「尋章摘句」: 明代文話的文本生成及其文章學闡釋

明文話是研究明代文章之學的重要資源。利用現有材料進行摘錄和重組，是明人編撰文話的主要手段之一。這種「尋章摘句」式的文本生成方式，大致可分為抄錄宋元文話、彙選明人文論和摘引八股文句三類。此類繁複蹈襲的批評文本，雖然原創性較低，但文本的重複性，卻恰好反映出明代文章之學為適應社會文化需求而作出的自我調適。這種調適指向的，是在中晚明習文需求不斷擴張的大背景下，藉助空前繁榮的的書籍出版業，注重文字表現的實踐型文章學，成為一種被更廣大階層所接受的知識形態。這構成了文章學在近世發展演進的重要走向。

Remarks on prose provide significant resources for the study of the prose theory in the Ming dynasty. One of the main methods for compiling remarks on prose in the Ming was to excerpt and rearrange the materials from available works, such as those published in the previous eras; articles, letters, and prefaces from the Ming dynasty that contain discourses on the prose theory; and citations from eight-legged essays. These kinds of remarks on prose are usually unoriginal; however, the repeated texts can reflect the subtle changes in the field of literary criticism and the development of the prose theory. As the social demand of learning prose writing grew and the publishing industry developed in the mid- and late Ming, these prose theories with practical use became more and more identifiable with the lower-middle class, which eventually constitutes an extremely important branch of the prose theory in modern times.