摘要
两千三百多年前,《庄子》中曾提出有机界起源的臆断假说。这是一个无进化的起源理论,其形式与布丰(1707—1788)以前欧洲流行的转化说有所不同。我们称它为循环转化说。按照《庄子》中的看法,有机界起源于一种叫"幾"的活质,它的外形经过一系列转化变成人,最终人又变成"幾"。否认生物是神造的和不变的,对后世有着巨大的思想影响。这种思想影响与中国古代唯物论自然观共同起作用的结果,最终可能成为十九世纪末(1898)达尔文学说传入中国之后立即被知识界接受的原因之一。
Over 2300 years ago, Zhuang Zhou put forward in his work Zhuang Zi a conjectural hypothesis concerning the origin of the organic world. It is a theory of origin without evolution which we call cyclic transformism. According to the statement in Zhuang Zi, the organic world originates from a vital essence known as 'Ji', whose appearance is turned after undergoing a series of transformations into that of man who will eventually change back to 'Ji'. This may seem ridiculous from the modern biological point of view, but it is a negation of the theory of divine creation and the uniformity of the universe, thus having a great influence on the ideology of later ages. In conjunction with the inflnence of the physical view of ancient Chinese materialism, this influence constitutes one of the reasons for the immediate acceptance of Darwinism towards the end of the nineteenth century (1898) by Chinese intellectuals.
出处
《自然科学史研究》
CSCD
1990年第3期269-274,共6页
Studies in The History of Natural Sciences
