治小说史者均熟悉这样一条史料 :“小说起宋仁宗 ,盖时太平盛久 ,国家闲暇 ,日欲进一奇怪之事以娱之 ,故小说得胜。”① 这一见解若从小说发展史的角度着眼是准确的 ,宋代已具备了真正意义上的小说流行的所有基础 ,而不是那种由东方朔等“俳优”之流所表演敷衍的“说话”艺术。 History of the novel are familiar with such a historical data: “The novel from the Song Renzong, when the cover is too long, the country’s leisure, want to go in a strange thing to entertain, so the novel to win.” ① If this opinion from the development history of the novel The point of view is accurate. The Song Dynasty already possessed all the basic popular novels in the true sense of the word, not the “talking” art of perfunctory perfunctories such as Dongfang Shuo.