此岸與彼岸的對話——許地山小說〈命命鳥〉之結構探析

Living betwixt Dream and Reality: A Dialectical Reading in the Structure of Xŭ Dìshān's “Mìng mìng niăo”

以往研究許地山之學者，多以宗教關懷角度來討論，最廣受討論的莫過於〈春桃〉、〈玉官〉，其餘單篇作品受矚目程度顯然不足，討論其首作〈命命鳥〉者亦多以宗教概念入手。因此本文試從結構來剖析〈命命鳥〉，並佐之象徵意象與作者生平，希望能賦予〈命命鳥〉一個全新詮釋；並且從「出發－變形－回歸」的神話原型結構中，選擇與之相似的《紅樓夢》第五回之太虛幻境一節，與此篇小說的夢境結構作一對讀，藉以耙梳小說對於前作的繼承與破壞，不僅如此，小說中的意象群也顯見死亡與救贖的意味，足見小說誠為小說家內心深處對於生死的自我辯證；大破方可大立，許地山的生本不樂之人生哲學也因而逐漸成形。 In this paper, I argue that Xŭ Dìshān's “Mìng mìng niăo” is a piece of work that manifests life transformation through a dialectical structure betwixt dream and reality. In the first section, I analyze the archetypical structure of myth represented in “Mìng mìng niăo” to discuss how Xu express a concern about life being transforming in a journey-like manner (launching, transforming, reincarnating) by means of analogy. The fifth chapter, “the Land of Illusion”, in The Dreams of the Red Chamber is included in this section to highlight how Xu inherits and transcends the life transformation in his journey-like manner of writing. In the second section, I discuss Xu's personal life experiences embedded in “Mìng mìng niăo” to further authenticate the dialectical structure concerning living and dying in relation to dream and reality. By analyzing the dialectical structure, this paper aims to deconstruct the conventional reading of Xu's philosophy of bitter living. In“Ming ming niao”, dreams and realities associating with bitter living are used as metaphor of death and salvation. In this context, Xu considers this novel as a process of self-regeneration as well as a journey of identity re-establishment.