雜混、獵奇與翻轉—論何迥《獅子血》「支那哥倫波」的形塑

Intermixing, Novelty Seeking, and Reversal——The Fashioning of ‘China’s Columbus’ in Ho Jiong’s 何迥 Lion’s Blood 獅子血

何迥《獅子血》是一篇值得重視可是卻備受忽略的晚清小說。小說以「支那哥倫波」為副標，設籍北冰洋、墨西哥、西班牙、爪哇、非洲等場景，勾勒各大洲的自然景觀、歷史演進、地理分布、文化風俗、人種特徵等，具有豐富的文本潛能。小說對於西方人物的取範並非簡單的折衷，而是在自身固有的文化視欲下層層雜混、抗辯、競逐，經由一連串的衍生連接、裂變轉化，重塑一可回應晚清時局的人物範式。首先，本文觀察近代「哥倫布」在中文語境的傳播，凸顯論者如何因其身分位置與文體性質而對「哥倫布」有特定的闡述與想像，試圖替過去以「魯濱遜」為主的冒險研究浮現另一隱而未顯的指標人物；接而，在「冒險人物」的形象塑造上，本文發覺「支那哥倫波」身上可能隱藏的中西思潮、書寫成規，探討「哥倫布」進入語像符碼的變化時，經歷各種敘事法的調動語擬定，得以避開簡單的「新舊」、「中西」等抗辯架構，呈現更複雜曖昧的人物刻寫；第三，本文從「空間布局」切入，分析《獅子血》的「繞行地球」架構的呈現手法與意義，並且觀察無誤探向世界時「追其獵異」的心理，藉由「自我」與「他者」的對照，改寫「東亞病夫」的形象；最後，本文聚焦於佔《獅子血》一半篇幅的「非洲」場景，探討《獅子血》替家國尋找出路而出現的「開荒拓野」方案，反思晚清遭遇如何使得小說一體兩面地翻轉／重蹈「哥倫布」的殖民暴力，構成創作動機與書寫成果的扞格矛盾。

Ho Jiong’s 何迥 Lion’s Blood is an important but often neglected novel of the late Qing dynasty. With ‘China’s Columbus’ as the subtitle, this novel depicts scenes from the Arctic Ocean, Mexico, Spain, Java, and Africa. The natural landscape, historical evolution, geographic distribution, cultural customs, and racial characteristics of the continents are outlined in a richly derailed manner. In this work, Ho Jiong did not present a simple compromise with Western models, but rather rebuilt a character paradigm that involved mixing, refutation and competition with Ho’s own cultural vision. Through a process of connection, change and transformation, this paradigm was designed to respond to the situation of the late Qing. This study is divided into four main parts. First, it analyzes the propagation of Columbus in Chinese contexts over the past few centuries, and emphasizes how the specific elaboration and imagination of Columbus differed according to the author’s status and literary style. It seeks to add to current research on the portrayal of adventurers in literature, which has heretofore been dominated by studies of “Robinson Crusoe.” Second, this study investigates how Ho Jiong combined various intellectual systems, compositional rules and literary traditions. It further re-describes ambiguous and complicated character images, while avoiding the competing structures of “new and old” and “Chinese and Western” in its investigation of when the concept “Columbus” underwent changes in verbal images and codes. Third, this study uses spatial layout as a point of departure for analyzing the method and meaning manifest in the structure of Lion’s Blood’s “Going Round the Earth.” At the same time, it examines the mental status of characters who approached the world with a novelty-seeking mind, and how the contrast between “self” and “other” was used to alter the image of China as the “Sick man of East Asia.” Lastly, this study provides a focused analysis of the scene that takes place in Africa, which occupies almost half of the novel. It examines the topic of “Exploration” as a possible solution to the national crisis in Lion’s Blood, and further discusses how Ho Jiong’s experiences during the late Qing involved reversing/repeating the Columbus-type of colonial violence, which caused a contradiction between the original goal of his writing and its result.