美国学界的“非西方中心”史观

The Historical Concept of Non-Westernism in Academic Circle of U.S.

萨义德的《东方学》揭示了西方的东方学中长期存在的“帝国主义真相”,这就是通过对中国“特殊性”的考察来证实西方的“普遍性”和“中心位置”。以后,在美国的中国史研究领域相继出现了被柯文称之为“中国中心观”的研究取向。本文认为,尽管有的学者受国际反西方中心主义思潮的鼓舞,试图建立一个非西方中心的历史研究模式,但他们在力图把西方经验局限于“地方性”的同时,也否定了人类社会发展的一些共同规律。因此,要真正摆脱“西方中心论”和各种形式的“地方中心主义”,必须克服各种偏见,培养一种“非中心意识”。

Orientalism written by Edward W.Said discloses the real imperialist facts which long existing in the study of oriental courtries in the west.As one part of the study,the particularity of China was mostly used to testify the universality and the central position of the west.Even though many scholars are encouraged by the thought of anti-west-centralism in contemporary and try to establish a mode of historical researching base on China or other region of the world centralism,but they often neglect the existence of some common law in the development of all humankind societies at the same time when they try to confine the western experiences in the west.Therefore,in order to get rid off the “Orientalism” in the oriental study,all kinds of prejudices should be eliminated and perhaps a kind of non-center consciousness should be cultivated.