官話和合本《聖經》與二十世紀初新詩的發軔──以冰心、周作人及穆旦為例

The Mandarin Union Version and Modern Chinese Poetry in the Early 20th Century: Biblical Inspirations for Bing Xin, Zhou Zuoren and Mu Dan

官話和合本《聖經》於1919年面世，旋即於中國基督新教中奠定權威的地位，又適逢五四新文化運動，和合本成為不少中國作家所推崇的精神、文化和創作資源，推動了二十世紀初現代文學的建構。在二十世紀初芸芸的中國現代詩人中，部分對和合本讚口不絕，從中汲取養份及靈感，把《聖經》的母題以比喻或象徵的手法結合到詩作中。本文偏重於宗教層面的分析，以冰心（1900－1999）、周作人（1885－1967）及穆旦（1918－1977）為例，透過分析三位作家的部分詩作，審視和合本在二十世紀初如何為新詩提供了新意象、新類型以及新世界觀等。簡而言之，三位詩人分別代表「信仰層面」、「理念向度」及「神話原型」三種維度，反映了和合本《聖經》在推動新詩發軔上的深刻影響與印記。

Since its publication in 1919, the Mandarin Union Version had not only established its canonical status as the authoritative Chinese translation of the Bible used by the Protestant Church, but also had a far-reaching impact on the formation of modern Chinese literature during the May Fourth period. Many distinguished Chinese writers drew a wellspring of inspiration from the Mandarin Union Version for their literary endeavors. This paper argues that the Mandarin Union Version provided a brand new source of imageries, poetic genres and worldviews for the experimentation of modern Chinese poetry during the early Republican period, particularly between the 1920s and 1940s. Among the early twentieth-century Chinese poets, three of them, namely Bing Xin 冰心 (1900-1999), Zhou Zuoren 周作人 (1885-1967), and Mu Dan 穆旦 (1918-1977), may represent three major dimensions of biblical influence on modern Chinese poetry: devotional inspiration, ideological inspiration, and archetypal inspiration.