论《桃花扇》柳、苏作结的人物安排和结构表达

摘要

孔尚任所创作的《桃花扇》意图以离合之情写兴亡之感，其最后一出《余韵》以柳敬亭和苏昆生两位民间艺人为戏剧结尾，是独具匠心的结构设计。现学界对人物和结构的研究多分而论之，以此情节作为切入点把握人物安排和结构表达的的关联及意义，仍有较大的研究空间。从文本出发，通过分析柳敬亭和苏昆生的历史真实结局和戏剧艺术结局，这一人物安排乃是作者有意为之；而与以此二人结尾的结构设计有机统一起来，可见这一结构表达完成了左右两部人物的交汇集合、双线叙事的最终合流，同时又以戏中戏的艺术表达丰富了作品的意蕴、启发观众抽离爱情叙事，对桃花扇底所系的南朝兴亡旧事进行深入思考，从而抵达孔尚任的创作初心，领会《桃花扇》的思想艺术魅力。

Abstract

Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan) is conceived with the intent of delineating the vicissitudes of dynastic rise and fall through the lens of personal love and separation. Its final act, "The Lingering Tone" (Yuyun), brings the drama to a close with two folk performers, Liu Jingting and Su Kunsheng—a structurally deliberate and meticulously crafted design. While existing scholarship has largely examined characterization and dramatic structure as separate domains, a holistic inquiry into the interplay between character arrangement and structural expression, centered on this particular closure, remains an open terrain. Proceeding from a close reading of the play, this paper first examines the historical fates of Liu and Su in contrast to their dramatic destinies, revealing Kong's conscious authorial intervention. It then demonstrates how this character arrangement, when read in organic unity with the structural design of the finale, accomplishes a dual convergence: the synthesis of the play's two character divisions (left and right) and the ultimate fusion of its bifurcated narrative lines. Furthermore, the embedded "play-within-a-play" device enriches the work's thematic resonance, inviting the audience to detach from the romance narrative and redirect their contemplation toward the deeper historical vicissitudes of the Southern Dynasties that lie beneath the peach-blossom fan. In so doing, the play attains Kong Shangren's original authorial vision, and the reader gains a fuller appreciation of the intellectual and artistic power of The Peach Blossom Fan.

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