狹邪、城市或世情──論《風月夢》的屬性

On the Generic Category of Fengyue Meng: Courtesan Novel, City Novel or Secular Novel?

關於《風月夢》的研究，學界大抵以狹邪小說、城市小說兩個角度切入。然而晚清狹邪小說多有溢美傾向，晚清城市小說又多指具有現代性格者，那麼作於清代中期道光年間的《風月夢》，其屬性真和晚它近半個世紀的狹邪小說、城市小說一樣嗎？本文選取清代中期狹邪筆記、「家庭－社會」型小說、以及明清歷史上的揚州等幾個座標互為對照，主張《風月夢》最合宜的屬性定位也許是魯迅所謂的「世情書」──也就是「家庭－社會」型世情小說。它和晚清狹邪小說、城市小說其實存在頗為根本的差別。

Scholarship on Fengyue meng (Dreams of Wind and Moon) generally focuses its characteristics as either a courtesan novel (xiaxie xiaoshuo) or as an urban novel (chengshi xiaoshuo). However, the courtesan novels of the late Qing often has a tendency towards express the excess of beauty, while many contemporary urban novels embrace different aspects of modernity. As a novel published in the Daoguang period (1821-1850), approximately half a century earlier than late Qing courtesan novels, does Fengyue meng really belong to the category of the courtesan novel and/or urban novel? This paper compares a selection of mid-Qing courtesan note-novels, late Qing courtesan novels, and middle Qing “family-society” novels focusing on big cities such as Yangzhou in Ming-Qing China, concluding that the most reasonable novel category for Fengyue meng is the secular novel (shiqing xiaoshuo).