詮釋的界域－－從〈詩大序〉再探「抒情傳統」的建構

The Planes of Interpretation: 'Lyric Tradition' Revisited, from the Perspective of the 'Greater Preface' to the Book of Songs

自從陳世早晨先生由西方抒情詩的角度提出中國文學的「抒情傳統」以來，論者大抵偏重作者自我的內在獨白、瞬間感興，強調感情本體的世界觀，並以漢末、魏晉的詩文作為抒情傳統的典型建構或是理論完成的主要依據，而明顯忽略漢代這一大段所謂表現社會群體意志的時期對於建構中國文學「抒情傳統」的重要性。本文以〈詩大序〉為主，希望針對其中牽涉「言志」、「比興」這些議題的文字段落，提出更充分相關的背景資料，並探討彼此歧異，而尋索合宜的詮釋範圍，也就是希望呈現出〈詩大序〉得以如此論述的存在空間。這所謂相關背景或存在空間，必然糾結著資料原本所在的文本環境，與〈詩大序〉編著者在引錄、截取時的期待視野，同時還包括前後時代針對如何認知事物或建構合理（合於道）的生活世界所形成的觀點演進，而無法僅圈跟在自我感興的層面。而如此重新反思「抒情傳統」於先秦兩漢間的建構過程，可以發現從樂教至於詩教的轉變，從歌詠「六詩」到以義為用的「六義」，尤其自「引詩為比」以來，知識分子透過譬類方式所觸連起的熟悉上手的時物系統，在如何讀、如何用當中累積了可以表達與被理解的感發方式，通足以成為後來創作時自然發詠的基礎，同時也為中國文學的「抒情傳統」鋪設出兼具智識性與情感性的發展脈絡。Comparative Literature as a discipline seems doomed to perpetual self-doubt and crisis. Since Rene Wellek's famous address 'The Crisis in Comparative Literature' in 1958, every generation of scholars in the field has had to wrestle with various 'crises,' some internal to the discipline, some external. In 1984 Weisstein went so far as to talk of a 'Permanent Crisis of Comparative Literature,' and in the 90s the Bernheimer report led to long and heated debates about the nature and direction of the field. After sketching the broad outline of some recent trends, this review article will concentrate on two recent works, Cai Zong-qi's Configurations of Comparative Poetics: Three Perspectives on Western and Chinese Literary Criticism and Haun Saussy's Great Walls of Discourse and Other Adventures in Cultural China, both of which have something to say about where the field might move. (I will make only passing mention here of another important recent publication, Zhang Longxi's Mighty Opposites: From Dichotomies to Differences in the Comparative Study of China, because I have already reviewed it separately last year for this journal). The number and scope of recent publications in Chinese is so great that they deserve separate treatment, and I will not deal with them here.