在历史中发现启蒙--读汪晖的《现代中国思想的兴起》

Discovering Enlightenment in Chinese History:The Rise of Modern Chinese Thought by WANG Hui

汪晖在《现代中国思想的兴起》中描绘了一个追溯到上古三代、持续而生动的思想和政治伦理结构。在这个上千年的历史发展里,其发端主题是"天理"。从宋代始,"天理"话语朝着现代的内在性逐渐发展,最终在晚清被"公理"概念所替代。基于现代科学和追求经验性真理的思考,"公理"很快由五四运动的科学话语所取代,体现了更普遍的原则。这是汪晖借以构思其著作的主要线索。此书前半部讨论"天理"如何转化为一种政治文化,使得帝国和民族国家的基本条件均获得发展。后半部讨论晚清思想家在回应传统秩序的崩溃时,对"公共道德原则"的思考。这一长篇巨作展示了基于自然和本体论的一系列构思和应变能力,在论证历史的伦理—政治结构的同时也对其加以批判,这一过程同时对应着从帝国到现代国家的转变。该书的总体精神乃不懈地寻求规范的普遍标准。从"天理"到"公理",一直到寻求世界政治的科学的、公共的、普遍的基础。在一个充满文化冲突和地缘政治斗争的世界,这一探索有极大意义。

WANG Hui's book offers a narrative of Chinese civilization extending back to the Three Dynasties of antiquity(2205?—256 BC).The key to this tracing of the millennial infrastructure is,first,the concept of tianli,the 'Principle of Heaven.' 'Heaven' entails an ethical authority that resonates with cosmic laws and is thus an inexhaustible resource of moral evaluation and political restructuring.The idea was at work in the earlier Confucian classics but came to preeminence in the Song dynasty.From the Song onward the tianli discourse edged toward modern times,and in the late Qing was replaced by the notion of gongli,the principle of public ethos.As gongli evidences elements of modern science and empirical truth-seeking,it quickly gave way to a more universal principle embodied by the community of science discourse in the May Fourth Movement.In general,this book enquires into the recurrent principle li,and this review argues that the book is an analysis into the ontological foundations that justify and critique the ethical-political order.WANG Hui's long narrative showcases the changing conceptions of the natural and ontological basis for legimating and critiquing the historical ethico-political structures,paralleling the uneasy transition from empire to modern nation-state.