宦官、俠妓和女夷：《血影石》中的邊緣人物與異域想像

Re-ordering A Loyalist's Death: Marginal Characters and Foreign Lands in The Rock with Shadows of Blood

本文旨在透過17世紀蘇州派劇作家朱佐朝的傳奇戲曲文本《血影石》，檢視邊緣人物與異域想像如何在當中運作，架構一部焦點從朝廷士人位移至市井及域外的靖難忠臣故事。在劇中所架構的市井空間內，儒家節義倫理的實踐脈絡如何編排？外夷介入的想像在家國秩序重整的過程中扮演何種角色？對於一位身處明清易代之際蘇州，未曾出洋，卻透過聽聞言說、書寫、出版以及物品流通「間接」受「外國」之風薰拂的職業劇作家，帝國之外的「他方」在其感知體系中處於何種位置？當中內／外、自我／他者之間的關係又如何被界定？借力於晚明士人所撰黃觀、翁氏相關史傳筆記，異域地理知識書籍以及同寫「靖難」的另一部清初傳奇《千忠錄》作為對比分析的工具，本文立論，此劇措意獨到之處，在於劇作家視角從朝廷重臣之死轉向市井、域外空間的位移。這樣的位移，與晚明清初文學創作求新爭奇之風關聯。再進一步深看，則可見當中所呈現的市民心態和政治意識，與正統士人價值欲迎還拒的關係。而朱佐朝脫逸正統綱常體系的價值移轉，復與其所架構的異域海洋視野，密切交織。劇中島夷勢力的張揚與邊緣人物的活躍，平行並聯。劇作家借用八百與明朝友好的朝貢知識，再加轉化，改以八百媳婦國為中心，重構出另一套世界地理秩序，與中華視野下的華夷觀相抗衡。宦官、俠妓和女夷，作為承載《血影石》別樣歷史感性樣態的意符，是連貫的整體配置。當中域外「他者」在中國的自我認識系統中，已然成為一重要觀照、對話的對象。

This paper explores the contending meanings of the Confucian value of loyalty in The Rock with Shadows of Blood (Xieying shi 血影石), a chuanqi play written in the seventeenth century by the popular Suzhou playwright Zhu Zuochao 朱佐朝 (ca.1621-?). This play, featuring Huang Guan (1364-1402), a high official who commits suicide for the Jianwen Emperor (r.1398-1402) after the 1402 Usurpation, is often considered an inferior work among Zhu's complete oeuvres because it fails to sustain the pathos of a loyalist's death to the end. However, by analyzing how the playwright shifts focus from Huang Guan's death to the rescue of his son with the collaboration of eunuchs, prostitutes and female barbarians, I argue that the “failure” is in fact an intricate design to counter the orthodox Confucian virtue of loyalty. Within the empire, the playwright entrusts the rescue mission to eunuchs and a knight-errantly prostitute, thus avoids direct confrontation with the Yongle Emperor, who takes over the throne of his nephew. Beyond the empire, by re-formulating his contemporary knowledge of the South China Sea trade route, the playwright re-makes the historical Lanna Kingdom, located in modern-day northern Thailand, into an “other” power center with allies such as the Ryūkyū Kingdom, Japan, Champa and Calicut in the southwestern coast of India to rival with the Ming Empire. The socially and geographically marginal forces together replace the scholar-officials to become the agents of moral actions. In place of loyalist martyrdom, The Rock with Shadows of Blood prizes the value of the living, featuring reciprocal justice, personal resourcefulness and final homecoming. Written not long after the Ming-Qing transition, this play shows an alternative way of reacting to historical upheaval and of restoring order, whereby the loyalist moral paradigm is negotiated, re-interpreted and subtly transformed.