民間日用類書的淵源與發展

The Origin and Development of the Popular Encyclopedia for Daily Use

吳蕙芳(Huey-Fang Wu)

《國立政治大學歷史學報》 18期 (2001/05) Pp. 1-28

摘要

民間日用類書是將日常生活所需之各種常識，以分門別類方式刊載，方便人們隨時利用的一種書籍，其性質如同今日的家庭生活手冊，或俗稱之家庭生活小百科。此種為應付日常生活中各式疑難雜症而匯集種種常識形成的書籍，實源於以往的類書而非曆書。類書本始自魏晉南北朝時蒐集各式相關材料，為王公大臣參考或文人雅士行駢文之助，亦即方便上層社會檢索古事、古物之用者；唐宋時因科舉考試普遍而廣為流行，至南宋時更發展出刊載今事、今物，可供日常生活需要用的日用類書。日用類書雖屬生活日用的類書，但仍偏重上層社會所用；真正專供四民大眾普遍使用的民間日用類書應出現於明代後期的萬曆年間，其與日用類書無論在內容、書名、書旨、排印方式、遣詞用字、發行量等均有不同。民間日用類書自明萬曆年間出現後，持續發展到清代，乃至民國以後的今日；如今，市面上仍普遍流通此種書籍，其形式或有差異，名稱亦各不同，然提供四民大眾隨時便用的功能，卻是四百多年來未曾改變的。

關鍵字

類書 ； 民間日用類書 ； 庶民文化 ； 社會生活 ； 明清

並列摘要

The popular encyclopedia for daily use contains the common knowledge necessary for all the situations in the daily life, and is edited according to various subjects so that it is convenient for people to resort to. It features like the family life manual today, or so-called a miniature encyclopedia for family life. Such a book originated in the need to offer tips to solving all sorts of complications, thus more akin to encyclopedia in the past than calendar. Encyclopedia started in Wei-ching from the material collected to offer politicians and intellectuals ready references for Pian-wen, that is, a consultation on the past incidents and articles. It was popular in T’ang-Sung for the sake of K’e-Chu exam and in South-Sung developed into the encyclopedia for daily use, in which the incidents and articles of those days were also put down to offer the daily needs of the Common people. Though encyclopedia for daily use was meant for the daily needs, it was still more frequently adopted by the upper class people. It was not until the Wan-li time in the latter period of Ming Dynasty that the really commonly used the popular encyclopedia for daily use appeared. It greatly differed from encyclopedia for daily use in terms of the content, the title, subjects, printing, wording and publication. Since its appearance at Wan-li time the popular encyclopedia for daily use has flourished until Ch’ing Dynasty, even until today after the rise of the Republic of China. Nowadays, this type of book is still popular. Despite the variety of its format and title, the function of its ready reference for the public people remains unchanged in the four hundred years.

並列關鍵字

encyclopedia ； popular encyclopedia for daily use ； popular culture ； social life ； Ming-Ch'ing