作者、歷史與“寓莊於諧”－明清“笑話寓言”創作意圖析探

本文旨在揭示明清「笑話寓言」在形式結構與精神內容是否前有所承？抑或創發出來的？作者藉此一方式所欲達致的效能是什麼？其立意如何？在傳意與表意過程中是否會有歧出？論述重點，第一部份主要是從精神內蘊揭示明清二朝的「笑話型寓言」以「寓莊於諧」的表述方式承接中國的諷諭精神，而在形式結構方面則以笑話形式將嚴肅的議題轉化成舉重若輕的笑話。第二部分探求作者創作意圖及其操作策略。中國笑話書之成型或流佈的形態有由某特定的文人或作者所敘寫出來的，文辭由編輯而成的，編輯者多半採擷自民間或廣為流傳的笑話加以纂輯、編寫、潤飾、修訂而成的，是屬於集體創作。但是，在世代流傳過程中，原初作者通常已不可考知，多為文人編纂而成，不同的作者有不同的創作觀。最後歸結：明清兩朝的「笑話型寓言」沿承中國的恢諧傳統，採用滑稽、諧趣手法為之，以「寓莊於諧」示現了中國人的幽默感，冀能達能「有益理亂」的目的性。

關鍵字

明清笑話；笑話寓言；作者意圖；諷諭；寓莊於諧

並列摘要

The paper wanted to discover the structure and spirit of ”joke fable” in Ming and Ching dynasty. Did it succeed from former dynasty or created by themselves. What did author want to express? What were the intents of joke fables. Had any differences between processes of coding and decoding about joke? The first part of the paper displayed the method of ”serious with humor” in Ming and Ching dynasty. The method which succeed form traditional Chinese satire spirit, but the types had been transformed from serious topics to easy jokes. The second part of the paper discovered the motivation and operating strategy of jokes of author. Books of jokes sometimes edited by particular author. They selected widespread jokes and added ideas or used the proper words. We may call joke book a collective workings. But in the process of generational widespread, original author became anonymous usually. Different authors showed different perspective of joke creating. The third part of the paper concluded that joke fables of Ming and Ching succeed Chinese humor tradition. They adopted humor or interesting technique to express the sense of humor and expected the purpose of ”benefit of managing disorder”.