故縱之嫌：《西遊記》的召唤土地與鬼律叙述

Suspicious Indulgence: Summoning the Gnome and Narratives of Ghosts’ Laws in Journey to the West

Abstract

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

在西遊叙述中，神魔鬥法前時常出現的，就是孫行者頻繁召唤土地，方能問明妖精、妖魔的出處，其頻率極高而關注者卻少，原因就是土地神僅被視爲陪襯性小神。世德堂本（以下簡稱世本）叙述其出場的方式及用意，作者其實交互使用兩種聲音：顯聲音即表現滑稽性的遊戲筆調，目的即在掩飾其真正的潛聲音，主要即借此諷喻、影射當世。這種文學旨趣在兩種聲音間交織，若隱若現，亟待解讀。世本寫定者雖曾吸收先行材料，但本身自有其創意所在，即化用當時道、佛二教的文化資源。這一點學界雖有關注者，此處即針對“召唤土地”情節，詳細解讀其使用的手法，認爲其背後皆有宗教、尤其道教知識的支持。運用從淺到深的叙述層次，其顯聲音即召唤土地的方式，軟硬兼用，從唤出到拘得，形成表面的叙述趣味；而關鍵的召唤叙述，也是簡繁俱有的捻訣、唸真言，從唵字到唵㘕淨法界，按照當時的宗教文化的理解，即採用明代流行於文人間的準提信仰，致使作者挪用密教準提咒，並未襲用道教的召土地神咒。最值得注意的是召唤過程，叙寫行者對待土地、山神的使唤態度，而相對地，土地、山神則表現惶恐的滑稽表情。這種顯話語背後隱藏作者的潛話語，即運用“縱放之嫌”的叙述筆法，首即化用道教的鬼律、黑律知識，規範城隍———土地：境内凡有精邪而未能通告者，即有縱放之嫌而會被杖或流放；故作者叙寫土地既知妖精、妖魔存在卻任令其活動，即襲用“縱放之嫌”，而叙寫行者欲用金箍棒威脅“欲打”而未打，此爲化用了道教的鬼律叙述；其次則是諷喻性的影射層次，明代中葉以前實行里甲制，小説家曾活用其兩件事：官方推動禮制性的里社壇制，但里甲居民仍然崇拜土地神，以致里社壇荒廢不用；其次里長、甲首負責里甲内的催税、徭役，但税役過重後導致居民脱逃，小説乃有逃門户、大户負擔元宵燈油等，此種叙述爲顯話語；而描述妖精、妖魔據洞稱王、差使土地，尤其後者俱從天界私下凡間，此種潛話語即諷喻明代王府與地方豪族。西遊叙述交錯活用顯、潛兩種聲音，即可知表面愈荒唐、嬉戲的語言，愈是掩飾當時習知的社會怪現狀，故時人自然領會其諷喻旨趣，今人則需從“縱放之嫌”切入，方能進行深刻的文學詮釋，確定世本能巧用多層次的語言藝術，從而爲其“奇書”作文學史的定位。

In the narratives of Journey to the West, there is a customary scene of Monkey summoning the gnome before each battle between deities and goblins, whereby he may find out the identity of the goblins. This scene occurs very frequently but has drawn little attention, simply because the gnomes are regarded as low-ranking deities who serve only as a foil of the main characters. In the common editions, in narrating the method and intent of the gnome’s debut, the author alternately uses two voices. The first one is the manifested voice, a playful writing style that represents the comedy content. The real intent of using this voice is to hide the second voice, namely the suppressed voice. The main purpose is to satirize and insinuate the current situation of the time. The aesthetic appeal lies in the indirect expression in these two interwoven voices, which the reader finds tantalizing to decipher. Although the editor of the common edition must have relied on an earlier version, he must also have been creative when producing his own version, in which he made use of the prevalent resources of Daoism and Buddhism. This has indeed drawn attention in relevant scholarship. In the present study, however, I would like to focus on the plot of “summoning the gnome” and analyze its literary devices. I argue that there must be some religious background, especially Daoist knowledge, behind it as support. The narrative level follows a low-to-high development discourse, in which the manifested voice summons the gnome in both forceful and soft manners, and forms a kind of joyful process in the summoning and capture. The summoning per se is a process that contains complete and simple religious content, such as making religious gestures, and chanting spells and words of the Perfected One, from the word om to om ram of the Pure Realm of Reality. According to the then-prevalent religious practice, it is observed that the summoning ritual is based on the belief in Cundhi Buddha that was popular in the Ming dynasty. As a result, the author borrowed the Cundhi spells from esoteric Buddhism, instead of following the Daoist spells for summoning the gnome. The most noteworthy point is the summoning process. The narrative of the Practitioner (Sun Wukong) shows his attitude towards summoning the gnomes and mountain spirits, as well as its counterparts, the funny facial experience of the gnomes and mountain spirits’ fear of the Practitioner. Behind this manifested discourse is hidden a suppressed discourse of the author. This is the use of a narrative of “suspicious indulgence.” In the beginning, he uses the knowledge of “ghosts’ laws” and “dark laws” in the Daoist tradition to regulate the guards of walls and moats — the gnomes. In accordance with these laws, if there are spirts and devils in the area but the gnome fails to report, he is thus suspected of indulging and will be hit with a rod and/or exiled. Likewise, when writing about the gnome who was aware of the existence of goblins and devils but still let them act at will, the author inherited the notion of “suspicious indulgence.” When describing the Practitioner who was about to hit with his Gold Circle Rod but had not done so, the author borrowed a narrative mode derived from the Daoist laws of the ghosts. The second level is an insinuative one. Before the middle of the Ming, Lijia (lit. ,“lane and alley”; li = 110 households; jia = 10 households) was an administrative system, which became inspiration for novelists for their creative writing in two respects, namely: 1) a ritual system called “Lane Altar” promoted by the government, but the lijia residents still worshiped gnomes and therefore the “Lane Altar” was abandoned; 2) the li mayors and jia magistrates were in charge of taxation and levies, but as this became a burden the residents fled; this gave rise to the themes of “evading households” and “wealthy households paying lamp oil for the fifteenth of the first month,” which became the main fiction discourses. As for the narratives about demons who declared kingship in a grotto and gave orders to gnomes, they (especially the latter) were all previously in Heaven but later fled to the mortal world. These suppressed discourses are all satires for Ming princedoms and regional powerful clans. The narrative in Journey to the West alternately speaks in these two voices, from which we are informed: the more absurd and playful on the surface the more it covers up the strange phenomena of society that were widely known. Therefore, the intended gist was easily understood by people of that time, but in our time we must rely on “suspicious indulgence” to conduct an in-depth literary interpretation. We must recognize the various artful means in the common versions of the novel and thereby render the novel a status of “book of wonder.”