《儒教与道教》里的世界与中国

The World and The Nation:On Max Weber's The Religion of China:Confucianism and Taoism

1920年,马克斯·韦伯逝世,《儒教与道教》遂成为他在世时出版的最后一部书。本文对学术史的考察表明,这本书不啻为时代思潮的一个“标本”或“化石”,保留了19世纪后半期以来欧美的各种中国观,影响着世界对待中国的态度与策略、中国看待自身的方式,并通过韦伯、而对新生的社会学发挥了潜移默化的作用。在梳理韦伯阅读史的基础之上,可以认为《儒教与道教》不仅是对资本主义发生学命题的拓展,还潜藏着对中国历史与文明的多种评价,有可能构成某种文明演化的动力学。韦伯认为,中西文明在源头上表现出相当多的相似之处。基于散见于书中各处的相关论述,本文尝试针对近世以来中西异途的现象,提供文化、制度等方面的解释。

The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism,Max Weber’s last publication before his early death in 1920,is well-known among sociologists and historians. By combing through the reading materials Weber used,this study shows that this monograph contains variant images of China portrayed by westerners( diplomats,businessmen,scholars,missionaries,etc.) since the second half of 19 century. Weber draws upon these depictions and analysis about Chinese history and society to test his thesis on the genesis of capitalism,and finds out barriers to Chinese economic development. Moreover,as a social scientist,his vision on some key Chinese historical events is different from sinologists’ at that time,this article tries to separate the material he used from his own ideas,i. e.,China as a world civilization shared some similarities with its western counterparts in the early stage,and there were certain ideas,ethics and institutions contributing to China’s decline afterwards.