西方历史误读的东方背景:法律革命、宗教改革与修道生活

The Oriental Context of Misreadings of Western History: Legal Revolution, the Reformation and Monastic Life

在历史研究中,意识到西方中心论并努力祛魅是必要的,但也要意识到西方历史与文化的接受和传播是在自己独特的东方背景中进行的,这不可避免地导致了西方历史与文化的东方式误读。在中世纪与近代早期西方历史和文化领域,这种误读主要体现在宗教与西方法律传统的形成、启蒙运动与宗教改革、修道生活与“禁欲主义”以及教皇权力的相关研究和评价上。根本的出路在于相关学术史的积极梳理以及学科制度、学术作品生产机制的调整这些点滴的进步上。

While we must be aware of and try to disabuse ourselves of Occidentalism in historical studies, it is important to remember that the acceptance and spread of Western history and culture took place in a unique oriental context that made Orientalist misreading inevitable. This misreading of the history and culture of the medieval and the early modern West appears mainly in studies and interpretations of religion and the formation of the Western legal tradition; the Enlightenment and the Reformation; and monastic life and asceticism, as well as the power of the Pope. A real solution depends on incremental steps forward in terms of the constructive reordering of academic history and the restructuring of the system of academic disciplines and of mechanisms for the production of academic works.