Out With It! Torture and the Aesthetics of Narrative in Chinese Vernacular Stories

嚴刑逼供與真相告白：擬話本小說中的酷刑與敘事美學

孫廣仁(Graham Sanders)

《哲學與文化》 37卷3期 (2010/03) Pp. 103-130

https://doi.org/10.7065/MRPC.201003.0103

摘要

本文主旨在於探討晚明擬話本之敘事文體中，有關司法酷刑之實踐與真相告白之間的敘事關係，以及其間所隱含之敘事美學的意義。本文將以晚明通俗文學家馮夢龍(1574-1646)所編篡之擬話本「三言」，亦即《喻世明言》、《警世通言》、《醒世恒言》，中之「公案小說」的文本敘事分析為例，論述以嚴刑逼供為手段以達到罪犯真相告白之實踐與效果，探討以拷問、嚴刑逼供等暴力方式能否達到揭露真相的目的，司法酷刑是否可視之為一種業報的手段等問題。一如《論語》中孔子所言「視其所以，觀其所由，察其所安，人焉廋哉」，本文主張，智者乃是透過人的智慧與德行，從人的語言和行動來覺察真理，至於暴力的使用則於真理無益。換言之，本文認為真相的揭露不在於暴力的使用，而在於公堂上斷案判官的主體智慧與道德情操，及其與宇宙性業報的配合。
本文首先依據公案小說敘事文本的分析，將公堂上斷案判官的主體依次分為四種類型：一、卓越的判官：以智慧與道德情操發現真相，無需動刑；二、稱職的判官：問訊過程中僅按律法規定動用酷刑、並以罪證和供詞認定被告為有罪；三、無知的判官：罪證尚未確鑿、供詞未定之前，便草率動刑，常用假的供詞認定被告為有罪；四、邪惡的判官：明知被告是無辜的受害者，但出於貪婪或報復的個人動機，而在審訊過程中動用酷刑。據此，本文進而區分犯罪敘事、司法敘事、與宇宙敘事三種公案小說的敘事文體，並指陳「三言」中公案小說三種文體相互交纏並進的敘事風格。
此外，本文論述敘事文本中的美學形式在於時間，而公案小說中的逼供則是想在最短的時間獲取效率，找出真相，也因此無視於倫理內涵而使用嚴刑拷問，然而，用暴力探討真相，往往適得其反。本文最後並指出嚴刑拷問或懲罰之所以與業報觀念有關，基本上是針對讀者而言，同時論述拷問與酷刑可否視為現世報的問題，主張嚴刑拷問或懲罰並不是真正的業報。無論故事中的當事人有知與否，真正的業報或宇宙的業報，其實還是一直在進行著。司法的懲罰僅只是一種拙劣的處置，宇宙冥冥之中還是有其報應。

關鍵字

擬話本小說 ； 酷刑 ； 敘事 ； 美學

並列摘要

This paper discusses the practice of judicial torture as it is represented in the ”court case stories” (gongan xiaoshuo, 公案小說) collected in the three major anthologies of vernacular stories edited by Feng Menglong (馮夢龍, 1574-1646) of the Ming dynasty. In a literary form with such a broad appeal, one might expect to find torture represented as a spectacle and as a highly effective means of accessing the concealed narratives of crime contained with human subjects who are made the objects of torture. Instead, one finds judicial torture represented in routine, almost mundane, terms as a practice that often fails to extract the truth and even at times obscures it. The magistrate who uses judicial torture in his court can be classified as one of the following: (1) the excellent, who is so wise that he does not need to use it; (2) the competent, who uses torture during interrogation only according to the rule of law when he feels that the guilt of the accused has already been demonstrated through evidence and testimony; (3) the ignorant, who uses torture too readily before collecting sufficient corroborating evidence and testimony and often extracts false confessions; and (4) the evil, who is fully cognizant of the innocence of his victim but uses torture during interrogation out of personal motivations of avarice or revenge. The true spectacle that these narratives depict is the cosmic force of bao (報), or ”retribution,” at work. Torture in these stories is depicted as a means to allow three types of narratives to unfold, intersect and reach their appropriate moments of closure: (1) the narrative of the original crime, (2) the narrative of the legal proceedings investigating the crime, and (3) the narrative of cosmic retribution, which shows that evildoers are punished in the end, often after long delays and legal complications. The practice of torture stands at the intersection of these narratives for it is employed or threatened by magistrates to gain access to the narrative of the crime, so that it can be subsumed by and bring closure to the legal narrative, thus allowing the demands of the cosmic narrative of retribution to be satisfied. The aesthetic of vernacular stories dictates that the legal narrative and the narrative of retribution must be brought into alignment by the end of the story, although many years may pass before this is accomplished.

並列關鍵字

Vernacular Stories ； Torture ； Narrative ； Aesthetics

參考文獻

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