因果報應是中國傳統小說中最常見的主題之一，在幾部於十七世紀中葉問世的長 篇小說，對這一主題的揭示卻達到了前所未見的深度。其中小說 << 醒姻世緣傳 >> 就是一 個突出的例子。本文先大略從思想史和社會史的角度，探討為何在十七世紀中葉的中國, 業 報之說會贏得如此眾多信徒的各方面原因，然後詳細地分析了因果報應這一主題與 << 醒世 姻緣傳 >> 的整體結構以及小說其他特點的複雜而微妙關係，我們發現這種關係往往是自相 矛盾的，而言種自相矛盾又與小說作者本身的矛盾處境有關；一方面在傳統儒教道德教條日 益失靈的情況下 (此類例子在小說中甚多 )，因果報應之說對小說道德權威能否建立顯得尤 為重要；另一方面小說又樂於對其人物的行為作出種種心理或其他象徵性的解釋，譬如小說 後半部分的男主角狄希陳在其妻妾手中，所受的令人髮指的虐待和折磨，並不一定要如小說 敘述者企圖告訴我們的那樣，只能按因果報應來解釋 (即這一切皆由其前生晁源的罪孽所至 )。 許多跡象表明不少事件都是狄的自作自受。本文試圖通過一系列的具體細讀來闡釋這一 極其複雜的作品。 實際上，<< 醒姻世緣傳 >> 之所以能成為一部文學佳作，部分原因恰恰 在於其特有的歧義性，而這種歧義性在小說中的呈示，則是對十七世紀中國社會所經歷深刻 道德危機的最富文學意味之再現。

　　　　　While it is almost a generic convention for xiaoshuo小說(Chinese fiction) to make reference to karmic retribution, several novels of the seventeenth century proved to be particularly obsessed with this retributive concept. For example, the full-length novel Xingshi yinyuan zhuan << 醒世姻緣傳 >takes enormous pains to contain its extremely complex narrative within the interpretive framework of karmic retribution to drive home a particular didactic message. This essay first tries to answer, from a broad historical perspective, the question why this retributive idea became so predominant in many fictional works during that period. Then it explores in detail the implications of karmic retribution in relation to the novel's other features, some of which sometimes seem to be directly undercutting the validity of this very concept. This apparent and yet subtle ambivalence toward karmic retribution testifies to the novel's ideological quandary:the desperate need to find a viable theodic theory to account for the dominance of social evils during a time when the existing Confucian moral order was unraveling rapidly. This essay argues that it is the tension between the novel's retributive teleology (i.e., the novel's structural stability based on this particular notion of retribution and redemption) and the chaotic nature of the moral reality which this notion is supposed, but fails, to contain that renders the novel especially interesting. The essay tries to demonstrate how this retributive scheme provides the novel with an ideological as well as structural coherence and how this very scheme, at the same time, is being problematized by the moral ambiguities the novel constantly generates.