《石頭記》涉及「情」之主題關懷向來被認為迷離惝怳，而八十回後著作權的懸 案更使小說之傾向難以確認。本文以小說文本間存在的互文為探討的新基點。文中提出：《 石頭記》是以晚明以來豔情淫穢小說中的贖救母題來展開主人公的故事的。然而，通過精心 玩弄情與欲一對詞匯遊戲，它對自身承繼的傳統進行了諷刺性模仿。由此，小說中主人公的 精神成長遂悖論地糾纏於贖救與啟悟兩個母題之中。一方面，小說描寫了主人公發現世界之 為不情不美的未完成啟悟歷程；另一方面，小說的贖救母題又將作者對晚明以還文學思潮的 反思戲劇化。在後設的層次上，《石頭記》的贖救母題和認知歷程包含著對於傳統抒情人生 觀的反省。從而，《石頭記》將中國文學由抒情詩向近代小說的文類轉變中的認知進程寓言 化了。

　　　　　The thematic concern of "love" or "emotion" in the novel The Story of the Stone has long puzzled scholars. Moreover, the disputed authorship of the appocryphal last 40 chapters makes approaching this subject particularly difficult. Using the fresh perspective of intertextual analysis, the current essay attempts to provide an answer to this thorny question. I argue that the plot in The Story of the Stone unfolds through the redemption motif that the novel draws from the tradition of erotic novels. However, through paronomastic play upon the dichotomous terms "yu" (lust or desire) and "qing" (love or felling) throughout the text, the novel intertextually suggests a thematic antithesis to the erotic novels that its author ironically parodies. As a result, the hero's Bildungsroman paradoxically intertwines with the two motifs of initiation and redemption. On the one hand, the novel narrates the hero's process of uncompleted initiation through which he discovers the coldness and ugliness of the world; on the other hand, for the novelist this story is at the same time a dramatization of his own redemption or awakening from his Ming predecessors' Literary world in which qing is the very core. Metafictionally, the theme of redemption in the novel embraces a critique of the lyric view of life and a reflection on its own generic nature. In this sense, The Story of the Stone allegorizes the epistemological mutation in the generic transition from the lyric to the novel in the Chinese literary tradition.