雞禍、中夜起舞與劉琨祖逖文學形象的變遷

Rooster Disasters, Midnight Dances and the Construction of the Literary Image of Liu Kun and Zu Ti

文學史上劉琨、祖逖的形象建構，是中古（災異）知識觀念消亡、近世理性思潮興起、唐宋文人創變、相似歷史境遇再現等多重因素偶合下的產物。劉琨、祖逖原為樂禍貪亂的野心家而受到史家批評，支撐這一形象的事實正是兩人中夜聞雞鳴而做出的起舞舉動。中古時代，中夜雞鳴是嚴重的災異現象，預示著天下大亂、戰事蜂起、屍橫遍野。荒雞夜鳴因此是唐人描寫戰亂的常用典故之一。宋代以後，荒雞夜鳴褪去災異色彩，成為雞鳴報曉，催人早起的意象。劉、祖聞雞所做起舞之舉動，受到李白詩作的影響，一洗漢魏六朝逸豫歡快之風，成為揮劍起舞的慷慨豪邁之舉。劉、祖二人隨之由唐人筆下的樂禍人成為南宋文人筆下聞雞而早起舞劍，立志北伐蠻夷、收復中原的英雄。劉、祖形象的變遷折射出觀念變動與文學創作及其再生產之間的密切關係。

The historical construction of the images of Liu Kun and Zu Ti is the result of multiple factors, such as the decline of correlative disaster theory, the rise of rational thought in modern times, the emergence of the literati class in the Tang and Song dynasties, and the recurrence of similar historical circumstances. Liu Kun and Zu Ti have been criticized by historians for being ambitious people who took pleasure in disasters and greed. The foundation of this image was their joyful act of dancing at night when they heard the crow of a rooster. Crowing at night was an anomalous phenomenon associated with calamity, and it presaged a world in chaos and at war with corpses everywhere. Roosters crowing at night thus became one of the idioms used by Tang people to describe war. After the Song dynasty, the night crow of an abandoned rooster lost its association with oncoming disaster, and it became tied to the image of crowing at dawn and urging people to get up early. The meaning of the story about Liu and Zu dancing after hearing a rooster crow was transformed by Li Bai, who interpreted it as a generous and heroic act of waving swords and dancing. Liu and Zu accordingly became patriotic heroes during the Southern Song dynasty; upon hearing the rooster’s crow, they got up early and practiced swordsmanship in order to fight against the barbarians in the north and recover the Central Plain.