从崇尚自由到回归传统——晚年严复的思想转向及其原因

From Advocating Liberty to Returning to Tradition:The Shift of Yan Fu’s Thoughts in His Later Years and Its Causes

严复是中国近代向西方寻找真理的思想家之一。在中日甲午战争以后的几年间,严复极力推崇西方近代的自由、平等理念,并把约翰·密尔的《论自由》译为中文,在中国语境下对近代西方的自由观加以解读。但是,严复最终并没有成为一个自由主义者,晚年严复放弃了近代的自由观而回归儒家思想传统。《政治讲义》是严复思想转向的重要标志,对君主立宪政体的沉迷以及清末新政是严复晚年思想转向的主客观原因。严复晚年的思想转向也可以在某程度上说明自由主义不能在近代中国落地生根的深层原因。

Yan Fu was one of the thinkers who attempted to seek truth from the West in modern China.In the years following the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895,Yan Fu advocated the ideas of liberty and equality from the modern West,and he translated John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty into Chinese and interpreted the modern western perspectives on liberty in the Chinese discourses of that time.However,Yan Fu did not become a liberal in the end.In his later years,he renounced modern liberal perspectives and returned to traditional Confucian thought.Lectures on Politics was an important symbol of the shift of Yan Fu’s thoughts.His indulgence with constitutional monarchy and the Later Qing Reforms were the causes of his shift in his later years.The shift also embodied,to some degree,the reason why liberalism could not be employed in modern China.