洪朝往事,虚实相间--兼谈黄世仲历史小说的"演事"特性

黄世仲享有“革命派小说大家”之誉,他的成名作历史小说《洪秀全演义》,其一,以史料记载为依据,以历史人物为“原型”,以“合情理”为基础,以“感觉力之宏大”为宗旨,具有小说的“演事”特性,其二,创造了中国文学史上前所未有的“史诗”型叙事文本,在叙事方式上,既继承了中国典型小说“讲史”之长,也表现了“写人”的性格发展和传奇色彩,运用了多人并进的“集束式”艺术结构,其三,在人物塑造上,采取了虚实相间,即写实与虚构相结合的方法,作者“写人”有两个特点：改变传统小说的“脸谱化”倾向;写出了人物性格变化发展的轨迹,这是与许多晚清小说的最大区别所在。

"Narrative" Features in Huang Shi-zhong's Historical Novels

Huang Shi-zhong (1872-1912), a renowned contemporary novelist, has left behind about twenty novels, for which he has been crowned as "the master of revolutionary novels". By analyzing his first reputed novel--The Historical Novel of Hong Xiu-quan, this paper attempts to touch on some issues related to his historical novels from three aspects. It is believed that the novel, which is based on historical facts with its characters modeled on historical figures, is tinted with "narrative" features of historical novels. Moreover, thanks to its particularities in the narrative mode, the novel has created an unprecedented "epic" narrative text in the history of Chinese literature, thus having inherited from the tradition of classical Chinese novels as well as ushered in some new techniques. Besides, in terms of characterization, the novel has managed to strike a balance between facts and fiction, as is evident in the writer's avoidance of the "stereotyped" method of characterization in the traditional novels and in his revelation of the transformation of characters' personality--a striking contrast to many novels in the late Qing Dynasty.