在中國(guó)古文字中“敘事”的“敘”字與“序”、“緒”二字相通,表明了事件之內(nèi)空間、時(shí)間和因果的構(gòu)成方式,而“敘事”的“事”字與“史”字的淵源強(qiáng)調(diào)了文字?jǐn)⑹碌闹饕康?- 反映歷史。[ 楊義,中國(guó)敘事學(xué),北京:人民出版社,1997. 第10-11頁。]誠(chéng)如J.Hills Miller所言,事件(events)與故事(story)的本質(zhì)不同在于,事件在轉(zhuǎn)變成為故事時(shí)要經(jīng)過敘事(narrative)的過程,而敘事是作者重新整合(reordering)事件內(nèi)部的時(shí)間、空間以及因果關(guān)系,使原本的事件具有了新的價(jià)值。這種價(jià)值不僅在于印證(affirmation and reinforcement)當(dāng)時(shí)歷史社會(huì)的價(jià)值觀念,更重要的則是“究天人之際,通古今之變”,在人類倫理觀中尋找更精妙的宇宙觀,在故事的反復(fù)傳誦中“明善惡,示訓(xùn)誡”。[ “Reordering by narrative may therefore have as its function, as I have suggested, the affirmation and reinforcement, even creation, of the most basic assumption of culture about human existence,about time, destiny, selfhood, where we come from, what we ought to do while we are here, where we go - the whole course of human life. We need the same stories over and over, then, as one of the most powerful perhaps the most powerful, of ways to assert the basic idology of our culture.”, Narrative, in Critical Terms for Literary Study, by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughblin eds., (Chicago and London: The university of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 71-72.]