物我都歸造物中———《青鳥故事集》與東西文化之辯

Circulation of Things: A Collection of Tales of the Jade Bird and Cross-cultural Dialectics

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

《青鳥故事集》以“物”爲題眼，深入歷史肌理，匯通本土與異域、中國與西方，建構虚實交錯的“幻想性”文本。最初的文化觀望與觸碰，在政治與歷史話語的強調與消解中且行且進，最終達至互涉與交融。本文從“物的流轉與‘命名’”、“‘不相稱’與中西間的文化誤讀”及“翻譯與第三種權力”三個層次，對這部作品進行較爲全面的剖析，試圖發掘與釐清中西文化結構相互定義的意涵。並闡發由物質至知識的流通過程中，“誤解”所造成的文化砥礪對相異文明體系的發展所帶來的深遠影響。

In his A Collection of Tales of the Jade Bird, the author Li Jingze uses “thing” as a key word in an attempt to go deep into history, connect the native and foreign, i. e., China and the West, and construct illusory texts interlaced with reality and fantasy. The initial cultural observation and contact made their way through the emphases and dissolution of political and historical discourses, and eventually became interrelated and merged. The present essay is a comprehensive analysis of the Collection from three perspectives: the circulation of things and “naming”; “disproportion” and cultural misreading between China and the West; and “translation and the third power”. This is an attempt to explore and clarify the significance of how the Chinese define Western cultural structure and vice versa. It also expounds how the profound cultural impact of misunderstanding influenced the development of different civilizations through the circulation of things and knowledge.