新小說、政治小說，或現代小說？——晚清時期「中國小說現代化」的考察

New Fiction, Political Novel, or Modern Fiction? A Reappraisal of “The “Modernization of the Chinese Novel” in the Late Qing Period

自從梁啟超發表了〈譯印政治小說序〉（1898）、〈論小說與群治之關係〉（1902）等重要的文章後，中國小說進入一個新的階段，以小說來輔助政治上的改革，將中國推進現代國家之林。梁與其他響應者的大力推動小說的改革，批判傳統小說，提出一種表面不同於傳統的小說理念，大致上展現出一種新氣象，似乎踵隨外來小說（以日本為最主要來源），將小說帶入一個「現代」的情境。然而，若我們細加考察，重要來源的日本文壇，在小說理念以及實踐上，其實展現出與中國有同，但又有極大差異的發展。日本小說的發展，若以坪內逍遙（1859-1935）、二葉亭四迷（1864-1909）、森鷗外（1862-1922）等的推動，基本上可是以西方的「小說」（novel）為追尋目標的「小說的現代化」（modernization of the novel）。反觀中國小說的發展，我們留意到晚清論者，在很多地方，雖借「異邦的新聲」來提出與傳統相異的言說，但是在很多地方仍然承繼著傳統小說的思維、表達方式，若以所謂「現代小說」（modern fiction）的角度來考察，很難真正稱之為中國小說的「現代化」。中國小說真正邁入「現代」，恐怕還得等到魯迅等人的進一步思索、引進一不同於晚清小說的言說及實踐，方才接近所謂現代小說的樣貌。本文試圖以十九世紀下半葉日本小說理念的發展作為參照，重新省視晚清小說言說的內容及表現，提出新的觀察，分析其相關的原因、脈絡及其在中國文學史上的意涵。

Ever since Liang Qichao (1873-1929) put forward several of his important essays concerning how to use fiction to supplement the enterprise of political reform, the Chinese novel entered into a new stage of development. Liang and his contemporary fellow intellectuals tried to critique traditional fiction and advocate a new form and function of fiction, thus attempting to establish a “New Fiction.” This “New Fiction” was in many ways indebted to and modeled on the newly-formulated political fiction of Japan. However, the Japanese fiction had, through the hands of Tsubouchi Shoyo (坪內 逍遙), Futabatei Shimei (二葉亭四迷), Mori Ogai (森鷗外), and others, tried to formulate a “modern fiction” following modern concepts and forms from the West, and therefore had begun a process of modernization of the novel. This article contends that even though Late Qing fiction had “borrowed new voices from foreign lands” as a means of producing a fiction that differed from traditional Chinese fiction, it however cannot be properly termed “modern” fiction as some scholars have claimed, for it still inherited and contained many conceptual and technical elements from traditional novels. The “modernization of the Chinese novel” would have to wait until a decade later, developed in the hands of Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren and their fellow men of letters. This article thus seeks to use mid-and-late 19th century developments in the concept of fiction in Japan as a means of rethinking the form and content of late-Qing novels, analyzing the interconnected elements that made up such novels as well as the place they occupy in the history of Chinese literature.