清初《千忠錄》裡的身體、聲情與忠臣記憶

Loyalty Personified: Body, Emotion and Historical Memory in The Slaughter of the Thousand Loyal Ones

本文呈顯《千忠錄》乃是檢視晚明至清初「靖難」話題在文學、文化場域如何開展變化的重要作品。以劇本為主軸，輔以明代中、晚期相關「靖難」史傳評記、小說戲曲，本文透過比較對照，考察此劇如何取用、剪裁晚明建文流亡事的種種相關記述；並進一步檢視，經再造、重構之後的劇作動人之處何在，戲劇媒介如何形塑、強化特定歷史記憶。本文立論，儘管《千忠錄》的故事梗概取自晚明流行的建文帝流亡記述，但在處理死亡暴力、戰亂情境、和情感基調上，大異於晚明敘事。此劇以幾組不同類型忠臣人物貫串情節，而後世上演不斷的單折劇目，正皆環繞這些忠臣人物的行動、情緒高潮，可見透過《千忠錄》建置的「靖難」記憶，同時也是忠臣記憶。在此，歷史記憶與透過戲曲媒介所展現的人物處境與心境，密切相關。透過舞臺畫面與唱詞意象，「靖難」不只是一歷史事件，「忠德」亦非抽象道德理論，而是潛藏人性衝突與情緒張力，將歷史片刻與道德啟迪共化為融合視覺、聽覺、身體感受的戲劇情境。再進一步考察此劇所面對的觀劇群眾與劇本內容之關係，本文提出，《千忠錄》演「忠」，並不僅止於複製士人階層的忠觀，而是透過凡俗觀點的評論甚或介入，向下轉化、擴展對於忠德以及君臣關係的理解與想像。此劇所演述的建文流亡故事不僅關乎歷史、文學敘事之間的轉換改寫，亦是可供檢視戰後清初，江南群眾對於明代歷史記憶之感受與喜好傾向的可貴材料。

The memory of the 1402 Usurpation (jingnan) was actively alive in late Ming society, as evinced by the many private or unofficial histories, novels and plays that narrate and/or dramatize this particular historical event. But none of them highlights the pain and violence inflicted on the human body as much as the early Qing Suzhou chuanqi play, The Slaughter of the Thousand Loyal Ones (Qian zhong lu 千忠錄). While the depiction of violence in this play is often viewed as implicit criticism of the atrocities committed in the lower Yangtze area by the Manchu troops during the MingQing transition, this paper aims to shift the focus to physical and sensory expressions as sites of war memory. Verbal confrontation and lyrical self-expression through songs, and the corporeal body starved, tortured, disfigured or slain are all sensory media that register the war experiences of several loyalists, who enact loyalty in diverse ways under varied circumstances. For the audience immersed in the stirring emotion generated on stage, this re-enactment of war experience can at the same time be about the 1402 Usurpation, the Ming-Qing transition or any other situation of suffering and warfare. By examining the affective and tenacious power of dramatic sight and sound to retain or re-shape historical memory, this paper argues that it is the “embodied” sentiments under war condition rather than the anti-Qing political stance that better explains the popularity of this work throughout the Qing dynasty down to the present day.