国学形态下的经学——近代中国学术转型的纠结

Classical Learning in the Form of National Learning: The Ambiguity in the Modern Transformation of Chinese Scholarship

国学兴起及其演化,与经学逐级退出学制乃至整个知识体系时间上高度重叠。国学既然为新旧过渡时期的将就兼容,便具有两面性,在中西新旧的缠绕下,倡导国学者取向迥异,国学形态下经学究竟有无立足存身之地,一直聚讼纷纭。守成者竭力维系经学的一统地位,趋新者则希望化解为不同分科。国学之下经学与诸子、史学、文学的纠葛,使得经学日益丧失既有地位。可是经学在中国,同时体现为知识体系和价值体系,对内支撑道德伦理,对外显示国性。如何不依傍古人又能取信于广大,建构当下的道德机制,为世界体系的重构提供重要选项,是考验国人智慧的关键。

The rise and development of the national learning was almost simultaneous with the gradual retreatment of the classical learning from the school curriculum and even the whole knowledge system. In this transitional period, scholars had ambivalent attitudes toward the traditional classical learning. The conservatives tried to maintain the supreme status of the classical learning, while the reformists hoped to disintegrate it into multiple disciplines. Included in the overarching concept of the national learning, the classical learning was entangled with philosophy, history and literature, and gradually lost its previous high status. However, the classical learning in China was a knowledge/moral system, both a mainstay of ethics domestically and a symbol of national essence internationally. How to remake a moral system without relying on the ancient texts and provide an alternative to reconstruct a global system was a key challenge faced by the Chinese then.