從環繞〈碩人〉的批評看讀者的理解模式－一項跨學科研究的嘗試

在《詩經》三百篇中，〈碩人〉是相當獨特的一篇。首先，因為它是詩人畢其能事來描寫美人的濫觴之作。再者，它的第二章對莊姜極細膩、生動的描寫，教歷代詩評家如晤其面，乃至不約而同地歎為「千古絕唱」──似乎，他們在理解上全無扞格。但值得注意的是，〈碩人〉第二章分明由七個句子組成；而相較於加諸末二句的歎美，各家對前五句的詮釋卻顯得支吾其詞，避重就輕。這讓人不禁懷疑他們看似「讀懂」、「契悟」了此詩；然則真實情況究竟為何？當代移用跨界的理論和方法來研究中國古典文學者不少，且每能另開生面。故本文嘗試以環繞〈碩人〉（特別是第二章）的批評為基礎，並從後設視角，借重博物學、美學、認知心理學、腦神經科學和語言學等學科的主流論述，進一步探討讀者如何「理解」作品。

關鍵字

博物學；完形學派；臉孔辨識單位；閱讀腦；語言二軸說

並列摘要

Among all the chapters in the ”Book of Songs” (”Book of Odes”《詩經》), which is also known as ”Three Hundred” (《詩三百》), ”ShuoRen” (〈碩人〉) is rather a unique piece. First of all, it is the beginning of when poets thoroughly describe a beauty. Secondly, the exquisite and vivid portrayal on Zhuang Jiang (莊姜), in the second chapter, has seemingly made generations of poetry critics bring the character to life. They all praised it as masterpiece throughout the ages ----- apparently they all comprehended it total agreement. But it is worth noting that the second chapter of ”ShuoRen” (〈碩人〉) is composed of seven sentences; compared with the last two sentences which are highly appreciated, all critics speak evasively and dwell on the trivialities in explaining the first five sentences. It makes us wonder if they indeed ”grasped” and ”comprehended” the poem; but what is actually the real situation? Many contemporary scholars, who study Chinese classic literatures, apply interdisciplinary theories and methods whose research almost always opens new windows. Therefore, this article tries to investigate, from a meta-perspective, along with the mainstream arguments of Natural History, Aesthetics, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Linguistics to further explore how readers ”comprehend” ”ShuoRen” (〈碩人〉) (especially the second chapter) based on its surrounding critics.