关于“中国古代因何无版权”研究的几点反思

Reflection on the Studies about "Why There Was No Indigenous Copyright Law in Ancient China"

"中国古代因何无版权"是一个伪问题,版权属于近代范畴。这个伪问题的提出,是因为把版权制度的功能误解为鼓励创造。理论上,鼓励创造可以属于任何历史范畴。事实上,版权制度的真正功能是维系作品与资本的结合,后者属于近代的产业结构。"古代无版权"不是"中国问题",版权不属于古代的范畴。许多研究成果在解答这个伪问题时夸大了"文化解释"的作用,而且在文化解释的过程中以经典引述代替社会现实分析的现象比较突出,对中国传统文化的解读亦存在诸多误区。"中国古代因何无版权"之问与答均值得反思。

'Why there was no indigenous copyright law in ancient China' is a pseudo-problem based on a misunderstanding that copyright law is designed to encourage creation. Theoretically, encouraging creation could be ideal of any historical period. In fact, the function of copyright law is to realize the capitalization of work that just can be possible in a 'modern' industry. 'No copyright law in ancient society' is not a 'chinese problem', because copyright is out of 'ancient' category. In answering this pseudo-question, many studies overstated the role of 'cultural explanations', most of which are simply based on citations of classical writings instead of research on real-life situation, even some of those explanations are based on misunderstanding of chinese traditional culture. Both the questioning and answering on 'why there was no indigenous copyright law in ancient China' are questionable themselves.