotten or simply vanished. That the main plot focuses on pederasty, foot-binding and castration fears seems to tap deliberately into the immense popularity of gender issues in order to bridge the time gap, yet it also makes a spectacle of them, thus inscribing the difference between past and present. Another focus of the novel is the portrayal of the different but partially overlapping positions of visitors and natives, the metropolitan and the other. In what I call ＂contrapuntal historiography,＂ the juxtaposition and contrast of the two perspectives echoes the contestation and negotiation between China-centrism and Taiwan-centrism today. The two focuses of historiography should be put in the perspective of the historicizing of ＂hsiang-tu＂ imagination in the novel. The narrator's vision of Lo-chin that encompasses its past and present constitutes the central ＂hsiang-tu＂ imagination of the novel. Apart from the issues of gender and national identity, the narrator focuses on the rise and fall of the port-city, a depiction that effectively rewrites the tradition of ＂hsiang-tu＂ imagination, given that traditional ＂hsiang-tu＂ fiction uses the village as its main image. The narrator's ambivalent attitudes toward mercantile activities imply a double vision of modernity. By so doing, the novel suggests an intricate relationship between modernity and Taiwan.