"文化记忆"与早期中国文学中的史诗 : 以屈原和《离骚》为例

“文化记忆”对理解屈原和《离骚》这一早期中国伟大诗作的文化意义颇有助益。屈原远不只是以一个原型诗人的形象被纪念至今，更为重要的是屈原形象所象征的一整套身份认同生成的范式，维系了无数中国知识人的理想和志向。通过具体的文献学分析可以见出，《离骚》应该是一套更宽广的“屈原话语”的一部分，这套话语存在于散文、诗歌等多种文本之中。这一分散式的“屈原史诗”有如关于屈原鲜明个性的一组文集，这些性格特征构成一个类似神话般的屈原形象，它源自一种合成文本的构拟，寄寓着汉帝国文人怀旧的理想与处于转型时期的抱负。这一汉代的社会构想包含了一系列的追忆：昔日楚国贵族阶层的高尚典范，楚亡于秦而继之以秦亡的双重预言，楚国的宗教、历史、神话和文学传统，具象化的君臣关系模式，以及经由诗性英雄转化为英雄化诗人而逐渐形成的理想作者形象。

Cultural Memory is a theory of ideology criticism (Ideologiekritik) against the impulses of historical positivism. It clarifies the processes and practices by which meaning and identity are socially, institutionally, and materially constructed at particular times and places. It tries to explain how societies make sense of themselves by probing their foundational narratives, mythological commitments, and cultural procedures. Through detailed philological analysis, the Lisao is described not as a single text by a single author but as a composite, authorless artifact that participates in a larger Qu Yuan discourse distributed across multiple texts in both prose and poetry. This distributed “Qu Yuan Epic” is an anthology of distinct characteristics attributed to the quasi-mythological Qu Yuan persona—a persona that itself emerges as a composite textual configuration into which are inscribed the nostalgic ideals and shifting aspirations of Han imperial literati. This Han social imaginaire recollects the noble exemplar of the old Chu aristocracy; the dual prophecy of the fall of Chu to Qin and of Qin's subsequent collapse; the religious, historical, mythological, and literary traditions of Chu; the embodied paradigm of the ruler-minister relationship; and the gradual formation of the ideal of authorship through the transformation of poetic hero into heroic poet