清末民初中国侦探小说中的传统性因素

在传统的文学史叙述中，明清以来的公案小说在进入晚清以后常常被描述为逐步衰落，且渐渐被舶来的侦探小说所取代，这一过程的形象说法是“包拯与福尔摩斯交接班”。但与此同时，我们却常常忽略了公案小说/侠义公案小说对清末民初中国侦探小说的潜在/显在影响。比如这一时期中国侦探小说中“传奇”而非科学的情节因素、公差而非私家侦探的人物身份、传统侠客形象的影子、以小说教化读者的创作目的，乃至于作者本身的“民族主义”倾向等等。而这些中国传统的文学、文化因素，既构成了诸如刘鹗《老残游记》、吴趼人《中国侦探案》和刘半农“老王探案”等清末民初“侦探小说”文本内部的“混乱”与复杂之所在，又内在规定了此后民国侦探小说发展道路中的本土性思想资源和文类特征。

Traditional Factors in Chinese Detective Stories in Late Qing and the Early Republic of China

In the traditional narration of literary history, the public case novels since Ming and Qing Dynasties are often described as gradually declining after entering the late Qing Dynasty, and gradually replaced by imported detective novels. The image of this process is “the transition between Bao Zheng and Holmes”. But at the same time, we often ignore the potential/obvious influence of the case novels on Chinese detective novels in late Qing and the early Republic of China. For example, the plot factors of “legend” rather than science, the character identity of public errand rather than private detective, the shadow of traditional swordsman image, the creative purpose of educating readers with novels, and even the author’s own “nationalism” tendency, etc.