卫礼贤对孔子学说的跨文化阐释及其当代意义

Richard Wilhelm's Intercultural Interpretations of Confucianism and Its Contemporary Significance

在近代来华的基督教传教士中,德国"同善会"传教士卫礼贤特立独行,与众不同。他不仅彻底抛弃了欧洲中心主义和西方文化优越论,从"非教条的伦理化基督教"宗教观出发,坚决反对"虔信主义"的传教方法和"文化帝国主义"的宗教扩张,而且致力于研究和理解孔子及其学说,并通过翻译和著述,积极向西方社会传播。他视孔子为人类历史上曾经出现过的"伟大人物"之一、中华民族的"杰出代表",认为孔子的学说并非单纯的道德说教,实有深厚的哲学底蕴。孔子通过对潜意识领域的深刻探究,直觉"高度统一的人性",并超越自我发现与自我类似的"人"和"人类",继而提出了"仁"和"仁爱"的思想。孔子还从《易经》中领悟到了"事物的萌芽状态"和"初始法则",并且由此提出了"正名"和"礼治"的主张。孔子的学说与中国文化的整体发展有密切联系,与世界其他国家和民族杰出思想家的学说也可互通有无。人类的未来寄希望于东西方文化的交流与融合。卫礼贤对孔子和孔子学说的深刻认识和高度评价在20世纪初西方"文化霸权主义"依然盛行的时代殊属难得,对于当今时代也十分重要。

Among the Christian missionaries in modern China, the German missionary Richard Wilhelm from＂Allgemeine Evangelisch-Protestantische Missionsverein＂was independent prominent and out of the ordinary. He not only completely abandoned eurocentrism and superiority of the Western culture,and from the religious view of ＂the undogmatic and ethical Christian religion,＂was firmly opposed to the ＂pietism＂missionary methods and the expansion policy of ＂Culture imperialism,＂ he devoted himself to the study and the understanding of Confucius and Confucianism,and through translations and writings,passionately introduced Confucius and Confucianism to the western society. Wilhelm regarded Confucius as one of ＂the greatest personages＂in human history and a ＂prominent representative＂of the Chinese,and believed that Confucianism is not the simple moral teachings it presented but a theory based on a profound philosophical foundation. Through the deep exploration in the field of the subconscious mind,Confucius deeply felt ＂the highly unified humanity,＂and transcended self-ego,discovered the human and humanity which are similar to self,proposed the thought about the benevolence and kindheartedness. From the Book of Changes,Confucius learned ＂the embryonic stage of things＂and ＂the law of primacy,＂put forward the proposition opinion on ＂rectification of name ＂and ＂rule by rites. ＂The theory of Confucius is closely related to the integral development of the Chinese culture and complements the theories of the prominent thinkers from the other nations. The future of the human race lies in the communication and merging of the Eastern and Western cultures. Wilhelm＇s idea is rather rare in the early 20 th century when the ideological field is still dominated by the idea of ＂Western Cultural Hegemonism. ＂Even today,his thoughts is still of great importance.