明清通俗小说江南传播及其经典化进程

明清通俗小说由作者笔下自在状态的文本，到成为审美对象的小说“经典”作品，只能发生在小说“尊体”，打破了以“小道视之”的传统观念以后。但明清通俗小说在江南的首刊和精刊，使得具有经典意义的创作文本，得以及时以相对定型的审美客体呈现于世人面前，进而成为“经典”存在；“奇书”概念在江南出现并广为人知，标志通俗小说“经典”作品被明确发现，同时暗含小说“尊体”的萌蘖；江南通俗小说精批精选，对作品博大意蕴、艺术奥秘的阐释，对其卓越创造、伟大张力及范式意义的揭示，则意味着小说作品“经典”地位初步确立。明清通俗小说的江南传播，成为其走向经典的过程中不可或缺的重要环节，具有不容轻忽的历史意义。
The canonization of popular novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties（ i.e. the texts that had beenoriginally ignored were regarded as the classics worthy of aesthetic examination） took place only after theywere acknowledged to form a legitimate literary genre and no longer held in“ low regard” as before. To thecanonization of popular novels in that period，the publishers in the Jiangnan region（ geographically areas in thelower reaches of the Changjiang River） made a great contribution，for they published the first edition and theedition with exquisite printing quality of such novels. This made the novels available to their readers at the righttime in a relatively unified form and consequently enabled them to become literary canons. Additionally，in theJiangnan region，some popular novels had already been well accepted and some famous ones even acquiredthe title of“ literary wonders” . The notion of“ literary wonders” clearly indicates that the great works offiction were discovered and at the same time fiction as a literary genre began to win public acknowledgement.Furthermore，the scholarly collection and criticism of popular novels in the Jiangnan region helped reveal theprofound meaning and artistic accomplishments embedded in such works，thus indicating the novels began tobe regarded as literary cannons. Therefore，the dissemination of popular novels in the Jiangnan region of theMing and Qing Dynasties is an important link in the canonization process of such novels and a literary eventwith tremendous historical significance