晚明《二拍》涉商篇中仁与命之体现

The Embodiment of Benevolence and Destiny in Er Pai in late Ming Dynasty

Abstract

凌濛初所著之《初刻拍案惊奇》与《二刻拍案惊奇》（以下统称为二拍），其中涉商类篇目所占之篇幅多达31篇，即占总篇数三分之一。涉商类篇目，乃指经由前人的研究成果概括《二拍》中但凡涉及商业活动，刻画商人行为和展现商人思想，以及呈现商业文化现象的相关篇章，皆称为“涉商篇”。《二拍》涉商篇内刻画诸多行善与作恶的故事，随着情节的发展揭示“命”可分作天意操纵及人为使然。文中角色的“命”大多受到个体自身的品德操行影响导致后续的结果，有者其身不正自招灾劫，仁者则诸事顺遂、安享福禄。“仁”、“命”的相连关系并非脱离现实的言论。仁、命之道德关系，仁对命所产生的影响，士商文化对仁、命道德观念的影响，以及士商阶层对仁、命的斟酌与取舍乃本论文的研究重点。本论文以《二拍》涉商篇的士商文化与仁、命之社会道德观念进行探讨，从而剖析士商阶层在面临公德与私利，甚至对眼前或未来的盘算之间，对于仁、命所作出的权衡与抉择。此外，小说中呈现的“命”，可划分为天意支配及人为所致的“命”，透过情节的描绘探析不可违抗的“命”，在受到人为影响后的转变亦是本论文主要论析的部分.

Author Ling Mengchu wrote the Slapping Table in Amazement-First Series and Slapping Table in Amazement-Second Series (The following collectively referred to as Er Pai). The “business-related chapters” have as many as 31 business-related chapters. This kind of theme accounted for 1/3 of the total number of articles of the novel. The business-related articles refer to the “business-related chapters” in which the relevant chapters in Er Pai are summarized based on previous research results, which involve commercial activities, describe merchants’ behavior, and reflect merchants’ thoughts, and show commercial cultural phenomena. The business-related chapters of Er Pai depicts a lot of good and evil stories, with the development of the plot reveals that destiny can be divided into the manipulation of God and man-made. The destiny of the characters in the text is mostly affected by the individual’s own moral conduct, which leads to the subsequent results. Some of them are not in the right shape to save themselves from disaster, benevolent people are in the right shape to enjoy happiness and prosperity. The connection between benevolence and destiny is not divorced from reality. The moral relationship between benevolence and destiny, the influence of benevolence on destiny, the influence of scholars-merchants culture on the moral concepts of benevolence and destiny, and the consideration and choice of scholars-merchants class on benevolence and destiny are the focus of this chapter. This chapter discusses the scholars-merchants culture and the social moral concepts of benevolence and destiny in the business-related chapters of Er Pai, to analyze the balance and choice made by the scholars-merchants class on benevolence and destiny in the face of public morality and private interests, and even the calculation of the present or future. In addition, the destiny presented in the novel can be divided into the domination of God and the destiny caused by human. Through the description of the plot, the inviolable destiny is analyzed, and the transformation after being influenced by human is also the main part of this chapter.

Keywords: Er Pai, Chinese Late Ming Novels, Business-Related Chapters, Concepts of Benevolence and Destiny, Scholars-Merchants Culture, Social Morality