打一用物：中國古典小說中物體形象的象徵與非象徵作用

Finding the Concrete Object: The Symbolic and Non-symbolic Meanings of Material Imagery in Classical Chinese Fiction

本文主要探討特定物體形象在故事轉折中的「情節結構」作用，筆者稱為「結點」（node）或「鉸連」（hinge）。此種「非象徵」作用的論點，筆者於《明代小說四大奇書》已有提及，如《金瓶梅》一書中「眠鞋」與「寵物貓狗」，這類物件除了反映當時「物質文化」的社會背景外，其結構作用正為體現表面事件所含的內義。
接著，本文亦探討受明代奇書影響的清初、清中葉章回小說，其小說所描繪雅俗交織的物件，如《歧路燈》的眠鞋、《醒世姻緣傳》的眠鞋與狗、《紅樓夢》的貓狗形象，本文企求為這些小說中的物體形象，勾勒出愛慾與暴力雜揉的核心結構，同時亦為「眠鞋」、「寵物貓狗」等物質文化形象，提出舉例與關於「非象徵」作用的說明。

In this article, I investigate the structural use of certain material objects depicted in classical Chinese narrative, an aesthetic function I term the “node” or “hinge” of a given work. I have explored in my work Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel certain aspects of the non-symbolic function in Jin Ping Mei of such things as ''boudoir slippers'' or pet dogs and cats, where I argued that these images not only reflect the material cultural background of late-Imperial society, but also serve a key structural function underlying the surface events of the story. Here, I go on to examine additional examples found in a few other works of zhanghui fiction of the Early and Mid-Qing period, in which the influence of the aesthetics of the late-Ming qishu genre is very visible. Examining the interweaving of elegant and inelegant elements in the presentation of boudoir slippers in Qilu deng, slippers and dogs in Xingshi yinyuanzhuan, and cats and dogs in Honglou meng, I attempt to outline the principal structural function of these objects in linking contradictory plot threads of refinement and vulgarity, eroticism and violence in these works, in order to demonstrate this sort of non-symbolic use of the fictional representation of images of material culture.