Between Self-Indulgence and Self-Restraint - Tao Qian's 'Quieting the Passions'

陶潛〈閑情賦〉塑造了一個空谷幽蘭般的佳人形象，她迥其於漢代以降「閑情」與「神女」系列辭賦中的女性典型，本文主旨即在於探索此佳人之文學與美學意鐘。陶潛透過對男女愛慕、音樂相感及色身誘惑的書寫與想像，牽引出這一女性角色典男性說話者若即若離的互動，並體現了後者對靈與慾的渴求一一賦中佳人既是他希冀的知己，亦為色授魂典的麗人：這兩個象徵系統交織纏結，構成了〈閑情賦〉堂富而複雜的文本。賦中佳人所體現的孤絕之美與她所抒發的生命無常之感，與陶潛慣有的抒情聲音極為類似，而她的神儀舉止雅麗、所演奏之樂音意境淒美哀婉，絕非其他作家華下的佳人神女之綺豔放蕩可比擬，她特殊的主體性因而呼之欲出。陶潛在此所締造的「情」，是一種理想化的情，源於性情投契與相互傾慕。即使如此，讀者仍不能無視於賦文中強烈的綺思（此亦為「情」之底蘊），著名的「十願」便是男性說話者設想自己親狎佳人身體，相當大膽露骨。其實情色之思在賦文前半巳露端倪，但須仔細分析文本的語構、句構、意象，以及比對相關賦作的同類象徵表現，始能識破。〈閑情賦〉的文本互涉性越彰顯，文中的「誘惑」與「色欲」便越見真切，故本文排比並分析〈閑情賦〉及其相關賦作的象徵手法與句式，闡明其丈本互涉特徵，藉此點出本賦在辭賦傳統中的重要地位。本文同時認為，〈閑情賦〉的深層結構須於男女色欲的本質中索求，它是自發而難以現測度的，交錯於耽溺、壓抑、痛苦與歡快之間；它也是不連貫的，所以批評家沒有必要將此文本視為有機的整體而過分苛求。This essay probes the nuance of the image of the lady in Tao Qian's 'Xian qing fu' ('Quieting the Passions'), focusing on the beginning of the fu (lines 1-28). Tao Qian breathes new life into this image. Three elements-love, music, and seduction-play a particularly important role in molding the lady's character. Through a close reading of 'Xian qing fu' and an exploration of its intertextual relations, this essay brings to light the significance of this lady in the particular tradition of fu in which woman and music are employed as aesthetic and cultural symbols. This essay observes that Tao Qian has constructed a spiritually consanguineous being; that Tao desires, besides physical intimacy, a union of souls. These associations of well-disposed companionship notwithstanding, Tao Qian's fu takes a strong erotic interest in the lady. The two interests, companionship and sexual desire, are closely intertwined: Tao Qian gives the lady a lyrical and contemplative voice that is never heard from her precedents; the topos of the musical seductress has transcended its former purpose as mere sexual entree in the fu tradition. Still, Tao Qian shapes the speaker's yearning for the lady in a quest for a soul mate and pleasure. The ten amorous wishes in the middle of the fu are bare and bold in Chinese lyrical traditions, but at first the lady's seduction strikes the reader as minimal. Yet the seductiveness of Tao Qian's fu grows stronger and stronger as the intertextual relations of the text unfold. This essay suggests that the underlying structure of 'Xian qing fu' lodges in the human psychology of desire: unfathomable, with indulgent, unpremeditated, disjointed, painful and pleasurable moments. There is no erasure of eroticism in the fu. Tao Qian engages it and struggles to flesh it out, catching many, perhaps including Tao himself, unprepared.