八股文的表格化整理──以歸有光的四書文為例

Abstract

自清末倡新學、廢科舉以來，八股文即被視為造成士愚國弱的禍首，有識之士莫不棄之而後快！時至今日，社會大眾對於八股文，大抵只聞其名而不識其面，稍留前人批為僵固陳腐的負面印象罷了。然而，研究明清歷史文學，卻不能對此盛行五百年、與社會文化息息相關的文體，視若無睹。只是，登載八股文的編排形式，自來都與一般文章無異，對不熟悉八股的今人而言，無法洞見格律，閱讀頗為費力，本論文乃倡議利用表格加以整理，使文章結構環節一目了然，以減低閱讀的不便。相較於以往重視八股文「文」的屬性，表格化的編排方式，則為凸顯八股文的固定格式規律，彰著其作為應試答卷的本質。貼近本質，拉開與文學的距離，反而可避免持文學之見對此考試答文橫加責難，讓今人重新面對明清這些考場上的講經之文，並發掘其特色。表格化的構想是作者研讀歸有光四書文時產生的，也實際運用於研究中，因此文中八股文例都取之於歸文。文分六節如下：（一）緣起、（二）指涉原典──不可不加入的一欄、（三）破題承題起講各為一欄、（四）闡論一欄不分立股段細目、（五）收結欄以為殿、（六）結論。

Since the promotion of new knowledge and the abolishment of the eight-legged essay exam in Late Qing dynasty, the eight-legged essay was viewd as the chief culprit of the ignorant intellectuals and the weak country, therefore, a person with breadth of vision abandoned the type of writing without a second thought. Nowadays, people inherited of the negative commentaries on eight-legged essay, have little understanding but think it as vacuous and shallow. However, we can’t turn a blind eye to this kind of writing form, which has the strong connection to the society and the culture during the 500-year period, when studying Ming-Qing literature. This thesis initiates the form arrangement in the purpose of reducing the reading difficulties in present days. On contrast with emphasizing on the “literary form” of eight-legged essay, the form arrangement aims to highlight the concrete structure and to show forth its essence of an examination paper. By nestling up to the essence and broading the distance with the literature, we can avoid criticizing it in a light of literature but face it anew and excavate its distinguishing features. The insperation was sparked out when the author was studying the Four Books essays of Gui You-guang, for this reason, these essays in the thesis all belong to Gui You-guang. This paper is diveded into six parts: (1) The origin (2) The involvement of critical classics- an inevitatable part (3) Opening, Amplification and Preliminary exposition are one section separately (4) The one of the four argument sections (5) The conclusion section (6) Conclusion.