一部没有“近代”的中国近代史——从“柯文三论”看“中国中心观”的内在逻辑及其困境

A Modern Chinese History without “Modern”:Using Paul A.Cohen's “Three Theories” to Look at the Inner Logic of the “China Centered Approach” and its Predicament

1990年代以来,在大陆学术界占主导地位的中国近代史研究范式,开始遭到舶自美国汉学界之“中国中心观”潮流日益强劲的挑战和冲击。这一挑战,固然是对教条化的马克思主义历史观的进一步反动,极大地拓展和丰富了相关的研究领域和研究内容,但其最终结果既非唯物史观的复原,亦非真正中国气派和本土特色的新范式的确立,而是逐渐走上了另一种新教条主义的道路。这种局面,并不仅是中国学者对“中国中心观”教条式运用的产物,同时也是其理论体系的内在逻辑推演扩展的必然结果。本文力图从这一理论自身潜在的逻辑矛盾着手,对其进行批判性的解读,以期深化对中国近代史研究方法的讨论。

Since the 1990s,the leading paradigm for studying modern Chinese history in Chinese mainland academic circles has met with a strong challenge and attack from the “China Centered Approach” imported from American sinological circles.This challenge is no doubt a further reaction to dogmatic Marxist views of history,and has greatly enlarged and enriched related research fields and topics.However,its final result has been neither the restoration of historical materialism,nor the establishment of a new paradigm that truly is a Chinese approach with native characteristics.Instead,it has led down a new dogmatic road.This situation is not simply a result of Chinese scholars dogmatically applying the “China Centered Approach”,it is also an inevitable result of the development of this theoretical system's inner logic.Starting from its own latent logical contradictions,this article tries to give a critical reading of the “Approach”,in hopes of deepening the discussion of research methods in modern Chinese history.