中西古代平等观之比较——以平等思想的两次发展高潮为线索

A Comparison of the Views of Equality between China and the West in Ancient Times----Taking the Two Development Climaxes of the Idea of Equality as a Clue

人类社会从未停止过对平等的追求,针对“何为平等”以及“如何平等”的探讨成为历史发展的重要推动力。中西古代平等思想在先秦时期和古希腊时期、明清时期和启蒙运动时期出现了两次发展高潮,并且呈现出明显的地域特征。在基于对“道”与“质料”的不同认识的基础上,各自形成了一种相对朴素的同等观;因这种同等观不足以解决现实问题,中西思想家转而将目光聚焦在理想的均等观上,并在付诸社会实践的过程中,逐渐形成了以民为本的整体平等观与个人至上的程序平等观的理论分野。一些人简单地认为古代中国一以贯之的平等思想只是一种精神层面难以实现的社会期待,而忽略了其对人类平等思想发展的理论和实践贡献;也有人主张古代西方平等观尤其是文艺复兴之后的西方平等观对促进人性、伦理、经济、权利等方面的现实平等做出了更大贡献。实际上一旦将研究视野困于文艺复兴之后全面变革的西方社会体系与东方古国较为稳定的封建体系的背景之中,对中西古代平等观的评价就难以展现问题全貌。本文尝试跳出以西方为主的平等话语体系和固化思维模式,从朴素的同等观、理想的均等观和早期的平等观三个方面对中西古代平等观进行再认识,并提出古代中国平等观并非脱离现实的精神诉求,而是建立在文化认同基础上的、独具中国哲学智慧的完整思想体系。

Human society has never stopped pursuing equality,and the discussion on“what is equality”and“how to be equal”has become an important driving force for historical development.The ancient Chinese and Western ideas of equality developed two climaxes in the pre-Qin period and the ancient Greek period,working life and being the“singing of the bottom class”.The emergence of social issues such as migrant workers in the 1980s and 1990s had profound international and domestic backgrounds,in a sense a result of China’s increasing integration into the global economic system.As“DE-organized”individuals who are both embedded in and detached from the process of global integration,migrant workers actually correspond to the reconstruction of the relationship between individuals and the world in contemporary China.And the“narrative of suffering”and literary expression constructed by their psychology,emotions,and life situations are a prophecy as well as representation of the arrival of an era of rootless individuals who drift and struggle between traditional and modern,rural and urban,and rational and emotional tensions.