The Space of Reading: Describing Melancholy and the Innermost Thoughts in 17th-Century Qingshu

閱讀的空間：晚明情書中對幽情的寫照

羅開雲(Kathryn Anne Lowry)

《欲掩彌彰：中國歷史文化中的「私」與「情」─私情篇》 2003 (2003/09) Pp. 33-80

https://doi.org/10.29531/siqing.200309.0033

摘要

本文試圖以「有物寓意」及寫信人附上的詩詞「以書傳幽情」，「代為情照」為中心，並以鄧志謨（活動於1596年前後）編選的《丰韻情書》及《洒洒編》與所謂馮夢龍（1574－1646）編輯的《折梅箋》在情書上增加以批點作為參照座標，探討雲箋的編輯、書寫、閱讀如何把私密空間與社會角色串通問題。在商業交通迅速發展，識字日益普及的明朝末年（約1580－1640年）尺牘規範流通極廣；日用類書的翰墨門書契門，各種捷用尺牘及歷代翰墨選集至今保存將近80種，其引用書目列出200多種書名，而其中情書是一個空缺。本文分上中下三編：上編為引子，主要考析《丰韻情書》與另外兩種的成書經過與其前後複制抄造現象。鄧志謨編纂《丰韻情書》根據社會關係分類：夫妻間的室家丰韻，友人的金蘭丰韻，情侶的青樓丰韻，及幽閨丰韻四種，作品著重描寫景物來傳達情思，引用各種詩詞、歌曲、傳奇、典故等，而編輯通過對書中著者身世的總結把書信來往情節化和教導化，形成一種獨特的文體。中編為外論，把情書所描述的景色，包括離別的亭臺花木與遊人眼前的山川，視為寫照空間（representational space），對其打破夢幻與現實，情欲的私密空間與公認的義務的界限加以討論。下編為內論，主要把情書「物為情之稔厚」這個概念加以討論，並以情書中用以表示思戀愛慕閨女的禮品的描繪作為具體例證，探討情書、幽情、私心的重新認識與肯定，這種通俗出版物如何反映和影響晚明時期變遷中的社會角色，以及鄧、馮二人對編選工作與閱讀模式的理論思考。

關鍵字

情書 ； 晚明 ； 寫照空間 ； 幽情 ； 私心 ； 丰韻情書 ； 洒洒編 ； 鄧志謨

並列摘要

This chapter examines qingshu (love letters) and commentary that decodes reading and writing about sentimental ties as the measure of changing social roles in early-seventeenth century China. Rare seventeenth-century miscellanies compiled by Deng Zhimo (fl. ca. 1596), The Gracious Love Letter and A Casual Reader, and The Plum Sprig Letters attributed to Feng Menglong (1574-1646) furnished glosses on vocabulary, marginal notes on style, and didactic lessons to be drawn from qingshu. These publications humorously circumscribe a space for reading where what is coded as hidden and selfish bears on public action, social roles, and moral values. Qingshu are characterized by a mixture of bookish and sentimental prose, ”high” and ”low” diction, quotation from the classical and vernacular works, and awkward descriptive prose that reveals the writer's innermost thoughts. The preponderance of description of places, objects, gifts, and recollected scenes performs the emotions of the writer in order to reveal hidden sentiments and remind the recipient of the letter (and later readers) of his or her obligations and social role. These publications humorously circumscribe a space for reading where what is coded as hidden and selfish bears on public action, social roles, and moral values. This chapter borrows Henri Lefebvre's notion of ”representational space” to highlight ways in which descriptive practices in qingshu bridge the realms of private and public, dream and reality, troublesome melancholy or desire and regulative/normative. Analysis of letters for exchange between courtesans and clients and suitors and gentlewomen demonstrates ways in which descriptions of objects and fragments of personal history attest to the sentimental tie between writer and recipient. In turn, it explores how this rich and repetitive description outlines a space for reading that makes self-interest and passion the basis for social conduct.

並列關鍵字

qingshu (love letter) ； youqing (melancholy) ； sixin (self-interest) ； representational space ； Deng Zhimo ； The Gracious Love Letter (Fengyun qingshu) ； A Casual Reader (Sasa bian)