“文学四要素”视角下明清《水浒传》序跋研究

Abstract

M.H. Abrams, a renowned American literary theorist of the time, put forward a famous theory of “four elements of literature”, pointing out that literary activities consist of four elements: “artist, world, and reader”. Based on this theory, this paper finds out the four elements in the prologue of The Story of the Water Margin of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
 This paper takes DingXigen's(丁锡根)Preface and Postscripts of Chinese Fictions(中国历代小说序跋集) as an example, and lists 22 preface and post scripts of Water Marginin(水浒传) Ming and Qing Dynasties. Contrasting with the “four elements theory of literature”, this paper briefly lists the four aspects of “work, world, author and reader” in the original preface.
 At the level of works, it mainly analyzes whether the Water Margin is a “book of loyalty” or a “book of non-faithfulness”；At the level of world, the causes of Songjiang Uprising are analyzed: the social environment is dark, the officials force the people to revolt；At the level of author, the author's motivation and creation process of The Water Margin are analyzed；At the reader level of reader, this paper analyzes the reader types, how to read Water Margin well and the influence of reading Water Margin.