《登泰山记》研究与诠释界限

义理、考据、辞章三者合一是桐城派领袖姚鼐晚年倡导的著名理论;《登泰山记》是其中年创作的优秀篇章,也是桐城派的代表性作品,并被作为古典文章名篇收入中学语文课本。当代众多文学史家以姚鼐晚年提出的理论逆向诠释其中年的作品,认为《登泰山记》是体现其三合一理论的典范之作。在钻研原始文献的基础上,深入到具体的历史背景中,紧扣《登泰山记》的原文特质和作者意图,可以证明:《登泰山记》中既无义理,也无考据,它只是一篇纯粹的辞章之作;作者以客观、冷峭、拙涩、凝练之笔,抒写清朗、空灵之境和浩然、超然襟怀。由此可以推论:作品特质、作者意图和历史背景为诠释活动设下的界限不可跨越,否则,任何诠解都难免与事实枘凿。

Study on Record of Climbing Mountain Tai: The Interpretation and its Limits

The trinity of argumentation, textual criticism, and rhetoric, is a famous theory proposed by YAO Nai, the leader of Tongcheng School. YAO's Record of Climbing Mountain Tai, the excellent essay written in his middle age, as a representative item of the School, is also collected into the textbook of the middle school as a canon of classical literature. So many contemporary scholars of literary history make a mistake of anachronism: to interpret the article with that theory in his later years, and conclude that it is an exemplar of the theory. Now, with the careful investigation of original text, I try to base the interpretation on the concrete historical situation, grasping the characteristics of this essay and its author's mentality, and then, I want to argue that, this essay is simply writing for rhetoric, with no purpose on textual criticism or argumentation. We should respect the limits of interpretation, which come from the characteristics of text, the author's intention, and the situation of writing. Otherwise, all interpretations, no matter how wonderful, would be groundless.