「有情」的歷史－－抒情傳統與中國文學現代性

A History with Feeling: Lyrical Tradition and Chinese Literary Modernity

本文提議在革命、啟蒙之外，「抒情」代表中國文學現代性——尤其是現代主體建構——的又一面向。一般論述對「抒情」早有成見，或視為無關宏旨的遐想，或歸諸主觀情緒的耽溺；左翼傳統裏，「抒情」更帶出唯心走資等聯想。論者對「抒情」的輕視固然顯示對國族、政教大敘述不敢須臾稍離，也同時暴露一己的無知：他們多半仍不脫簡化了的西方浪漫主義說法，外加晚明「情教」論以來的泛泛之辭。但誠如學者已指出，西方定義下的「抒情」（lyricism）與極端個人主義掛鉤，其實是晚近的、浪漫主義的表徵一端而已。而將問題放回中國文學傳統的語境，我們更可理解「抒情」一義來源既廣，而且和史傳的關係相衍相生，也因此成就了中國現代主體的多重面貌。本文以二十世紀中期為切入點，試圖為中國抒情傳統與現代性的對話作進一步的描述。一般皆謂二十世紀中期是個「史詩」的時代，但恰恰是在這樣的時代裏，少數有心人反其道而行，召喚「抒情傳統」，才顯得意義非凡。這一召喚的本身已經饒富政治意義。更重要的，它顯現了「抒情」作為一種文類，一種「情感結構」，一種史觀的嚮往，充滿了辯證的潛力。本文的討論將以沈從文（90-988）、陳世驤（9-97）以及捷克漢學家普實克（Jaroslav Pr??ek，90-980）為坐標。這三人立場、國籍不同，發言的位置有異，但他們不約而同，都企圖在現代語境裏重新認識抒情傳統。他們的洞見讓我們理解中國文學的現代性問題不能由革命、啟蒙的話語一以蔽之；而他們的不見顯示抒情「傳統」與現代性交會下，有待繼續思辨釐清的盲點。而本文建議陳、沈、普的論述為我們示範了三項課題：「興與怨」、「情與物」、「詩與史」。This essay proposes to rethink the manifestation of Chinese modernity from the vantage point of lyricism. Beyond the conventional paradigms, such as enlightenment and revolution, it argues that 'the lyrical' - as a literary genre, a cultural practice, an intellectual mode of thinking, and even a political gesture-has played a crucial role in the making of modern Chinese experience, particularly the fashioning of subjectivity. The essay critiques the conventional wisdom that associates lyrical representation merely with romantic escapades or sentimental whims, calling attention instead to modern writers' and critics' reappraisal as well as invention of the 'lyrical tradition' of China. In particular, it features engagements undertaken by Shen Congwen (1902-1988), Chen Shixiang (1912 -1971) and Jaroslav Pr??ek (1906-1980) in the mid-twentieth century. Despite their differences in national, ideological, and intellectual backgrounds, these three figures shared a similar concern with the 'epic' circumstances of their time while they each invoked a polemics of the lyrical as a way to define their literary bearings vis a vis the national fate. As such, they have recovered from pre-modern Chinese poetics three issues that are still highly relevant to (post)modern theory: 'evocation' (興) and 'discontent' (怨); 'feeling' (情) and 'object'(物); 'poetry'(詩) and 'history'(史).