关于近代早期英国“中等阶层”的术语争议及定义标准

The Controversy of Terms and Standard of Definition concerning the Middling Sort in Early Modern England

近年来西方社会史家提出用“中等阶层”这一术语取代过去常用的“中产阶级”,来指代近代早期英国社会转型过程中形成的社会中间阶层,虽然受到了史学界的广泛认同和接受,但也引发了诸多争议。在所有研究领域完全用“中等阶层”取代“中产阶级”不一定恰当,但在研究近代早期英国经济和社会现象时,用“中等阶层”比“中产阶级”更符合当时社会转型的复杂史实。从当时人阶层区分标准的变迁和对中等阶层的描述出发,将生活方式作为定义中等阶层的标准,以生活方式界定中等阶层的群体构成,能够有效地消解部分学术争议。

The western scholars in recent years proposed to use the term of‘the middling sort’to replace‘the middle class’in order to refer to the social mediate stratum which formed in the social transformation process in early modern England.This causes a lot of academic controversy,though this term has been widely recognized and accepted.In fact,it is not necessarily appropriate to replace‘the middle class’with‘the middling sort’in all research fields,but the latter is more in line with the complex historical facts of the social transformation during that time,when the study of the economic and social phenomena in early modern England was conducted.Starting from the contemporary description and observation on the middling sort,the lifestyle can be used as a standard to define the middling sort and confirm its group composition.Some academic disputes can also be effectively resolved through this approach.