「誤國」者的側寫──東晉謝氏之清談興家的營謀

Abstract

「清談」是魏晉時代特有的文化現象，它既是學術活動，也是社交活動。現今針對清談的研究，大多從政治史或學術史的角度展開，較未能以社會觀察的視野，探討清談就社交意義上對魏晉士人所帶來的影響。本文立足於此，選擇以興盛於東晉時期的陳郡謝氏家族為觀察例證，描述這個在清談歷史上頗具代表性的豪門鉅族，其初如何透過社交圈流行的清談活動逐步取得聲名，繼而在門閥社會特殊的選才制度下，憑藉聲名取仕，又憑藉仕途立功，最終則靠著龐大功勳振興家業的一連串苦心經營的謀略。至於此種利用清談提升家族地位的社會現象，亦可藉以針對古今聚訟不已的「清談誤國」問題，重新加以檢視，並說明清談的社交性質因與士族的利祿途徑交疊太深，方是清談所以誤國的根本原由。

“Qingtan” is a unique cultural phenomenon of the Wei-Jin period. It is not only an academic activity but also a social activity. However, present researches on Qingtan are unfolded from the perspectives of political history and academic history, instead of social observations, to investigate the influences of Qingtan on the social contact of Wei-Jin scholars. Based on the above, this study used the example of the Xie family thrived in Chen Commandery during Eastern Jin Dynasty to describe the series of elaborate planning and strategies that this rich and powerful family of high representativeness in the history of Qingtan used to win its reputation progressively through participating in the Qingtan activities prevalent in social circles at that time, obtain official positions by using its reputation under the unique talent selection system of family monopolized society, perform deeds of merit by using its official positions, and eventually raise its family reputation by resorting to its exploits. In this study, the endlessly controversial issue of “pure theories and talks without action will get the nation into trouble” was re-examined by investigating this kind of social phenomena in which Qingtan is used to increase the social status of families. In addition, the study indicated that Qingtan bungled the nation mainly because the social nature of Qingtan was deeply entangled with scholars’ access to official positions.