暴力修行：道教謫凡神話與水滸的忠義敘述
Authors: 李 豐楙 
Published: November 2022

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

對於《忠義水滸傳》可以采取宗教文學的現代讀法，就是從“暴力修行”的角度切入解讀，所采用的即是“出身修行”的奇傳文體，在三教與小説的關係中，只有從道教文化才能深入理解其創作旨趣。從《宣和遺事》所保存的古本到後來的百回定本，兩本之間的敘述儘管繁簡的差異極大，但是在宗教文化的淵源上仍可見其間存在的内在關聯，其一即是天書母題（motif）：從一卷到三卷，都反映道教與民間的九天玄女信仰，相信其秘授兵符與王朝的開國創業神話有關；其二爲謫凡母題：從下凡到謫凡乃是在凡間的修行，這種思想既爲小説戲劇夙所傳承，也是全真道與净明忠孝道的教内思想；其三則是一僧一道母題：代表佛教之眼與道教之眼，從出現魯智深與公孫龍之名到繁本的詳細敘述，都各以高僧與高道的身份預示宋江的未來命運。從遺事本到定本的敘述者都依據道教文化改造巨盜宋江，使其成爲星主宋江，其形成的時期應該在金元統治下的華北地區，反映漢軍世家在北方持久抗金、抗元的忠義意識，連同華北的漢人都曾基於民族認同，借用傳述宋江及其兄弟的“忠義”事迹，寓托其同情忠義軍首領所遭遇的命運，類似的事例就如邵青、李全等其人其事。歷來的索隱派均指陳水滸好漢曾被用於影射忠義軍的領袖，而小説敘述形成的關鍵，則是借用謫凡神話夸説其人物的“非常化”，在小説中將其“出身”星君化，使之具有“神煞并存”的性格與能力，故需在暴力中完成其凡間的“修行”。從天罡院、伏魔殿的罡煞隱喻，到聚散過程中以殺止煞的暴力表現，既可使水滸人物高度的隱喻化，也方便用於影射歷史事件中的忠義軍首領。在小説敘述中所完成的這種虚構性的想像世界，證明敘述者能够成功運用“非常化”的藝術手法，方便將所有的人物悉數納入36、72的聖數中，因而創造了謫凡神話的敘述模式。在明清小説中從此建立形式結構統一的文學譜系，在明代萬曆中葉以後也啓發了系列出身、修行志傳體的寫作風尚。由此可見水滸敘述在中國小説史上的非凡成就。

This essay is a new attempt to read the Zhongyi shuihu zhuan (Allegiance and Righteousness in Water Margin) from a contemporary perspective of religious literature. The methodology includes: (1) interpreting the text by conceiving a theme of “religious conversion through violence”; and (2) assigning the novel under the genre of sagas on “the heroes’ origin and their religious conversion.” While the novel has relationships with the Three Teachings (i.e., Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism), the author’s intent can only be fully apprehended by means of Taoist culture.

Although there are significant discrepancies in length and details between the relevant narratives in the early version of the Memorabilia from the Xuanhe Reign-period and those in the one-hundred chapter version of Water Margin, the two texts are intrinsically related because they both derive from a common religious culture and contain shared elements, which give rise to three motifs. The first concerns the divine books. Chapters one to three reflect some Taoist and popular beliefs in the Mysterious Goddess of the Nine Heavens, whose esoteric bestowal of military tallies is believed to be prophetic for the founding of the dynasty. The second motif is about transcendents being banished to the mortal world. In fiction and drama, there are two kinds of such visitations, namely: the transcendent (1) descending to the mortal world and (2) being banished to the mortal world. They make two kinds of religious practices and represent a creed about allegiance and filial piety maintained by the Quanzhen and Jingming Taoist Schools. The third motif is the side-by-side appearance of a Buddhist monk and a Taoist adept. These two characters each represent the visions of their respective teachings. From the first mention of Lu Zhishen’s and Gongsun Long’s names in early sources to the expanded version (Water Margin), the eminent monks and Taoist adepts play the role of harbingers of Song Jiang’s fate. Taoist culture was a common intellectual foundation for both the Memorabilia and Water Margin. Only by means of this foundation may Song Jiang be transformed from a brigand to an astral spirit.

This kind of thinking probably took place during the Jin and Yuan Dynasties in northern China, as it reflects the Han troops’ continuous resistance which allied with the sense of ethnic identity of the Han people in the north against the Jin and Yuan invaders. Through recounting the deeds and allegiance of Song Jiang and his sworn brothers, the authors explicitly express their sympathy for the fate of the loyal army leaders. Parallels respectively include the episodes on Shao Qing and Li Quan. Allegorists have long treated the heroes from Water Margin as a reflection of the loyal army leaders. However, it was a crucial point when the story was first formed, because the anonymous author(s) deified the protagonists and created their “supernatural” nature by means of the concept of “transcendents being banished to the mortal world.” The protagonists were therefore imparted with “both divine and daemonic” characteristics and abilities. As such, they would need to accomplish their “religious conversion” through violence. Highly allegorical reading may work in the understanding of the evil spirits in the Court of the Big Dipper and the Basilica of Subduing Demons, as well as the agglomeration-dissipation process of stopping evil through violence. These may be understood as a metaphor for the characters in Water Margin, and for the loyal army leaders in history. The creation of a fictive, imaginary world in the novel proves the narrator’s success in the artistic technique of “supernaturalization,” whereby the protagonists are assigned to the divine numbers of 36 and 72, and hence a narrative mode of myths of “transcendents being banished to the mortal world” is created. This marked the establishment of a literary genealogy of the unified formal structure in Ming-Qing fiction and inspired a trend in the writing of hagiographic novels on religious conversion since the middle of the Wanli reign-period (1573-1620) of the Ming Dynasty. This hallmark and influence reflect the remarkable achievements of the Water Margin in the history of Chinese fiction.