从中国传统社会特质看公德私德问题

Concerning the Problem of Public and Private Morality from the Characteristics of Traditional Chinese Society

从文化比较的角度说,公德私德问题本质上是一个现代性的和西方的问题。作为"亚细亚现象"的中国传统社会,不存在市民社会与政治国家的分野,也就无所谓"公共领域"与"私人领域"的划界,从而没有公德私德赖以附丽其上的基础。西方社会的历史发展,有一条相当清晰的因果链条:商品经济→市民社会→资本主义。在此基础上孕育出来的个人主义的意识形态修辞,意味着人的个体与类的分离和对立。与此不同,中国传统社会不存在这种发生学基础,而是表征为"家""国"同构,由此决定着由"内圣"而"外王"的展开及其连续性。在中国古典文化中,固然也有公私之别,而且也是在道德的意义上成立,但它仅仅关乎道德与非道德的甄别,与我们今天所谈论的公德私德问题不可同日而语。今天所谓的公德私德,只是意味着道德的类型或归属领域之不同。因此,以公德私德及其关系去"格义"中国原有概念,就难免走向把中国传统社会所特有的现象"现代化"和"西方化"的陷阱之虞。

From the perspective of cultural comparison,the problem of public and private morality is essentially a modern and western problem.As an“Asian phenomenon”,traditional Chinese society is no distinction between civil society and political state,so there is no demarcation between“public sphere”and“private sphere”,so there is no foundation on which public and private morality can be attached.There is a causal chain in the historical development of western society:from commodity economy to civil society,and then to capitalism.The ideological rhetoric of individualism bred on this basis means the separation and opposition between the individual and the species.In contrast,there is no such genetic basis in Chinese traditional society,but it is characterized by the isomorphism of“family”and“country”,which determines the expansion and continuity from“sagely within”to“kingly without”.In Chinese classical culture,there is a difference between public and private,and it is also established in the moral sense;but it is only about the discrimination between morality and immorality,which is different from the public and private morality we are talking about today.The so-called public and private morality today only mean the difference of moral types or fields.Therefore,to“meaning matching”Chinese culture original concepts with public and private morality and their relations will inevitably lead to the trap of“modernizing”and“westernizing”the unique phenomena of traditional Chinese society.