学术独立及其限度——1940年中央研究院院长选举与任命再探

Academic Independence and Its Limitation: A Reexamination of the Election and Appointment of President of Academia Sinica in 1940

民国学术自由与独立的堡垒中央研究院,在1940年蔡元培去世后的继任院长候选人选举时受到政治的强力侵袭。评议会评议员们以学术良知抵挡住蒋介石举出顾孟余的"下条子"行为,选出他们心目中的候选人翁文灏、朱家骅与胡适,表征了学术自由与独立对政治的胜利。但在院长人选的遴选与任命过程中,因政治因素的侵扰等,不仅演成胡适驻美大使撤换风波,而且最终人选并非真正学人翁文灏,而是纯粹官僚朱家骅,显示出学术自由与独立的限度。更为重要的是,面对政治对学术发展更为强劲的干扰,朱家骅领导下的中央研究院,生存也面临危机,更昭显了学术自由与独立在政治强力下的窘况与窘境。

Academia Sinica was once the fortress of academic freedom and independence in the Republic of China. The election of its president was strongly disrupted by political power after the death of CAI Yuan-pei in 1940. The members at the appraisal meeting,with their academic conscience,selected WENG Wen-hao,ZHU Jia-hua and HU Shi as the candidates while rejecting CHIANG Kai-shek's personal appointing of GU Meng-yu. This could be understood as the victory of academic freedom and independence against political power. However,the further selection of the presidential candidate and the appointment was severely suffered from the intervention of political elements,so that HU Shi was almost dismissed from his post as Chinese Ambassador to the U.S.,and it was ZHU Jia-hua as a bureaucratic official rather than WENG Wen-hao as an authentic scholar that took charge of the president. The whole incident showed the limitation of academic freedom and independence. Furthermore,due to worse political intervention,Academia Sinica under the leadership of ZHU Jia-hua had to struggle for survival. This demonstrated that it was hard to win the academic freedom and independence under severe control of political power.