晚明社会文化语境下士大夫对西学的接受

The Dissemination and Reception of Western Learning in the Socio-Cultural Context of Late Ming China

晚明中国社会文化背景下,“西学”主要指来自欧洲的科学技术和有关天主教的宗教文化知识。二者对晚明中国社会产生了一定的影响,较之于自然科学,有关天主教的文化知识对晚明中国产生的影响非常有限。这与当时中国社会文化具有极大的关系。晚明中国因科举取士的制度传统,其自然科学相对于西方,具有“弱势”特点,因而容易接受西方自然科学方面的知识;而儒释道合流的文化系统却让晚明中国人在信仰上比较“成熟”,因此很难接受作为信仰文化的天主教文化。这种文化现象也符合以色列著名学者伊塔玛•埃文-佐哈尔的“多元系统”理论。

In the socio-cultural context of late Ming China,“Western learning”mainly refers to science and technology from Europe and religious and cultural knowledge about Catholicism,both of which had a certain in⁃fluence on the society of late Ming China.Compared with natural sciences,cultural knowledge about Catholi⁃cism had very limited influence on late Ming China.Due to the traditional system of imperial examination and enrolment,China’s natural science was so“weak”compared with its Western counterpart that it was easy to ac⁃cept knowledge about Western natural sciences.However,given that the combination of Confucianism,Bud⁃dhism,and Daoism made the Chinese people in late Ming“mature”in faith,it was difficult to accept the Cath⁃olic culture as a faith culture.Such a cultural phenomenon also conforms to the polysystem theory put forward by the famous Israeli scholar Itamar Even-Zohar.