本文旨在探討「說話」因素如何介入並改變漢語書寫傳統，主導著白話散文的美感模式。五四新文人有一種集體的失聲焦慮，他們認為，書寫必須打開體系、改組權力、重新收納口語，乃能取回聲音、展布血氣、創造詩意。在社會改造上，係以說話為解放；在文學革新上，則以說話為創造。於是說話被提昇到價值重估與美感變更的層次，生產一種力量，催動了「文」由古典向現代的轉移。本文將藉由「散」和「文」這兩個具有辯證關係的概念，詳考白話散文在現代中國的建構歷程與美學意涵，進而省思其利弊得失。

This article discusses how “speech” became involved in and changed the tradition of Chinese writing, initiating the pattern of poetic production in vernacular prose. The May Fourth new literati experienced collective anxiety over losing their voice. They believed that writing should open up the system, reconfigure authority, and integrate the vernacular in order to obtain its voice, display vigor, and create poetic sentiment. With respect to social reformation, they regarded “speech” as an act of liberation. With respect to the literary revolution, they regarded it as a process of creating poetic language. Therefore speech, a daily behavior, suddenly became a ritual of revaluation, which produced the force necessary to stimulate the transformation of Chinese prose from classical to modern.