冷人、幽器與鬼趣：試論鍾、譚的人、詩與批評

Forbidding man, Spectral Implement, and Ghostly-delight: On Zhung-Xing and Tan Yuan-Chun’s Personality、Poetry and Literary Criticism

本文沿著作者、文本與讀者三個維度，試圖對鍾惺、譚元春的閱讀批評展開討論。鍾、譚曾引領明季詩壇風騷卅餘年，針對竟陵深幽孤峭、幽情單緒等的標誌，本文首先從「情─文」、「內─外」向度，指出鍾、譚之冷，實為一種俗雅之區隔，「嚴冷」用以通貫其詩文之孤寒幽境。而從文本方面看來，鍾惺認為詩為「清物」，譚元春則視之為「幽深之器」，遂能縱心於其中賞其深微、幽密，因而與幽、冷、清、寂的創作者有了理論上的一致與一貫。最後觀察鍾、譚的文學批評層面：本文將指出因為雅俗之區隔、仕途偃蹇，鍾、譚皆致力於文字鍛造與閱讀時的精神感通，《詩歸》因而打開一批評空間，並且在「幽者，隱也」，需化隱為顯的批評驅動下，閱讀評點成為一場幽靈復返的招魂，其幽、冷虛壹而寂的主體，勢須由作者精魂之復返來加以填實，因而「鬼者，歸也」，成為鬼氣所集，開發出一種幽靈視域的文本讀解。

Following the three methodological dimensions: author, text, and reader, this essay intends to provide a discussion on Zhung-Xin and Tan Yun- Chun’s literary criticisms. This paper will point out that Zhung and Tan’s appreciations for lyrics and poetry had represented their dispositional characters identical to their criticisms.
Zhung and Tan were both leading figures in the late Ming Dynasty for over thirty years. Though Zhung takes poetry as “something clear” whereas Tan treats it as “something profound,” both are able to reveal the unique quality of poetry through different approaches. Thus is the literary criticism practiced by Zhung and Tan. Since they feel the need to segregate the refined and graceful from the secular and vulgar, neither Zhung nor Tan had a successful official career.
Both Zhung and Tan emphasis on the mind’s ready understanding of reading invites a new dimension of criticism. Their act of reading becomes the practice of conjuring spirits; the text becomes an evocation to the spirits, and thus develops an interpretation of text in the vision of specters.