民国时期顾颉刚学术价值观的转向及与经世致用观的离合

The Transformation of Gu Jiegang’s Academic Values and His Criticism and Inheritance of the Traditional Academic Pragmatism During the Period of the Republic of China

民国时期顾颉刚的学术价值观经历了两次重要转向,与传统经世致用观有较复杂的离合关系,在中国现代史家中最具典型性。顾颉刚早年接受传统经世观和梁启超等今文家的经世思想,赋予经世致用论诸多新内涵;后受章太炎等古文家学术价值观影响,主张为学只当求真而不问致用,其学术价值观具有二元性。20世纪20年代,顾颉刚接受实用主义价值观,既强调学术旨在求真而非致用,主张保持学术的独立性;又认为学术有间接之用和无用之用,对史学的社会功用多有阐述。三四十年代,社会危机和民族危机的加剧使顾颉刚回归经世致用之学,他致力边疆史地研究和大众文化普及,以服务救亡图存的抗日大业。可见,顾颉刚不同时期对传统经世致用观,或是继承中有批判,或是批判中有继承,却始终没有悖离它。究其根源,在于儒家经国济世传统和实践理性精神在顾颉刚学术价值观的历史阐释中发挥了至关重要的作用。

During the period of the republic of China, Gu Jiegang’s academic values experienced two important transformations, and had a complicated relation of criticism and inheritance with the traditional academic pragmatism.In his early years, he accepted the traditional academic pragmatism and Liang Qichao’s academic pragmatism, and endowed the traditional academic pragmatism with many new connotations.Later on, he accepted Zhang Taiyan’s academic pragmatism, and advocated that the academic goal was to seek truth instead of application.In the 1920 s, he accepted pragmatic philosophy, not only emphasizing that academic activities were aimed at truth rather than application and advocating the maintenance of academic independence, but also arguing that academic research had the indirect and useless applications.Besides, he made many interpretations of the social functions of history.In the 1930 s and 1940 s, the intensification of social and national crisis made him advocate academic pragmatism again.He devoted himself to the study of frontier history and the popularization of popular culture in order to save the nation.Thus, it can be seen that although Gu Jiegang criticized or inherited the traditional academic pragmatism in different periods, he never deviated from it.This is because the traditional academic pragmatism and the substantive tradition of practical rationality played an important role in his historical interpretation of academic values.