论美国汉学家白氏夫妇的《论语》“层累论”成书说

On E Bruce & A Taeko Brooks’"Accretion Theory" of Confucian Analects

《论语》的编撰结集,自唐柳宗元起,不少学者置疑传统的观点。美国当代汉学家、《论语》英译者白牧之、白妙子在崔述和韦利等人的怀疑论基础上,建构出一种复杂的《论语》"层累论"成书说,不仅为《论语》各篇的编撰确定了具体年代表,而且认为《论语》乃是一部"早期儒家史",是孔子之后作为儒家传人的弟子和后裔政治搏弈的产物。这些观点可能会彻底改变《论语》、孔子、儒家,甚至中国哲学传统的形象,值得海内外学界关注。

Since Liu Zongyuan of the Tang Dynasty, Scholars have questioned the conventional view of the composition of The Confucian Analects. Based on Cui Shu and Arthur Waley＇ s ideas, E Bruce Brooks and A Taeko Brooks, two American sinologists and co-translators of The Analects, put forward a complex ＂accretion theory＂ after about 30 years of philological and historical research. According to their accretion theory, The Analects, which was composed in a span of 230 years after the death of Confucius by generations of Heads of the school of Confucius, was indeed a history of early Confucianism. If this theory held water, the images and statuses of The Analects, Confucius, Confucianism and even Chinese philosophical tradition would have to be reconsidered. The author of this paper believes this is a subject deserving more academic attention.