료마가 간다 8

竜馬がゆく #8

by Ryōtarō Shiba, 박재희 (Translator)

시바 료타로의 베스트셀러 『료마가 간다』 제8권. 일본 근대사에 큰 발자취를 남겼으며 오늘날에도 역사상 가장 존경받는 청년 인물로 꼽히는 메이지 혁명의 개혁가 사카모토 료마의 일대기를 그린 작품이다. 작가는 역사 속 실존 인물인 료마를 새롭게 창조해 한 영웅으로 훌륭하게 그려내어 입체적이고 생생한 인물로 정착시키는 데 성공했다. 세상에 둘도 없는 거대한 배포와 도량을 갖춘 사나이 료마. 그의 삶을 통해 인간이 추구해야 할 정의의 길이 무엇인지를 뚜렷이 보여준다.

380 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Ryōtarō Shiba (司馬 遼太郎) born Teiichi Fukuda (福田 定一 Fukuda Teiichi, August 7, 1923 – February 12, 1996) in Osaka, Japan, was a Japanese author best known for his novels about historical events in Japan and on the Northeast Asian sub-continent, as well as his historical and cultural essays pertaining to Japan and its relationship to the rest of the world.

Shiba studied Mongolian at the Osaka School of Foreign Languages (now the School of Foreign Studies at Osaka University) and began his career as a journalist with the Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan's major newspapers. After World War II Shiba began writing historical novels. The magazine Shukan Asahi printed Shiba's articles about his travels within Japan in a series that ran for 1,146 installments. Shiba received the Naoki Prize for the 1959 novel Fukuro no Shiro ("The Castle of an Owl"). In 1993 Shiba received the Government's Order of Cultural Merit. Shiba was a prolific author who frequently wrote about the dramatic change Japan went through during the late Edo and early Meiji periods. His most monumental works include Kunitori Monogatari (国盗り物語), Ryoma ga Yuku (竜馬がゆく; see below), Moeyo Ken, and Saka no ue no kumo (坂の上の雲), all of which have spawned dramatizations, most notably Taiga dramas aired in hour-long segments over a full year on NHK television. He also wrote numerous essays that were published in collections, one of which—Kaidō wo Yuku—is a multi-volume journal-like work covering his travels across Japan and around the world. Shiba is widely appreciated for the originality of his analyses of historical events, and many people in Japan have read at least one of his works.

Several of Shiba's works have been translated into English, including his fictionalized biographies of Kukai (Kukai the Universal: Scenes from His Life, 2003) and Tokugawa Yoshinobu (The Last Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, 2004), as well as The Tatar Whirlwind: A Novel of Seventeenth-Century East Asia (2007).

(from Wikipedia)

Alternative Names:

Fukuda, Teiichi
Ryotaro, Shiba
Shiba, Ryoutarou
Ryoutarou, Shiba
Sima, Liaotailang
司馬遼太郎
司马辽太郎
Shiba, Rëotaro
Шиба, Рёотаро
司马辽太郎
司馬, 遼太郎
司馬遼太郎
司場遼太郎

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

8.5/10

[Koji Iwata · Rating 5 out of 5]

今まで読んだ本の中で1番気に入った本です。何回か読みました。龍馬の生き方考え方は尊敬できるものです。
This book is one of my all time favorite. I have read it a few times. I respect and admire the life of Ryoma, the main character of this book.

[TG Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

終於啃完了這部由司馬遼太郎所寫的八冊長篇歷史小說《坂本龍馬︰幕末第一豪傑》。這套由「萬象圖書」譯自於《竜馬がゆく》的早期中譯本，雖然內文出現「坂」這個非正統中文字時常常落字與重疊，但與近年新出的「遠流」譯本相比，萬象版的每冊前面都附有八頁彩頁，作為書中描寫到的各種歷史相關資料的照片，可見編輯者十分用心，遠勝於遠流版新譯本。

就「小說」而言，我覺得這部小說寫得還算不錯。作者收集與參考各式史料作了相當的工夫，讓讀者在閱讀故事的趣味之中，順便接收了作者對歷史材料的探討。有點像是古羅馬 Suetonius《十二凱撒傳》，在敘述傳主的故事時偶爾會跳脫出來，夾雜一段作者聊天似地談到相關史料的追尋與討論。

