幻象与真实:重写先秦人性论前的理论思考

Imagined and De-imagined:Theoretical Reformulation for Reexamining the Debates on Human Nature of Pre-Qin Chinese

英语学术界对于非西方世界人性问题的认识,在很大程度上被"东方主义"影响和塑造着。这种风格的学者在相应的研究开展前,已经有了预设的理论、模式、范畴等等。在研究手段上,他们偏重哲学—宗教学式的考察,结果往往让自己陷入比较的陷阱。这样一来,中国古典思想看起来只有和西方思想相对时才有意义。这种研究所得出的结论理应被怀疑,因而可称其为"幻象"。与之相反,真正的研究应该回到中国的立场,用本土情怀重新考察先秦人性论。后现代主义破除了现代主义对普世性的迷信,把话语权归还给非西方文化的暗示具有重要的方法论意义,会帮助我们更好地认识先秦人性论的真实。

It argues that the English-speaking scholarship of pre-imperial Chinese thought is molded by Orientalism. These scholars, before their study, are equipped with pre-supposed concepts, ideas and paradigms. The methodology they employed is philosophy-religion-oriented, and their studies are trapped in excessive comparison. Consequently, the classic Chinese thought has significance only when it is contrasted with its western counterpart. Such kind of prac- tice could be described as ＂imagined＂. On the contrary, we should resume the Chinese stand and reexamine pre-imperi- al debates on human nature from the perspective of native sentiment. There is an idea that post-modernism has broken the superstition of universalism and it implies that the West should return the right of discourse to non-Western cul- tures. Therefore, when it comes to debates on human nature, we shall not employ traditional philosophy-religion-ori- ented methodology but apply an analysis of sentiment to pre-imperial texts. Exploring the sentimental dimension of human nature debates will help us to draw closer to the historical reality.