从灵魂到国魂:略论明清基督宗教的小说  

From Individual Souls to China’s Soul:On Ming Qing Chinese Christian Fiction

作　　者：李奭学 LI Sher-shiueh(Academia Sinica,China)

机构地区：[1]中国台湾中研院文哲所

出　　处：《国际比较文学（中英文）》2021年第2期301-314,共14页International Comparative Literature

摘　　要：汉语基督宗教小说的翻译或创作首见于晚明,但大盛于有清一代。其时法国天主教士开始用汉语撰作小说,第一篇题为《梦美土记》,受西塞罗的《西比欧之梦》影响甚巨。不多久,来华的基督教宣教士马礼逊和米怜也开始撰写小说。米怜的《长远两友相论》实为一叙事化的教义问答,但以小说的身分流传甚久,截至民国初年都还在印行之中。马礼逊和米怜各自戮力创作,目的在拯救个人的灵魂,以期使他们免于世俗的诱惑。时序进入清末,基督教小说家日渐增多。不论洋人或华人,这些小说家多以生动的文笔进行创作或翻译,目的在解中国人于倒悬,藉以拯救这个国家的国魂,最佳的例子是应傅兰雅所举办的“时新小说”的征文而撰的小说。傅氏本人不事创作,但应征而来的超过150篇的汉语小说,篇篇莫不以兴国救亡为己任,所拟解救者也已不止于个人,同時扩展至家国。灵魂的拯救,此刻已转为国魂的救赎。Chinese Christian fiction first appeared in late Ming China,but flowered in the Qing Dynasty,when Joseph Prémare,a French Jesuit,began to compose stories in Chinese,the first of which was inspired by Cicero’s“Somnium Scipionis.”Prémare’s writings were followed soon by works by such Protestant writers as Robert Morrison and William Milne,whose“Chang Yuan lianyou xianlun,”actually presented like a catechism,circulated widely up to the early Republican era.Prémare and Milne strove to save individual souls from the temptation to worship local pagan deities.But later in the Qing dynasty,more Christians—Chinese as well as foreigners—wrote vivid novels and stories aimed at delivering the entire Chinese nation and saving China’s soul.The most salient example is John Fryer’s call for stories to rescue China.Although Fryer himself did not write stories,the roughly 150 stories he collected are the best illustration of this writing for the purpose of redemption.

关 键 词：中国基督宗教文学 马若瑟 米怜 郭实猎 傅兰雅 《天路历程》 

分 类 号：I106.4[文学—世界文学] B979[哲学宗教—宗教学] K248[历史地理—历史学]