跨越“文野之别”的实践 再论费孝通的江村研究

The Practice of Transcending Civil -Savage Distinction: A Revisit to Fei Xiaotong’s Jiangcun Research

江村是著名社会学家、人类学家费孝通成名的起点,又是他近70年持续研究中国农村发展道路的研究基地。他踏出的江村研究之路,表达了西方人类学大师"梦寐以求的愿望",开拓了人类学从研究野蛮人转向研究文明人的新时代。文章指出,费孝通的江村研究是由环环相扣的偶然因素促成的,同时又是有计划、动机明确、志向高远的一项研究。他进行的中国乡村"文明社区"——江村研究的实践,跨越了"文野之别",开拓了人类学研究的新领域,西方学者给予了高度评价。时代造就了《江村经济》,《江村经济》把费孝通推向了世界学术前沿。费孝通"志在富民",江村研究以探索农民怎样发展生产力,摆脱贫困走向富裕道路为主旨,揭示了"江村人"的思想观念、人际关系和生活方式等的变化。文章认为费孝通的"江村"研究在理论和实践上做出了重大的贡献,为后继学者的研究奠定了基础。他未竟的事业,将由"江村学"研究肩负。

The village, by the name of Jiangcun, is not only a place where Dr. Fei Xiaotong started his successful journey as a sociologist and anthropologist, but also a base where he continued his studies on the developmental course of Chinese rural communities in the past seventy years. Fei’s Jiangcun research has expressed the 'wish for dream' of Malinowski, a master in the Western anthropology. It has also heralded a new epoch for the focal shift in anthropological research from studying savage to civil people. The author holds that, although Fei’s Jiangcun research was brought about by a chain of accidental factors, it was nevertheless a planned research program with clearly defined aims and high aspirations. Fei’s Jiangcun research, or the study of Chinese rural 'civil communities,' transcended the 'civil -savage distinction' and opened up new domains for anthropological research, for which he had received high regard from many western scholars. It was his time that helped create Peasant Life in China; it was Peasant Life in China that placed Fei at the forefront in the world academy. Fei Xiaotong’s goal was to let people getting wealthy. With a theme of investigating how peasants improved their productivity to free themselves from poverty and become wealthy, his Jiangcun research brought to light the changes in Jiangcun people’s ideology, social relationships, and lifestyles. Fei’s tremendous contributions from his Jiangcun research to theory building and practice are highly valued; so are the foundations that he laid for new scholars to continue this project. His unfinished cause will be undertaken by the successors of the 'Jiangcun School'.