從蘇軾《東坡書傳》析論其詩文中的天文問題———以《前赤壁賦》爲主題

The Astronomical Problems in Su Shi’s Dong Po Shu-Zhuan and His Other Poems, With Respect Mainly to “The Former Ode for the Red Cliff”

Abstract

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

宋代蘇軾的文章最爲人所稱道，其中《前赤壁賦》被選入國語文教材。清朝凌廷堪、張爾岐等人認爲《前赤壁賦》裏“月出於東山之上，徘徊於斗牛之間”兩句，以天文知識來講，是有錯誤的。本論文試圖從蘇軾的經學著作《東坡書傳》中有關天文方面的解説内容，再補充蘇軾其他詩文裏相關天文的描述文句，與《前赤壁賦》中天文陳述作比較，得以瞭解蘇軾的天文學知識的程度，並以判斷蘇軾的文章是否真的産生天文知識的錯誤，抑或蘇東坡如此寫作是有其他的因素存在。

從蘇東坡《東坡書傳》對《尚書》中所記載天文曆象的註解，可以確定蘇軾大部分都依循傳統《孔傳》的論述，也有超出《孔傳》，提出自己看法的。可以得知他對天文的瞭解程度，並不限定於《尚書》，更參考其他天文論述，具有深厚的天文知識基礎。

蘇軾既然具有註解《尚書》天文的認知能力，也表現在他所創作的其他詩文裏。蘇東坡詩文作品裏提到天上星宿不少。經筆者查考分析，在在都顯示蘇軾對天文縣象的精確理解。而對“斗、牛”二星宿更有切身深刻的認識。而“斗、牛”二星在天文星宿上，是極具代表性的，可以借代爲指天上繁星。

據此可知，蘇東坡《前赤壁賦》“月出於東山之上，徘徊於斗、牛之間”，應是用“斗、牛”來“借代”衆星的修辭格用法，説“月亮從東山升起，在夜空中，與滿天繁星優遊共舞”，並不牽涉到星、月之間位置、距離的是非對錯問題。

As one of the most famous scholar and poet in Song Dynasty, Su Shi’s “The Former Ode for the Red Cliff” is a popular literary work and has often been chosen in the nowadays textbooks as a masterpiece of traditional Chinese literature. However, Ling Ting-Kan and Zhang Er-Qi of Qing Dynasty doubted that the astronomical knowledge of the two sentences ——— ‘the moon rose from behind the eastern mountain and lingered between the Dipper Mansion and the Ox Mansion’———in “The Former Ode” was erroneous. In this paper, Su Shi’s Dong Po Shu-Zhuan will be examined with respect to his ability in astronomy, and then his other poems with relevant astronomical description will also be checked. After being compared with that of “The Former Ode,” we can determine whether Su Shi’s astronomical knowledge was in error, or there were other reasons that he wrote so.

The conclusion of this paper is that Su Shi’s astronomical knowledge was of high level and he just used “the Dipper Mansion and the Ox Mansion” as a metonymy for all the stars in heaven.