辜鸿铭对晚清历史的独特认识

Gu Hongming’s Particular Views on the History of Late Qing

辜鸿铭的保守主义思想,来源于18世纪末、19 世纪初流行于欧洲的浪漫主义,再加上他忠于清王朝、忠于“中国政教、文明目标”而形成自己的政治观、历史观和文化观。他以内在的道德精神和外显的秩序与安宁作为评论晚清历史事件的基准,其分析结论“大疵而小醇”。在对待中西冲突的看法上,则坚持国家主权和民族尊严,主要引用前述浪漫主义和若干国际法学理,从道德和文化的角度对西方列强加以谴责,成为中国最早“以西学反西方”的尝试。他还对清末中国的发展之路提出了自己的设想,其保守思想实开“东方文化派”与“当代新儒家”之先河。

Gu Hongming’s conservative ideology derived from Romanticism that prevailed in Europe during the late 18 th century and the early 19 th century. In addition, he was loyal to Qing Dynasty, true to “Chinese Political Programme, Civilized Goal”, and therefore he got his own political mentality, historical mentality and cultural mentality. He took internal spirits of morality and external order and tranquility as criterion to comment upon historical events in late Qing Dynasty. His conclusion had many defects and few merits. To the problem of the conflict between China and the West, he defended state sovereignty and national honour and condemned the Great Powers of the West with scientific principles of international law from moral and cultural angles. And so there was the earliest attempt at “Opposing the West with Western Learning”. He also put forward his plan of Chinese development road in late Qing Dynasty. His conservative ideology was the first signs of “the Eastern Culture School” and “the New Confucianists of the Present Age”.