卢梭笔下的中国想象与描述

Rousseau's Imagination and Representation of China

在18世纪启蒙运动和"中国热"不断高涨之际登上历史舞台的法国启蒙作家,无一不要面对"中国"这一时代主题,作出自己的思考和描述。不管他们对中国文化采取何种态度和立场,但都从中吸取了有益的思想滋养,作为其理论建构和文学创作的一种借镜和材料,卢梭自然也不例外。相对于启蒙运动先驱、主流派作家孟德斯鸠、伏尔泰对中国的认识、描述,卢梭显然不及他们专一和执著,他对中国题材的采集、利用和对中国文化之受纳,显然也不比两位前驱那样自觉、积极,但这并不妨碍这位特立独行的思想家、文学家对中国作出独特的思考和征用。本文旨在通过卢梭《论科学和艺术》、《新爱洛伊丝》等代表作品对中国素材的采集、征用的梳理和考析,力图凸显出其不同于启蒙主流派作家伏尔泰等的思想个性特征和价值意义。

The eighteenth-century Enlightenment was accompanied by an enhancing interest in China. The French Enlightenment writers who walked onto the historical stage during that age unexceptionally gave their own thought over and description of such a con- temporary subject as China. No matter what attitudes they assumed towards the Chinese culture, they ideologically benefited from it, treating it as the reference and material for their theoretical contruction and literary creation. Reaseau was the very case in point. Com- pared with two pioneering mainstream Enlightenment writers like Montesquis and Voltaire who were both noted for their Chinese knowledge and portrayal, Rouseau, with apparently lessened concentrativeness and persistence, was no doubt less conscientious and less active in searching or applying China issues and in absorbing Chinese culture. An unconventional thinker, however, Rouseau had his unique observations and interpretations of China. The paper aims to highlight his diffrence from the mainstream Enlightenment writers like Vol- taire in terms of ideological features and values by analyzing his search and application of Chinese materials in Discours surs les sciences et les arts, Julie ou la nouvelle Heloise and his other representative works.