悲劇故事的形成——李煜之死與相關傳說

The Formation of a Tragic Story: The Death of Li Yu and Related Legends

南唐後主李煜被宋太宗以牽機藥毒死的說法廣為世人所知，但在傳世的宋代文獻中，關於李煜的死因與死亡時間，存有分歧的紀錄。藉由電子資料庫之助，研究者可以發現，在李煜死後，最早由徐鉉撰寫的墓誌銘記其死因為「遘疾」，此後相關的記錄皆無異說。到南宋初年由王銍編撰的筆記《默記》，才紀錄李煜被太宗派人毒死，但終宋之世，並無其他文獻引用或轉述王銍之說。從明代開始，李煜被毒死的說法才開始普遍流傳，並由此衍生出更多附會之說，與宋代文獻所記的內容多所出入。為何在宋代文獻中居於邊緣地位的說法，在明代之後卻被諸多讀書人所引用而產生深遠影響？不同時空中的讀者，如何在分歧的說法中進行選擇？李煜之死的相關記載提供一個可分析的案例。

This article examines the well-known story of the death of Li Yu, the Last Lord of Southern Tang, who was poisoned to death with“qianji yao”(牽機藥) by Emperor Taizong of Song in 978. However, there is a divergence of views regarding the timing and reasons for Li’s death as recorded in the biographies of Li Yu written during the Song dynasty. Based on the archives preserved in online databases, this research discovers that the earliest documentation of Li’s death can be found in Xu Xuan’s tomb epitaphs, which suggest that Li’s death was caused by“sickness.”While opinions with regard to the cause of Li’s death remained unanimous during the Northern Song period, the story that Emperor Taizong poisoned and murdered Li was first mentioned in Moji (默記), a miscellany written and edited by Wang Zhi (王銍) during the Southern Song period in the early 12th century. Although Wang’s story was scarcely referenced throughout the Southern Song period, his narrative of Li’s tragic death became popular during the Ming dynasty. To some extent, the story of Li’s death gradually turned out to be farfetched and remained inconsistent with the historical accounts of his death from the Song dynasty. What is the reason for a less recognized story in the Song dynasty to be prevalent and influential among the writings of the Ming literati? How should readers from different spatio-temporal backgrounds assess the credibility of varying narratives considering the legends of Li’s tragic death? This article, thus, aims to analyze the pivotal factors that led most contemporary readers to favor Wang Zhi’s story over the records preserved in the Northern Song.