想像的暴力

Imagined Violence: Representing Homicide in Late Imperial Crime Reports and Fiction

本文嘗試透過研究暴力的再現這一課題探討中國明清時代的書寫文化。研究材料包括：流行於清代的明清白話小說、清代刑科題本及清代的相關檔案文獻。通過分析這些材料如何再現憤怒的情狀、爭奪武器而導致命案以及勇士間的械鬥，我得出結論，認為小說作者對暴力的敘述是以最簡潔的方式進行的；他們把對細節的想像留給了讀者，這種寫法用意在於讓讀者通過積極參與對現場的創造而獲得審美愉悅。與小說相比，對受傷身體高度細節化的描寫構成清代刑科題本的核心證據，這些描寫被置於官方調查的敘事模式和主犯及目擊人敘事性證詞的脈絡中，其預設效果，是排除讀者想了象性解釋證據的可能性，即，只能存在一種讀法：這種讀法必須直接導向對「大清律例」中所描述的、應受到特定刑罰的特定暴力行為的識別。檔案文獻中敘事性證詞的再現與小說敘事有一些共同特點，如二者約缺乏對暴力的細節化描寫。我將摘錄三種清代刑科題本來支持上述論點。對比而言，似乎是將以上兩種寫作方式相結合的明清公案小說在形式上更接近其他小說而非法律文獻：公案小說強調對暴力的敘事而非對暴力的描寫，為的是激發讀者的創造性想像。This essay seeks to explore the culture of writing in late imperial China by focusing on one common topic: the representation of violence. Materials examined here include vernacular fiction of the Ming and Qing periods that continued to be popular through the Qing period, and crime case reports and related documents from the Qing. Through examinations of the effects of violent rage, a struggle over a weapon that ends in death, and a battle between heavily armed warriors, I conclude that writers of fiction narrated violent acts in the most concise manner possible, leaving the details to the imagination of the reader. This technique is intended to entertain by actively involving the reader in the creation of the scene. By contrast, descriptions of wounded bodies form the central evidence in Qing period crime case reports. These highly detailed descriptions are contextualized by using the narrative of the official investigation and the narrative testimony of the principals and the witnesses of the crime. The intended effect is to preclude imaginative interpretations of the facts; there could be only one reading, which had to lead directly to an identification of the violent act, with a punishment as described in the Da Qing luli, the Qing penal code. Narrative testimony as it was represented in legal documents shares some characteristics with fictional narrative, namely its lack of detailed description. Excerpts from three Qing crime cases support these conclusions. Ming-Qing gong'an xiaoshuo, the legal fiction that would seemingly combine these two approaches to writing, in formal terms is clearly more like other fiction than like legal documents: it emphasizes narration rather than description of violence to spark the readers' creative imagination.