由《明夷待访录·学校》篇看儒家政治哲学的内在可能性

Possibilities for Confucian Political Philosophy:A New Reading of Huang Zongxi’s Notes on Reform of Political System (Mingyi daifang lu)

黄宗羲的《明夷待访录》是中国政治思想史上最特别的一部著作,是站在传统文化的"末端"对于整个中国政治传统的"回望"。《学校》篇中的制度设计是为了将政治参与的主体由传统的皇权、官僚拓展到整个士人阶层,但并未包括普通民众。这体现了传统儒家民本思想的双重面相,既保护民众利益,又不允许民众参与政治决策。因此,黄宗羲的政治思想并不是现代民主思想,而是基于儒家传统政治思想的探索。重新审视儒家对于政治问题的处理方式,在当代仍具有学术价值和现实意义。

Huang Zongxi’s Notes on Reform of Political System (Mingyi daifang lu) is one of the most extraordinary works of political reflection that stands at the end of the history of Chinese political thought,and at the beginning of the twentieth century,it attracted a lot of attention. In this book,Huang Zongxi proposed a holistic solution to political problems,including a whole set of institutional designs based on traditional Confucian political thought. The chapter on "School"is arguably the most important one. The key to understanding this chapter is to see Huang Zongxi’s ideal political subject,and how it relates to population. Huang’s ideal political subject is neither the general public nor the emerging bourgeoisie,but rather traditional Chinese scholars. The "School"chapter intends to expand political participation among that group.It is generally believed that traditional Chinese politics is thoroughly bureaucratic. Its main subjects are the ruler and the bureaucratic officials. Almost all previous studies on Huang Zongxi treated the officials with real positions as part of the same general group that also included scholars who did not yet have positions. This is a main reason why readers today have difficulties understanding his purpose. In fact,there is significant difference between the bureaucrats and the scholars. The bureaucrats include the officials who passed the imperial examinations,obtained actual positions,and took their positions among the ruling class. The class of scholars who did not pass the imperial examinations never had clear political status in the traditional political system,and Huang Zongxi’s purpose in establishing schools as political institutions was to provide institutional guarantee for the participation of scholars in politics. In this way,the traditional political subject that was restricted to the ruler and the bureaucratic officials was extended to include the ruler,the bureaucratic officials,and the widespread community of scholars. One remarkable difference between the scholars and the bureaucrats was that the latter were entirely dependent on imperial power,while the former were able to maintain relative independence from it. The independence of the scholar community ensured that they were able to realize the ideals and beliefs of Confucianism when they participated in politics. Thus,in designing the schools,Huang Zongxi,in various ways,wished to ensure their independence relative to real political power. This is the significance of Huang’s "School"chapter.Moreover,this kind of institutional design also shows another aspect of Confucianism’s people-oriented thinking,that is,the institutional distrust of the common people. In Huang Zongxi’s view,only persons who had received classical Confucian education were qualified to participate in political decision-making. This understanding of politics belongs to pre-modern Confucianism and is completely different from modern democratic politics. From it can we explore more possibilities of traditional Confucian politics,which can serve a highly beneficial purpose for contemporary politics.