出身與修行：明代小說謫凡敘述模式的形成及其宗教意識－以《水滸傳》、《西遊記》為主－

Biography and Practice: The Formation and Religious Significance of the Banishment Narrative Form in Ming Dynasty Novels Particularly in the The Lakeside Tales and Journey to the West

李豐楙(Feng-Mao Li)

《國文學誌》 7期 (2003/12) Pp. 85-113

https://doi.org/10.6973/CJ.200312.0085

摘要

明代小說，特別是萬曆以後，形成一種「謫凡」神話的敘述，從《水滸傳》、《西遊記》以至二十餘部出身修行傳，由於書坊主、編書人大量襲用而「模式化」。以宗教文學的詮釋角度來看，可以發現：通俗小說如水滸故事，在顯性的敘述結構上並不直接表明其宗教意識；而宗教聖者傳如鄧志謨《鐵樹記》，則為顯性的敘述結構與義理結構。不過無論其原本的創作意識如何，道教的謫凡神話中所有的宗教意識，諸如：末劫、罪罰與解罪、救贖等，卻經由小說敘述滲透於民間文化。
水滸故事的形成，從宋歷經金、元至明代而運用謫凡神話，西遊故事亦在風尚流行中襲用，遂引發書坊主與編書人廣泛使用，而形成出身修行傳。這種「奇傳體」小說從長篇到中篇，採用謫凡的出身模式，解決了敘述學的敘述結構問題，它並非如浦安迪（Andrew H.Plaks）所說的，只是一種敘述框架，而是敘述結構與義理結構的完美結合。
小說敘述所要處理的，就是如何適切安排集體人物的聚、散問題，面對豐富先行材料的主角（如「魯十回」中的魯智深），要怎樣一一安頓他們的聚散，勢必需要一個超越性的敘述觀點，謫凡神話適足以解決這個難題。因此，宋江與九天玄女、天書；玄奘與觀音……，都是分別以替天行道或助天取經的方式，來表達神秘宗教訊息的需要傳佈。而謫罰者即在「聚」或「聚散」歷程中受罰、受難，梁山之行與取經之行，本質上同為「試煉」：殺債償清、魔難受盡，在神、魔抗衡中解除罪愆，也洗煉了心性。這種修行小說中的宗教意識，當時士人在荒唐言中頗明其意，故有「西遊證道」、「忠義水滸」的題名。
小說藉由欲揭（揭露）還掩（隱藏）的敘述手法，既預示其中人物、情節的必然結局，又欲掩彌彰地彰顯中下層文人與廣土庶民的宗教意識：凡間的天道、天機需經由謫凡者遂行其神聖使命，諸如群魔象徵邪惡的人性、人慾，如何降伏就考驗了修行者的定性、定力。宗教文學含融濃郁的神話質素，自能以象徵隱喻人性。因此小說作為休閒讀物，乃是採用了醜怪人物的行為顛覆，反思何者為「常」、何者為「非常」？這是奇傳體小說能長久流傳的原動力，在遊戲中創造了中國敘事學的原型人物，與文化心理結構。

關鍵字

明代小說 ； 古典小說 ； 水滸傳 ； 西遊記

並列摘要

Ming Dynasty novels, especially those that came after the Wanli Period, had developed a kind of ‘banishment myth’ narrative form. Due to the widespread adoption by bookstore owners and other editors, such a kind of narrative form had become a model of cultivation biography as seen in The Lakeside Tales (Shuihu Zhuan), The Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji) and some twenty other novels. In terms of religious literary interpretation, one finds that: popular novels such as The Lakeside Tales do not, in the dominant narrative structure, directly manifest their religious ideology; accounts of religious sages, such as Deng Zhimo's Iron Tree Records (Tieshu Ji), is the dominant narrative and meaning structure. However, regardless of their original creative intent, the religious ideology in Daoist banishment myths -- such as the last catastrophe, crime and punishment, redemption -- penetrated popular culture through the novels’ narrative.
The formation of the Lakeside stories, from the Song through the Jin, Yuan and Ming periods, made use of banishment myths. Likewise, stories of the Journey to the West followed the same process, which was popularized by book dealers and editors and gave birth to the religious practice biography. Novels of this kind, whether full-length or medium-length, adopted the banishment type of practice biography, which is not, as Andrew H Plaks suggested, only a narrative frame but a perfect combination of narrative structure and meaning structure.
What the novel narrative deals with here is the problem of organizing properly the gathering together and breaking apart of collective personalities. With an abundance of given protagonists (e.g., Lu Zhishen in Lu Shihui), arranging this process needs a transcendent narrative viewpoint, and the banishment myth proved to be sufficiently suited to solve the problem. Consequently, the Song Jiang and the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian Xuannu) or the Heavenly Book; Xuanzang and Guanyin… each, in their own way, by acting in behalf of Heaven or assisting Heaven by procuring scriptures, expresses the need to spread the mystical religious message. For the banished One, punishment and suffering, walking on top of the mountain ridge and journeying to obtain scriptures, are all essentially ‘tests’, and for the purification of mind-nature (xinxing). The religious ideology reflected in this kind of novel about spiritual cultivation had been pointed out quite obviously in remarks on them during their times. This is the reason why the Xiyouji was also called the Xiyou Zhengdao (Witness to the Way in the Journey to the West), and the Shuihuzhuan, the Zhongyi Shuihu (Loyalty and Righteously in the Lake Side).
Through the narrative techniques of disclosure and concealment, the novel foretells the inevitable outcome of story and the fate of the characters… Religious literature has absorbed a rich mythological content and can, through symbols, talk about human nature metaphorically. As leisure reading, the novels employ subversive monstrous characters to reflect on what is normal and what is not. This is the moving force behind the enduring quality of these fantastic novels. In game playing, it created the archetypal characters and cultural and psychological structure in Chinese narrative.

並列關鍵字

Ming Dynasty novels ； classical novels ； The Lakeside Tales (Shuihu Zhuan) ； Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji)

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