江上行舟：「水域空間」在明清話本中的構設

對於「水域空間」在小說中如何構思，乃至於影響小說情節的鋪陳，少有學者討論。既然水運在明清時期佔有極高重要性，而古典小說中也不時將「水域空間」作爲場景之一，於是產生幾個課題：作者如何有效運用水域空間來鋪陳小說情節？而水域空間上所發生之事，對於小說進展是否有所影響？還是僅作爲交通作用？明清時期爲話本小說出版量最爲豐碩的時期，本文選擇數部明清話本，首先，擬分「旅遊」、「經商」、「任途」及「兩地往返」等項目，說明水域空間在小說中的「正常功能」；接著，則是透過「避難」、「逢禍」、「藏匿他人」、「棄屍」、「偶遇」等現象，進一步探討小說家如何運用構設水域空間，以便鋪展小說情節。

關鍵字

古典小說；話本；擬話本；水域空間；情節結構

並列摘要

Few studies have discussed the conception of ”water space” in novels and its influence on the plot structure of novels. Since water transport played a very important role in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the plot of ”water space” could be frequently found in classical novels, several issues can be investigated: How did authors effectively make use of water space to form the plots of novels? Would the incidents occurred at water space affect the development novels or simply act as transportation method? This study intended to investigate the questions above. The publication of Hua Ben in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was in the largest amount. This study selects several classical novels San Yan Liang Pai (三言兩拍), Xing Shi Yan (型世言), Huan Xi Yuan Jia (歡喜冤家), Ren Zhong Hua (人中畫), Gu Zhang Jue Cheng (鼓掌絕塵), Zheng Zhu Bo (珍珠舶), Yun Xian Xiao (雲仙笑), Jing Wu Zhong (警寤鐘), Sheng Xiao Jian (生綃剪), and Lian Cheng Bi (連城璧) as research materials and inspects the descriptions concerning ”traveling,” ”running business,” ”official career,” and ”commuting between two places” to explain the ”normal function” of water space in novels. In addition, this paper also discusses the phenomena of ”taking refugee,” ”encountering disaster,” ”hiding suspects,” ”abandoning corpse,” and ”casual meeting” to further investigate how novelists used the conception of water space to facilitate plot formation.