- 會議論文
依違於私情與公義之間－孟姜女故事流轉探析
Vacillating between Private Sentiment and Social Obligation: The Transmission of the Meng Chiang-nü Story
摘要
在古典經籍《左傳》中知禮拒絕路弔的杞梁之妻，在《禮記．檀弓》說她「哭之哀」後，被劉向寫入從一而終的《列女傳．貞順傳》，成為情真志堅，貞烈不悔的婦女楷模；之後又在民間傳講中被一再鋪陳，終於成了後人眼中萬里尋夫哭倒長城，敢與秦始皇暴政相抗的孟姜女。她的丈夫也從戰死沙場的齊將杞梁，成了為築長城屈死邊塞的秦代儒生。這樣的故事流轉與傳講故事的社會之間必須存有相當的默契。無論各個杞梁妻、孟姜女故事的作者／傳講者是否有意識地知覺到各時期歷史環境的變遷，他們對故事、人物的處理與接納，多少反映了人們對於自我社會定位、人我關係、情感與情緒表達方式的想法與期待。本文先藉由杞梁妻於丈夫死後哭或不哭的故事書寫，分析當時人對「禮」與「情」的認識與安排，以及個人在群體（家）之中的「公」「私」分際。其次，則解析各本孟姜女故事中如何安排她與丈夫杞梁的身分處境；如何描述他們的夫妻關係；如何肯定父母在而尋夫遠遊的正當性；如何看待長城被哭崩之事；以及如何設定故事最後的結局。由此探討眾多的傳講者們是如何鋪陳經營，讓這樣一個以私抗公，以情抗義的故事始終傳講不歇；且讓他們夫妻的「私」情得到社會公開認可的同情，並轉而使基於「公」眾安危考慮的邊塞築城之舉，被貶斥為秦始皇的暴政，失去了原有的大「義」名分。
並列摘要
Around 550 B. C., a general of the army of Ch'i齊, Ch'i-liang杞梁 was killed in a battle. The King of Ch'i tried to express his condolences to Ch'i-liang's widow when he saw her on the road. Ch'i-liang's widow declined, because ritual prescribed that people should mourn and pay respect to the deceased in their residence, not on the road. This incident was recorded in ”Tsuo-chuan左傳”, but the widow remained nameless. The same story was recorded in ”The Book of Rites禮記” with the addition that describes the widow's weeping as showing her deepest sorrow. Her deed was again recorded in ”Biographies of Women列女傳” compiled by Liu Hsiang劉向. In this edition, Ch'i-liang's widow chooses to drown herself after her husband's death, for she has no father, husband or son to depend on. In even later versions of the story, the storytellers give her the name of Meng Chiang-nü 孟姜女, and her husband becomes a conscripted worker of the Ch'in government, who was sent to build the Great Wall and died of exhaustion. Meng Chiang-nü leaves her family behind and travels across the country to look for her husband. When she is informed of his death after the long journey, she cries so hard that her voice shakes the Wall and causes it to fall.There are many different versions of the Meng Chiang-nü story with proliferating details on the main characters. How the story is told in different time-periods shows interactions between the text and the social conditions of the audience. Storytellers may not be fully aware of the social changes, but when they rearrange the text, the outcome reflects the contemporary views of how the tensions between private needs and public good are to be handled. It also reflects views of how to balance rituals and human emotions.This work first discusses the emphasis on the balance between abiding by ritual and expressing emotions in the early versions of the story. Then, it goes on to analyze how the story has been told in later times from the following aspects: the attributes of Meng Chiang-nü and her husband as persons and as members of their family, the relationship between the couple, how storytellers justify Meng Chiang-nü's leaving her parents behind to set out for her journey, how they justify the fall of the Great Wall, and how they end the story with a remedy for the couple and the audience. From this analysis, this work tries to explain what may have resulted in the continued popularity of this story. It also trys to answer the question of how a couple that values private needs over the public good could win approval and sympathy from a general audience, and why the importance of the construction of the Great Wall could be diminished to a totally unjustified brutal act of a tyrant.