从“补史阙”到“有意虚构情节”：《史记》“疑以 传疑”对汉魏六朝小说“虚构性”的启发

From "Filling Historical Gaps" to "Intentional Plot Fictionalization": The Inspiration of "Preserving Doubt as Doubt" in the Records of the Grand Historian on the Fictionality of Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties Fiction

Abstract

The primary reason for distinguishing pre-Tang fiction from later ones lies in the perception
that the pre-Tang fiction was not yet " intentionally fictionalizing stories " and was essentially
"recording hearsay", unlike the later literary forms that were consciously recognized as being
"fictionalized" by the authors themselves. From historical records, it appears that people during the
Six Dynasties resisted "fictionality", often holding fiction to the same standard of "truthfulness" as
historical writings. Inspired by historical records, particularly the Records of the Grand Historian
with its principle of "preserving doubt as doubt", the fictionists of the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties
fiction positioned their works that "fill historical gaps." This gradually led to the phenomena of
"misrecorded accounts", "mixing fiction with reality" and "contradictory narratives", which
somewhat obscured the fact that these works inherently contained "fictionality". Consequently,
fictionists of the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties began using multiple versions of similar motifs to
craft relatively complete and systematic stories with increasingly intricate plot developments,
gradually discovering through this process a move towards "intentional plot fictionalization".