贵货不积:以《老子》解读库拉

Esteem Goods for Non-Accumulation:Interpreting Kula with Laozi

本文借助《老子》的"贵货"和"不积"概念,重新解读美拉尼西亚的库拉交易。我认为,《老子》可以帮助我们理解库拉贝壳与库拉名望为什么十分珍贵却又无法积累,以及它们为什么限制了有组织的暴力。总体上,库拉是一个"空转"体系:它交换而不固化等级,竞争而不积累,冲突而不能形成制度,单一"贵货"而抑制其他"贵货"。库拉社会通过推崇"老人"实现了"贵货而不积",这正是老子通过推崇"圣人"的"不贵货不积"而希望达到的理想秩序,两者都是自然而然的。本文质疑库拉研究的"礼物范式",探索"贵货"如何导致库拉贝壳、库拉名望和暴力的"不积",并分析《老子》与库拉殊途同归的原因。本文希望通过具体的辩论探索中国本土思想成为普遍社会理论的可能。

In this paper,I attempt to interpret the“kula”ethnographies with Laozi.I argue that Laozi s ideas of“esteeming goods”(guihuo)and“non-accumulation”(buji)help to better understand why kula is extremely precious but impossible to accumulate in terms of the kula shells or kula name,and how the kula prevents violence.In general,the kula is a“void”system with the following mechanisms:to exchange without authenticating hierarchy,to compete without actual accumulation,to conflict without institutionalization,and to esteem one kind of goods without esteeming other kinds.By glorifying“the elder”as exemplars,who esteems goods but is unable to accumulate,the kula society is close to a spontaneous order,idealised by Laozi who glorifies“the sage”(shengren).The paper starts by questioning the“gift paradigm”,followed by analysis of the mechanisms of how esteeming goods can lead to the non-accumulation of the kula shells,the kula names,and violence.It then explains why Laozi and kula arrive at the same goal in opposite ways.The paper concludes by highlighting the significance of these findings.