近代时间体系的形成——兼评《时间的全球史》

The Formation of Modern Time System——A Review of The Global History of Time

时间是19—20世纪现代化和全球化进程中最为敏感的触角之一,近代以来时间革命持续发生,跨越国家和民族的科学、统一的“标准时间”成为殖民主义扩张进入帝国主义阶段实现其现代化理想蓝图的一项工具,世界时区与统一时间被渲染成一种世界观,并引发了时间—空间关系的变化与不平衡。《时间的全球史》一书从全球性背景出发理解时间的现代化改革,同时以时间的现代化改革为切入点理解全球化,这是时间全球化的一体两面,也是以全球史和现代化为理论范式开展历史研究的实践。但不容忽视的是,近代中国时间体系和观念的形成也应放在全球史的视野之下,它既是时间全球史故事中饶有兴味的一个篇章,更是中国现代化的一个重要环节。

Time is one of the most sensitive aspects in the process of modernization and globalization in the 19th and 20th centuries.Since modem times,there has been a continuous time revolution,and the scientific and unified“standard time”that transcends nation and ethnicity had become a tool for colonialism to enter the imperialist stage and achieve its modernization blueprint So the world time zones and unified time have been portrayed as a worldview,which leaded to changes and imbalances on the relationship between time and space.The book“The Global Transformation of Time;1870-1950”sought to understand the modernization reform of time from a global perspective.At the same time,it regarded the reform of time as an entry point to understand globalization.They were two sides of time globalization as well as a practice to conduct historical research based on global history and modernization as theoretical paradigms.However,it is also important to consider the formation of Chinese modem time system and concept from the perspective of global history,which is both an interesting chapter in the story of the global history of time and an important part of China modernization.