有情以終滅爲驗———湯顯祖制藝中的時間意識與《紫簫記》中的生命哲學

All Sentient Beings Eventually Die: The Consciousness of Time in Tang Xianzu’s Eight-legged Essay and the Philosophy of Life in The Purple Flute

Abstract

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

湯顯祖的制藝和傳奇是研究其思想的雙璧，惟前者的價值卻長期備受低估。制藝旨在“代聖人立言”。從小接受制藝訓練，讓湯氏慣於代入孔、孟哲人的角度思考問題。其制藝常援引釋、道思想與理學展開對話，補充儒學未有論及的領域，闡發其生命之思。明季論者常詬病湯氏制藝思想不純。這些以理學爲標準的批評，除了説明湯氏思想與當時主流思想相左，還能給今人帶來什麽啟示？制藝是通向湯顯祖早年思想世界的一扇門。如果説制藝書寫給予湯氏思考生命的空間，那麽傳奇的虛擬世界便是他剖析和展現其生命之思的場域。本文以湯顯祖早年的制藝和《紫簫記》爲研究對象，比對前者的理性思考和後者的感性書寫，剖析湯氏的時間意識，並重新勘察《紫簫記》的價值。

Tang Xianzu’s (1550-1616) eight-legged essays and chuanqi dramas are essential in the study of his thoughts, but the value of the former has long remained underestimated. “To speak for the sages” is the aim of composing eight-legged essays. Tang received training in this writing form since his early years; therefore, he became used to thinking in the way of Confucian sages. To fill the lacunae in former Confucian philosophers’ discourses, Tang often introduced Buddhist and Daoist thoughts into his eight-legged essays. The dialogues between different thoughts inspired him with alternatives for his exploration of his philosophy of life. For this reason, Tang’s thoughts embedded in his eight-legged essays were criticized by his contemporaries for their impurity. These criticisms, which were based on the Cheng-Zhu school of philosophy, reveal that Tang’s thoughts contradicted the Confucian orthodoxy. On top of this, do these criticisms inspire today’s study of Tang? Eight-legged essays have spotlighted the path through the world of Tang’s early thoughts. If we agree that the writing of the eight-legged essays provided Tang with space to re-think the meaning of life, then we should consider applying this thought to the study of his chuanqi drama. This paper will focus on Tang’s eight-legged essays and his first drama, The Purple Flute. By comparing the rational thinking found in his eight-legged essays to the sentimental “practices” found in his drama, this paper re-interprets Tang’s consciousness of time during his early years and re-evaluates the value of The Purple Flute.