片帆敵愾震四海——日本漢文小說《海外異傳》中英雄書寫的敘事結構

Naval Battles Against One’s Enemies Shock the World: A Study on the Hero Writing of The Japanese Chinese-Character Novel Kaigaiden

十九世紀五○年代的日本，飽受內憂外患之苦。面臨西方列強屢以武力東進並訴求開國之威脅，幕府竟束手無策，權威蕩然無存。時日本國內有志之士遊說各地，疾呼尊王攘夷論，倒幕聲浪不絕於耳。稍於此前，作為保幕攘夷派代表人物之一的津藩碩儒齋藤正謙(1797-1865），曾於嘉永三年(1850）出版漢文小說《海外異傳》，表明其政治立場。是書以明末清初東亞鄰海諸國間，緊張混亂之政治情勢為時空背景，通過「出航——討逆——歸返」之敘事結構，以日人山田長政(1590-1630）之稱霸身毒、濱田彌兵衛(？-？）之要脅紅毛與南明鄭成功(1624-1662）之統治台灣三件海外征戰故實為題材。在個別線性事件之發展脈絡中，作者每以「陸地——海洋」之空間移動，為草莽英雄開闢一處能夠伸展其志的舞台。同時，本文藉由英雄海上航行之情節，嘗試探究文本中幕末志士團結抵禦外侮的理念。

In the 1850s, Japan was roiled by domestic turmoil and foreign invasion. Rocked by the violence of Western gunboat diplomacy, the Edo Shogunate struggled to formulate an effective policy in response, as it lost completely its political authority. Farsighted people lobbied around the country and gathered supporters, advocating strenuously for the return of political power to the Mikado (the Emperor) as a means of resisting against foreign invasion. As such, calls for the overthrow of the Edo Shogunate became greater and greater. Saito Setsudo (1797-1865) was a well-known scholar in Tsu-han and a supporter of the Shongunate. In 1850 he published the Chinese-character novel Kaigai iden (海外異傳) as a means of articulating his political stance. The novel was set against the backdrop of the Ming-Qing transition, a tense and even chaotic time when East Asia countries were roiled by political conflict. The work’s narrative structure was organized around the plot points of “sailing out, attacking enemy, then returning in triumph.” It described three oversea battles: Japanese Yamada Nagamasa (1590-1630) conquest of the kingdom of Siam, Hamada Yahyōe threats against the Dutch governor of Formosa, and Koxinga (1624-1662)’s post-Ming rule on the island of Taiwan. In the narrative development of each these individual instances of warfare, the author envisions the movement “from the land toward the sea” as a stage upon which each of his central folk heroes could exhibit their martial resolve. This paper will examine how the depiction of such martial activity became a means for Saito to metaphorically express his political ideal: the need for Japanese patriots at the end of the Edo period to unite against the Western powers.