但我也曉得，拿精彩有趣的小說來當歷史教材，只能算是「初入門」的方便法門，絕不能夠因此踰越份際。雖然我對日本歷史的認知完全達不到研究的水準，但就作品本身的描寫方式，我還是見到了很強烈的「正邪區分」筆法，也就是對主角一方的愛憐、以及對其敵對一方的偏見。比如在第五冊講到了池田屋事件、御門之變之中，是兩派勢力之間的武力衝突，但小說卻將一派描寫得邪惡殘暴與顢頇無能（幕府方），另一派則是正義高尚激昂悲憤（長州方）。正如我常講的，殘暴和顢頇是互斥的，一個無能懦弱到底的德川政府居然還能擁有強大的新式海陸裝備，真的是存在於小說故事、而非現實世界的真相。至於長州激進派處處殺人的恐怖活動，因為他們都是正義的一方，所以在本書中當然就「和諧」了。

至於小說裡不時表現到，當時的日本快要被西方列強併吞了、快要亡國了，因此志士們要快點推翻幕府統治，才能避免亡國。由於我生在 #有民主真好 的鬼島，從青少年起就親身見聞過多次的選舉活動，本島政治人物也是成天在嚷嚷著「國家快滅亡了，所以選票要投給○○○」之類的標語——想必永遠都將如此。因此我愈來愈感到懷疑，當時的西方列強（英米佛露四國），真的有打算直接將這塊倭國四島拿下來嗎？現在的我，是抱持否定的。知乎上，有網友分析到，列強們與其一天到晚跟各個藩國折騰，倒不如容許一個親西方的政權出來，幫他們看管遠東的利益。這個觀點，我覺得挺好的——至少說服了我。

而在第六冊中，龍馬在長崎建立的「龜山社中」，向來在描述其事蹟的正統史觀上，都說這是日本近代第一次的「現代化股份有限公司」，其實我一向對這種溢美抱持著懷疑的態度（歐亞大航海貿易至此都已經兩百年了，共同籌資入股所建立的民間公司，在當時早不算什麼新鮮事。中文的「公司」這個詞就是源自於此……）。要作個現代化的比擬而言，「龜山社中」，與其說是一家具有現代意義的股份有現公司，不如說這是一個新設立的「黑幫團夥」，幫忙官方進行走私的勾當罷了。 小說裡提到，長崎人當時有「龜山的白褲」一詞，便源自於社中的這群小混混成天在街上暴力鬧事打架。更明白顯示出來的，則是組織內的那位「賣饅頭的長次郎／近藤長次郎／上杉宋次郎」悲劇︰由於他想脫離組織赴英留學，便被迫切腹；因為要加入龜山社中時，成員必須立誓不准為了自己的理由而私自脫離，所以長次郎被發現的「背叛」，必須以死加以制裁。——喵的，這不是黑道，什麼才算黑道？這種缺乏人身自由的團夥，跟他們敵對的新選組有何區別？更不用說在「後序」中還談到，當龍馬被暗殺死後，他那群海援隊的小弟們認定了是紀州藩下的黑手，於是也不循求法律途徑，便直接殺入人家的宴會廳中報仇……

在閱讀過程之中，雖然作者熱情洋溢地用盡一切華美的詞彙，認定龍馬才是奇蹟似地建立起現代日本的第一偉人，但滿腦酸腐思想的我卻不能夠完全同意。實際推動歷史演進的，還是需要所謂的「腕力」（岩明均在《歷史之眼》中的名言）。換句話說，對於一個在社會與經濟上沒有「腕力」的脫藩浪人，要說他真的是建立起新日本的最大功臣，倒不如說他是在那群政經重要人士之間穿梭的媒介「之一」吧。我並不否認其人的志向遠大與廣結善緣，但在歷史的進程中，龍馬只算是扮演了一個重要配角罷了。所謂的「薩長同盟」，實際上啥實事都沒幹，只不過是薩摩消極地不再支持幕府打長州；所謂的「大政奉還」，真正決定的還是薩摩出兵靠槍桿子作後盾，更不用說後來還是打了一場內戰。

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無論如何，這是一部很好看的小說。