中西历史比较研究是否可行?——由刑罚的宽免说到“专制主义中央集权”的可疑

Two Cases Illuminating the Feasibility of Comparative Historical Studies:Dispensation from Punishment and Despotic Central Government

对中西历史进行比较研究是一项极其困难的学术工作,学者们对其可行性和方法论尚未给出清楚系统的说明。比较史学是否可以成为像比较文学和比较法学这样为学界所公认的成熟学科还有待学者们的研究实践来证明。以中西法制史上刑罚的宽免为例,历史研究的对观或对照方法在某些个案研究中会有拓宽视野和思路的作用;而通过对中国古代历史研究中流行的“专制主义中央集权”概念的质疑性分析,我们发现,另一种可行的同时又是宏观的历史比较研究可以是超越时间和空间局限的社会科学研究。至少,这样一种宏观的思维将会帮助我们突破一些陈旧和可能错误的思维框架。

Scholars have realized that it is difficult, if not impossible, to conduct comparative historical studies between China and the West. Its feasibility and methodology have not been systematically discussed and defined. Unlike comparative law or comparative literature, comparative history as an established discipline has yet to be proven. In using as an example the dispensation of criminals from punishment in legal history, the first part of this essay points out that the so-called comparative study often means making observation of one set of historical facts in contrast with others, an approach that might be helpful in analyzing them. In the second and the third part, the author questions the notion of Despotic Central Government, used almost without discrimination by scholars in this country, and suggests that such misconceptions might be avoided if scholars employ methods of sociology and political science in interpreting political institutions of different societies of the world, another approach in comparative historical studies.