有別於從世情小說脈絡出發的討論視角，本文將明清之際魯地所經歷的天災人禍納入思考，立論《醒世姻緣傳》書中描繪的「家庭」空間背後，脫不開動亂歷史的陰影；作者西周生刻意經營鋪敘的惡行惡狀，不只是單純悖離儒家倫理的問題，更是對厄難之下人心黑暗境地的逼視。從妖魔、動物、精怪的角度出發，本文檢視西周生如何運用神怪敘事傳統豐富、深化其記惡書寫？而書中對於前行神怪敘事的轉用改造，復透露出西周生對於其見聞之惡境的感受及認知方式為何？尤其值得注意的是：這部天災戰禍陰影籠罩之下的作品，當中的敘事聲音，並不見對天災戰亂的憤怒控訴，或面對塗炭生靈的哀嚎悲怨，反而是以一種冷靜、嘲謔、取笑的語氣，羅列小鎮人物的道德墮落，惡行惡狀。《醒世姻緣傳》的文本及其時代背景之間的張力，於是構成了一個複雜的記亂寫惡之場域，推促我們探究亂世與記惡敘事之間的關係。
本文採取由外向內進深的觀察視角。第一部分先論述西周生如何將動物、精怪意象，化入書中城鎮人物、生活的描述，勾勒出一個群魔亂舞的世界。第二部分分析西周生如何將狄希陳寫成失勢的孫行者，藉由倒轉孫行者形象突顯惡勢力的氾濫衍漫。第三部分則呈現狄希陳之妻薛素姐如何逐步演變成為凌駕孫行者的新興之妖。本文結論：天災人禍之際，相對於士大夫就朝綱國運，臣節出處思考論說，地方低階文人的亂世經歷和感受，或許更直接地來自於隨著社會秩序瓦解，道德規範真空所暴露之種種駭人之惡。而西周生的記惡筆法之一，在於將神魔敘事帶入世情小說的閨房、門戶空間；這也呼應著論者所言，十七世紀中國小說作者實驗、轉化前作，試圖探索、開展小說敘事種種可能性的發展。

This paper examines depictions of social evil in literary works as responses to historical upheavals, focusing on the seventeenth-century Chinese vernacular novel, Marriage to Awaken the World. Shangdong 山 東, the native land of the novel’s author and the setting where the story takes place, suffered flood, drought, famine, and war in succession during the first half of the seventeenth century. The author, interlacing portrayals of natural disasters and moral debauchery with pervasive images of animals, animal spirits, and dismembered or tormented bodies, presents a picture of society that is simultaneously chilling, grotesque, and comical.
This paper investigates how the author employs, reverses and parodies the literature of the Chinese fantastic tradition as a means of capturing the kaleidoscopic acts of evil during a time of social disintegration. The first part of the paper demonstrates that the author blurs the boundary between human and non-human by bringing demons, animal spirits, and creatures of the wilderness and supernatural realm into the everyday life of common Shangdong households. The second part analyzes how Marriage to Awaken the World parodies the Journey to the West 西遊記. The author compares his male protagonist Di Xichen 狄希 陳 to Sun Wukong 孫悟空, yet he does so only to degrade the originally intrepid hero into a hen-pecked husband tortured by his wife, Xue Sujie 薛素姐. The third part delineates the process through which the virago Xue Sujie, reincarnated from a fox spirit, rises to become the new rebel, wreaking havoc on her husband’s family, which according to Confucian teachings is the domain of a woman’s symbolic “heaven” (futian 夫天). She then completes a mock pilgrimage and eventually turns into an inhuman avenger obsessed with killing Di Xichen. This paper concludes that fantastic literature contributes much to the language and representation of social evil in Marriage to Awaken the World. The author’s choice of references and his strategies of rewriting in turn provide a glimpse into his views concerning the workings and contours of evil. The grotesque narrative of the novel, therefore, is not only a matter of hybrid literary style, but also a significant clue that registers the emotional and psychological repercussions resulting from experiences of violence and suffering.