中国古代文献中的小人国母题--兼谈博物视野中的文化偏见和优越感

唐前小人传说集中出现在晋代,其作为一种先兆妖异被解释。伴随着对外视域的扩大,小人国成了外域博物传说惯常话题。唐代后海外小人传闻,作为仙话化的彼岸世界异于尘世的重要例证,渲染了异国风光的诡异奇谲。小人及小人国传说,借助于民间造伪,一些出土实物,又较多地传扬于明代隆庆年间。其往往同佛经置于一处,仍带有外域文化传播的鲜明遗痕,还体现了古人的华夷之辨。

The Subject of Lilliput in Chinese Classic Literature--A Co- discussion of Cultural Prejudice and Superiority Complex in the Context of Material Abundance

In the pre-Tang days, the legend of Lilliput appeared most frequently in the Jin literature, usually interpreted as indications of fairy or demon. With the extension of vision beyond the homeland, Lilliput came to be a frequent and conventional subject with regard to legends of material abundance in some exotic land. As important examples of the fairy-swarming beyond differring from the world, the post-Tang legend of Lilliput exaggerated the grotesquerie abroad. The Lilliput and the legend of Lilliput land recurred in the Crown Title of Longqing in the Ming Dynasty with the help of popular fabrication and some unearthed utensils. Such literature tended to rub shoulders with Buddhist sutra, showing distictive traces of the spread of foreign culture and the discrimination of the Chinese from the Barbarians on the part of the ancient Chinese.