绅士、共同体与现代性:中英绅士理论的思想史比较

Gentry,Community and Modernization:Comparison between Chinese and English Gentry Theories

从中世纪向现代转型的过程中,"绅士"作为崛起的新兴势力逐渐成为英国社会的重要组成部分,同时也构成其现代性生成的重要路径。作为从共同体向社会转型的核心机制,"绅士"不仅促成日耳曼共同体与现代政治结合,将村落共同体与现代市场结合起来,更在维护传统伦理的同时促成精神变革。本文试图从思想史的角度梳理费孝通绅士研究背后的学术脉络,发现绅士的西方理论背景与中国经验原型。费孝通关于绅士的讨论在理论上延续了马克斯·韦伯和理查德·托尼的社会形态比较,在经验上则依靠其对云南传统乡村行政制度的研究。本文力图呈现费孝通对韦伯和托尼关于绅士理论的扬弃,并澄清绅士理论在中国经验中的张力。

Max Weber and Richard Tawney both analyzed the British social structure and its modernization from the perspective of"gentry".They made analogies between China and Britain on this basis.Fei Xiaotong was influenced by their thinking.In the process of transition from the Middle Ages to the modern time,the gentry,as a rising power,had gradually become an important part of the British social structure and a crucial modernization force.The concept of gentry changed constantly in history,eventually encompassing people from both traditional to modern,and rural to urban.The traditional British gentry was prominent landowners who obtained the post of Justice of Peace by virtue of wealth and prestige.British gentry was the core contributor of the transition from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft,not only connecting Gemeinschaft with modern politics but also village communities with modern markets.By contrast,the Chinese gentry were administrators and supervisors of the imperial political body,and they,at the same time,assumed the leadership of autonomous local groups and acted as an auxiliary force for self-governing local communities.When modernization brought changes to the old political system in China and the rise of a new type of gentry,it was difficult for the new and the old gentry to integrate.Conflicts were guaranteed over progress.Fei expanded his gentry research by comparing gentry groups between the British and the Chinese.This paper explores Fei’s work to find out its Western theoretical background and the prototype of its Chinese experience.Theoretically,Fei’s work represented a continuity of Tawney and Weber’s social comparison,but empirically,it was based on the Chinese traditional administrative system in rural Yunnan.We attempt to explain the ways that Fei sublated Tawney and Weber,and the tension rising from applying the gentry theory to the Chinese experience.