《老殘遊記》中的「個人主觀主義」及其在小說史上的意涵

The Individualism-Subjectivism in The Travels of Lao Ts'an and Its Significance in the History of Chinese Fiction

劉鶚的《老殘遊記》是晚清著名的四大譴責小說之一。歷來對於此書的研究，不是在其描景寫物之清新不落俗套，就是在其反映晚清時局、批判清官殺人的時代面貌上；晚近則重在其意象及結構之詮釋與分析。然而，若從《遊記》中所呈現的抒情風味，由小說中老殘之個性及書中整體洋溢的作者對於個人身世、社會、家國的強烈情感來看，我們發覺《老殘遊記》其實是承繼從明代以降在文人小說中日漸明顯強烈的一種「個人／主觀」主義，將小說視為個人思想情感理想寄託的場域，使得小說逐漸脫離「徵實」、描寫外在現實的傳統，走向作者內在思想情感的自我表述。本文從小說史發展的角度切入，將劉鶚的《老殘遊記》置於此一「個人／主觀」主義的脈絡中，試圖探討中國小說由清代開始的「內轉向」（inward turn）趨勢，並將之與五四時期浪漫派小說聯繫，考察建立一個中國近代小說「個人／主觀」傳統的可能性。

Liu E's The Travels of Lao Ts'an is one of the best known Late Ch’ing novels. Studies of this novel have traditionally been concentrated on the outstanding and unconventional description of natural scenes, or else on the socio-political significance that this novel reveals in vividly delineating the late Ch’ing society and political situation. In the 1980s, the focus has shifted to the analysis of images and the plot structure of the novel. However, if we read the novel carefully, we will easily find the strong individual/subjective/lyrical stance standing out. This stance can in fact be accounted by the individualism/subjectivism germinated from the Ming novels, seeing the novel as a literary sphere where men of letters could use the novel as a vehicle or channel to express their personal inner feeling, aspiration, thought, vision and so on. By putting into the novel some of the individual, subjective matters, Chinese novelists somewhat got away from the long entangled relation with the historical/biographical tradition, which emphasizes so much on the realistic side and on the verifiability of the narrative. Locating Liu E's The Travels in view of this development, this paper attempts to trace the development of the “inward turn” of the novel, to delineate the individualism/subjectivism as represented in The Travels and eventually to associate this development with the later May Fourth romantic writings, in the hope of establishing an individualism/subjectivism tradition in Chinese novel.