析評《史記‧項羽本紀》之鴻門宴

Analysis and Comments on the Hongmen Banquet from "Shihchi: Xiang Yu Benji"

〈項羽本紀〉可說是《史記》一書百三十篇中，最膾炙人口、讀之令人神動的文章，其中表現項羽生平興起、轉折和敗亡的三件事，分別為鉅鹿之戰、鴻門宴及垓下之圍。這三部份內容都十分精彩，本文僅擇取鴻門宴這部份，作為析評的範圍。鴻門宴事件之外在起因有三，分別為「曹無傷告密」、「范增慫恿」、「項伯報恩」；另外鴻門宴的內在原因有二：「沛公作為」及「項羽性格」。如此才會有沛公親至鴻門謝罪的宴會。鴻門宴的過程，寫作上有三個特點：一是寫作技巧，司馬遷採用「以實帶虛」的表現手法；二是內容發展，呈現的是危機四伏的緊張情節，三是結構形式，採用的是對比映襯的結構。

Xiang Yu Benji is the most popular article that is included in the book of "Shihchi", which has a total of 130 articles within. Among them, the three events of Xiang Yu's rising, turning point, and failure were The Battle of Julu, Hongmen Banquet, and Beleaguered in KaiXia. Although these three parts are all splendid, Hongmen Banquet is the only one to be analyzed and discussed in this paper. The three external causes of Hongmen Banquet are The informant, Tsau Wu-Shang, Fan Zengk's instigation, Xiang Bo's repaying an obligation. The two internal causes of the Hongmen Banquet are Duke of Pei's deeds and Xiang Yu's character. Thus Duke of Pei went to Hongmen offering his apology personally. The description of Hongmen Banquet contains three characteristics. The first one is its writing skill. Sima Qian applied the description technique of "reality with virtuality". Secondly, the developing contents involved perilous and intensive plots within. Thirdly, the structure related to contrastive rhetoric.