金玉其外,败絮其中——《红楼梦》中的腐败及其成因的哲学思考

Corruption in the Gilded Age: Some philosophical reflections of the corruption in Dreams of Red Chamber and its causes

《红楼梦》中的腐败可概括为经济腐败、政治腐败与作风腐败三类。与腐败之产生、膨胀有关的因素主要有四:需要与匮乏为其生存因素;贪欲与权势欲为其人性因素;权力结构的不合理与有效监督的缺失为其制度因素;而道德的低下与信仰的空白则为其精神因素。尽管我们不可能将腐败清除殆尽,但却可以通过对上述因素的疏导、监督与改善来最大限度地减少腐败。

The corruption reflected in the novelDreams of Red Chamber can be summarized as economic, political and moral corruptions. The article describes these three types in detail. After that, it turns to an inquiry into the roots of corruption, particularly corruption of a flourishing society. It arrives at the conclusion that there are mainly four elements referring to the occurrence and expansion of corruption： existential element as represented in man＇s need and insufficiency; humanity element as represented in man＇s greed and will to power; institutional element as represented in inadequacy of structure of power and deficiency of supervisory system; and spiritual element as represented in moral debasement and vacancy of faith. Although corruptions cannot be removed completely, they can be reduced to the minimum by ways of dredge, supervision and improvement of above elements.