從史籍和小說中的女性書寫看研究視野的轉向——以《金瓶梅》中的妻妾權力敘事為例

From Historiography to Fiction: Reorienting Research Perspectives through the Power Relations of Wives and Concubines in Jin Ping Mei

歷史文本和小說文本中對傳統女性的記載各側重於不同面向，這代表因書寫目的和時代背景的而有不同的關懷面。自五四以後，將女性視為史籍中所記錄的父權壓迫者，幾乎是研究者的共識，但這可能是因為混淆了史籍有目的性的書寫，將賢妻、貞婦當作女性的同一面貌。隨著研究材料納入了小說，以此作為文史互證的研究進路之後，長期在歷史中失聲的女性，有了不一樣的身影。特別是明代以後，長篇的家庭小說《金瓶梅》，更描繪了以家庭為主要生活場域的女性，各自依據不同身分所能憑藉的資本，作為生存策略的靈活手段。本文梳理父權社會透過史籍、政令、獎懲制度對女性進行的規訓，並以《金瓶梅》作為對照文本，借助布赫迪厄的場域資本論，討論妻妾如何「主動」利用了各自優勢，在家庭場域中活得出彩鮮明，並藉此論名研究視野的轉向。

This study explores the transformation of female representation in historical and fictional narratives, focusing on how traditional women were portrayed through different lenses and purposes of writing. Historical records often reflect the ideological concerns of their times, emphasizing moral exemplars such as“virtuous wives”and“chaste women.”Since the May Fourth Movement, scholarly discourse has tended to interpret these portrayals as evidence of women’s subjugation under patriarchy. However, such readings may conflate the prescriptive intentions of historiography with the actual complexity of women’s lived experiences. By incorporating fiction as a complementary corpus to historical texts, this research adopts a literature-and-history approach to rediscover the voices of women long marginalized in traditional historiography. In particular, the Ming dynasty novel Jin Ping Mei provides a vivid depiction of women whose daily lives center on the domestic sphere. Through their negotiation of social hierarchies and their use of various forms of capital derived from status, beauty, or emotional influence, these women develop flexible survival strategies within a patriarchal order. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of field and capital, this paper examines how wives and concubines in Jin Ping Mei transform their constrained positions into spaces of agency. By comparing historical prescriptions with fictional representations, it argues that female characters in late imperial China were not merely passive subjects of patriarchal discipline, but active agents who redefined power within the domestic field.