“平目”与“欺瞒”--“曹瞒”之称与曹操形象

摘要

从《说文解字》可知，东汉时期“瞒”字只有“眼睑低”的意思，因此，从曹操“阿瞒”之小字推想，曹操的外貌有眼睑长得较低的特点。《三国志通俗演义》描绘曹操的外貌为“细眼长髯”、戏曲表演中曹操脸谱的勾画突出其“疑目”的特点皆由此而来。在唐代之前，“阿瞒”之称只有在与语境不谐时才包含贬义。“瞒”字在宋以后发展出“欺骗、隐瞒”的新含义，此后其本义几乎不为人们所用。而对曹操的“阿瞒”、“曹瞒”之称却变得非常常见，人们以“瞒”字的新含义与曹操个性中狡诈的特点相联系，以此理解“曹瞒”之名。这正与宋以后拥刘反曹的倾向相合，人们用“曹瞒”、“阿瞒”之名痛快淋漓地指骂曹操的害祢衡、杀孔融、忌杨修、败赤壁以及铜雀伎等事迹。%From Word and Expression,we can find that the word “man”has the meaning of “droopy eyelids”.There-fore,we can infer from CAO Cao’s nick name “A Man”that his eyelids might be droopy.In The Romance of Three King-doms,he is described as a man who has small eyes and long beard.In drama,CAO’s facial makeup is characterized by “star-ing”.Before Tang Dynasty,the name “A Man”was derogatory when it was not harmonious with the situation.After Song Dynasty,the word “man”began to take the meaning of “deception or lie”.Ever since then,such meaning has hardly been used.However,the names “A Man”and “CAO Man”has become quite usual.People have related the new meaning of“man”with the deceptive and foxy characters to CAO Cao,hence we can understand what the name CAO Man means.This is j ust in accordance to people’s inclination of supporting LIU Bei and opposing CAO after Song Dynasty.People have used such names to criticize his killing of MI Heng,KONG Rong,YANG Xiu and scandals of defeat in Chibi and Tongquetai.