「集中的藝術家」與「墜落的伊卡洛斯」：木心的浪漫耶穌形象

“The Concentrated Artist”and“The Fallen Icarus”: Mu Xin’s Romantic Image of Jesus

作為詩人、藝術家的耶穌，在現代中國的耶穌形象光譜上極為小眾。1980年代浮現在臺灣的後五四作家木心，堪稱異數，耶穌之心深刻塑造了其浪漫自我與藝術殉道者心態，是現代中國、華語文藝接受歐洲浪漫主義值得關注的案例。本文從木心晚年自我描述為漢語「第五福音書」切入，回溯其紐約世界文學史講課，呈現其新舊約詮釋中的耶穌形象，分析其浪漫綱要「耶穌是集中的藝術家，藝術家是分散的耶穌」。它與木心的伊卡洛斯心態攜手而行：藝術家是高飛而墜的伊卡洛斯，耶穌是此命運的終極詮釋―他對人類的愛，是一場單戀。木心的耶穌，偏離了基督教的聖愛教義，成為他情感教育的浪漫典範，而這與其早年教養、人生志向和受難經歷息息相關。穿越極端的20 世紀，從擔負文革的罪惡，到離散中見證世紀末的全球人文衰敗，木心既以「伊卡洛斯－耶穌」自我認同、賦能與拯救，也以此表達對歷史、人性的悲觀，更懺訴其愛恨交集的心靈掙扎。揭示木心的浪漫耶穌形象，可以豐富現代中國的耶穌形象，啟示重探浪漫主義的華語接受史，幫助走進這位尚未被充分認識的藝文傳奇。

Jesus’s romantic image as poet or artist has been rare in His modern Chinese reception. Mu Xin (1927-2011), a post-May Fourthian writer emerged in Taiwan in the1980s, was a significant exception, with Jesus being his shaping force to be a true artist and art martyr. The investigation starts with Mu Xin’s self-description as “the Fifth Gospel” of Chinese in his last years, a strong indication of his Jesus-cult, and traces it back to his literary reading of the Old and New Testaments, an essential part of his world literature lectures (1989-1994, New York). Mu Xin’s romantic image of Jesus was outlined as “Jesus is the concentrated artist; Artist is the scattered Jesus.” It goes hand in hand with his Icarian psyche, where the high-flying artists are destined to fall, a tragic fate most fully exhibited by Jesus, whose infinite love for man proved to be in vain. Such an interpretation, deviating from the Christian doctrine of divine love, was held by Mu Xin as his educational motto. Mu Xin’s early formation, life ideal and suffering gave birth to his romantic image of Jesus. Most essentially, his intense experience of the shadow of modernity, from the sins of the Cultural Revolution to the global human decline towards the end of the 20th century, brought about his Icarian-Jesus for self-identification, empowering, redemption, as well as pessimism of history and humanity, and confession of lasting struggle between love and hatred. Revelation of Mu Xin’ s romantic image of Jesus has its significance in three-fold. It enriches the images of Jesus in modern China, provides an angle to re-engage Chinese transculturation of European romanticism, and sheds lights on Mu Xin as a legend so far understudied in the Sinophone world.