后现代史学的实践与反思——以何伟亚的《怀柔远人:马嘎尔尼使华的中英礼仪冲突》为中心

The Practice and Reflection of the Postmodern Historiography:Take James Hevia's Cherishing Men from Afar:Ding Guest Ritual and the Macerthey Embassy of 1793 as the Center

后现代主义既具破坏性又具建设性,它对历史学的挑战集中体现在对西方现代历史编纂学的理论和实践及其阐发的重要历史观念的批判,以及对历史主观性的强调,冲击了现代史学赖以存在的主要基础,但同时也有助于我们修正和思考现代史学研究中存在的一些问题,无疑对历史学产生了深远的影响。美国学者何伟亚于1995年出版的《怀柔远人:马嘎尔尼使华的中英礼仪冲突》一书,被视为后现代史学实践的典范:其对中英礼仪之争的现代主义阐释模式的挑战,从文本的深层结构质疑史料与历史、历史解释之间的关系,对历史事件所处时空语境的强调等,都展现了后现代史学所取得的成就。与此同时,也引发了一场"世纪末之争",迄今未息。倘由此引申开去,这场争论关乎到后现代史学评价等史学要旨,值得我们今天继续予以深入剖析与反思,其理论价值与学术意义都是非凡的。

Postmodernism is destructive and constructive, the challenges it brings to history is mainly reilected in the criticism of the theory and the practice of western modern historiography and the important historical concepts it explains, it emphasizes the subjectivity of history, impacts the main basis which the modern historiography must rely on. But at the same time, it also helps us to revise and reflect some problems existing in the study of the modern history. It has a far-reaching influence on the history. Cherishing Men from Afar, America scholar James Hevia ~ s representative work, published in 1995, is regarded as the practice model o~ the postmodern historiography. It challenged the modernist interpretation mode on the controversy over etiquette between Chinese and British, questioned the relationship between historical resources and history as well as historical interpretation from the deep structure of the text, emphasized the space-time context of historical events, all of these displayed the achievements of the postmodern historiography. It triggered off a ending century debate which is relates to the evaluation of the postmodern historiography. So it is significant to study it.