“研究清楚才动手”：20世纪三四十年代费孝通的农村经济思想

"Starting Work only after Clear Study": Fei Xiaotong's Thoughts on Rural Economics in the 1930s and 1940s

在民国乃至整个近代中国农村经济研究的脉络之中,费孝通是最有识见、最有影响的学者之一。他不仅是著名的社会学家、人类学家,还是社会经济学家、思想家。费孝通通过实地调查,以其宽阔视野,对中国农村经济做了贯通而深入的研究,发表了比其他学者更加全面和独到的见解,为当时乃至未来中国农村经济的发展提供了破解之道,即减少人口、平均地权、实行减租、建立集合经营农场、分散发展农村工业、平衡城乡关系、传统与现代金融并行不悖等。在对农村经济的阐释和解决方案中,费孝通属于温和派,既对现存的社会经济制度持批判立场,又认为它在一定程度上仍具有合理性和生命力;认为传统经济与现代经济不是二元对立,而是可以相互补充和融合的。尽管他对农村经济的研究没有提出高度抽象性的概念,但仍为中国乃至世界农业经济学做出了重要贡献。

In the context of studies of the rural Chinese economy in the Republican period-or even in all of modern Chinese history—Fei Xiaotong stands out as one of the most knowledgeable and influential scholars. He is not only a famous sociologist and anthropologist, he is also a socio-economist and thinker. Through field investigations as well as broad vision, Fei Xiaotong performed thorough and penetrating research inlo the Chinese rural economy. Compared to other scholars, his publications were more comprehensive and original, providing solutions to contemporary and even future developments in the Chinese rural economy. For instance, he argued for reducing the population, equalizing land ri^ils,reducing rents, building collectively managed farms, decentralized development of rural industry, balancing the relationship between the cities and the countryside, and viewing traditional and modern forms of finance as mutually compatible. In his explanations of and solutions for the Chinese rural economy, Fei Xiaotong was a moderate. He took a critical stance towards existing social and economic systems, but he also realized thai ihey had a certain degree of rationality and vitality He suggested that the traditional economy and modern economy were not in opposition, but rather that they could blend together and complement each olher. Though he did not present high-level abstract concepts regarding rural economic studies, he still made importanl contribulions to rural economics in China, and even in the rest of ihe world.