警幻與覺迷——《紅樓夢》與遺民情懷

Disenchantment and the Allegiance of the Remnant Subject in Dream of the Red Chamber

警幻仙子看似既佛（警寶玉情之虛幻）又儒（促寶玉仕途經濟），實乃使用佛家策略的程朱使者。而她對「皮膚濫淫」的反感，又意味她代表的是一種新興的清新版的程朱。這種封建社會主流論述的輪替，落實到寫作時代便是明清的易代。故本書若以寓言，特別是「國族寓言」的方式從「反面讀」，便能讀出其隱藏的遺民情懷。佐以後設小說理論，更能讀出以補天神話開始的最外層敘事（作者立場），及以太虛神話開始的中層敘事（清廷立場），同時對最內層執著於故明之情（以大觀園為象徵）的遺民展開反向的遊說。而「警幻」與「大義覺迷錄」在名稱或論述內容上的互相呼應，更確認了《紅樓夢》乃是一本遺民面對清之籠絡政策時用以堅其不仕二主之志的「類回憶錄」。

In Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢, the Goddess of Disenchantment 警幻仙子 seems both Buddhist (in trying to disenchant Baoyu 寶玉 from emotional attachment 情 ) and Confucian (in advising him to study for entering officialdom), but is in fact a messenger for the Cheng-Zhu 程朱school of Neo-Confucianism who has adopted Buddhist disenchanting strategies. Her antipathy toward carnal indulgence indicates that she symbolizes a new and unblemished form of the Cheng-Zhu school. In the context of the novel, this change of state ideology could only refer to that which occurred when the Ming dynasty was overthrown by the Manchus. Thus, only when we read Dream of the Red Chamber allegorically, especially as a national allegory, are we able to detect the hidden sentiments of the remnant subject. Metafictional theory helps lay bare the three fold structure of the novel in which both the outermost narrative, representing the position of the author, and the middle layer narrative, representing that of the Qing ruler, are trying to win over the allegiance of the innermost layer, that of the remnant subject, who clings unrelentingly to his emotional attachment to the fallen Ming. The correspondences between “disenchantment” in the novel and in the Dayi juemi lu (大義覺迷錄 Report on Disenchantment in Light of the Great Principles, issued by the Yongzheng Emperor), both in terms of name and content of discourse, further substantiate the argument that this novel is a semi-memoir written to reinforce the will of the remnant subject not to serve the new usurper-ruler.