比较史学何以成为可能——刘家和先生比较史学理论和方法初探

How Could Comparative History be Possible: A Preliminary Study of Professor Liu Jiahe’s Theory and Methods of Comparative History

比较史学侧重于跨时空的历史对照研究,是一个晚近新兴的历史研究领域。刘家和先生为构建该研究领域的理论和方法做出了杰出贡献。他的比较史学,将“同”与“异”的辩证关系作为理论基础,以可比性为中心建立比较类型,在对史料进行考证批判的前提下就比较对象进行深入剖析,抓住其异同的本质,提炼出更高层次的比较类型,从而把握比较对象的本质。刘先生的比较史学实践具有方法论层面的示范意义,显示出独具一格的理论旨趣,将比较史学研究提升到一个新的层次。这些理论和方法建立在大量具体的中外、中西史学比较成果的基础上,具有鲜明的实践品性,为解答比较史学在实践中何以可能的问题做出了突出贡献。

Comparative history as a newly emerged historical methodology focuses on studies across time and space.Professor Liu Jiahe has made extraordinary contributions to the theory and methods in this field.Based on the dialectical relationship between similarity and diversity,his comparative historical researches begin with setting up a comparative type around the comparability and making cross-examinations on the materials,then analyze both the similarities and the diversities between the objects compared in depth and see through the phenomena to the nature,and finally set up a comparative paradigm at an advanced level for understanding his objects in essence.With a unique theoretical style,Professor Liu has raised comparative history to a higher level and provided instructive examples for the future practices.Resulting from his own series of comparative case studies across of world civilizations,Professor Liu’s theories and methodologies are highly practical and contribute outstandingly to the scholarship of history.