中国历史思想中的文化多样性观念

Ideas of Cultural Diversity in Chinese Historical Ideology

人类学家和社会学家常把文化视为一个社会独特的生活方式的总和,认为其中所包含的信念、价值规范和知识体系构成该民族特有的传统。本文从另一角度,即一国文化的内部多样性和差异,以及外来文化因素在一国文化演化中的意义,对中国文化史进行了回顾。作者特别讨论了近年来海外社会学研究中的两个重要概念“hybridity”(文化杂陈)和“hybridization”(文化交融)在中国历史思想中的体现,认为中国古典思想中的“和而不同”理念是对文明必然冲突论的反驳。

Culture has been perceived for a long time by anthropologists and sociologists as the living ways of a nation, the total sum of belief, values, norms and knowledge which form the specific tradition of that nation. The paper approaches culture from a different perspective, highlighting the internal diversity and heterogeneity of a societal culture.Borrowing the concepts of “hybridity” and “hybridization”, it offers an overview of the evolution of Chinese cultural ideology, especially the notion of “mixing but maintaining difference and heterogeneity”, arguing that this classical Chinese idea implies a rational approach to cultural heterogeneity distinguishing from Huntindon’s notion of “inevitable cultural clashes”.