《夜窗鬼談》是日本漢學家石川鴻齋(1833~1918)之漢文小說集,其書之所以受到關注,主要由於內容多記神怪,並直以「鬼談」命名,且在創作背景、文體形式、題材內容、創作手法等各方面,無不深受中國古典小說之影響,今有學者稱之為「東洋《聊齋》」。本文基於現有之研究成果,以「《夜窗鬼談》鬼敘述」為例,進行探究,印證不論是相關故事情節,甚至背後蘊藏之觀念與想像之特質,實與中國古典「鬼小說」有所雷同,而此乃作者深具漢學素養之緣故。再者,作者之所以敘鬼述怪,或宣揚修身立德,或展現個人學識,或抒發一己感慨,皆源自中國文學傳統,由此更印證日本漢文小說與中國文化之密切關連。
Ishikawa Kousai is a well-known Japanese shinologist, and Ye Chuang Gui Tan is the collection of his novels in Chinese. His novels have drawn a lot of attention because of his dealing with the ghost. Kousai even directly names the collection of his novels Gui Tan(鬼談), which means "talking about ghost" in Chinese. His novels in many parts are under the influence of Chinese classical novels, such as the background of the story, content, genre, technique of writing, and so on. Hence, some scholars like to call his novels Japanese Liao Zhai (《聊齋》). This paper aims to investigate "the narrative of ghost" in Ye Chuang Gui Tan, in which I argue that Kousai's narration of ghost bears great affinities to Chinese classical ghost novels. In other words, his narrative of ghost in the novels has a lot to do with the Chinese ghost culture and the tradition of Chinese classical literature. The collection of Kousai's novels in Chinese also clearly discloses the close connections between Japanese novels in Chinese and Chinese culture.