拜占庭文化的历史价值新论

New Perspectives on Historical Value of Byzantine Culture

存在了千余年的拜占庭帝国,和中世纪的西欧、北欧等地区不同,集中体现了东地中海地区希腊文化向中世纪文化过渡和转型的特殊进程。由于地理和战争等多方面的原因,一部拜占庭文化史,其实就是人类历史上东西方文化长时期大规模碰撞和交流的历史。可以说,拜占庭开辟了大规模东西方文化交流的新时代,这是其最大的价值所在。拜占庭人在文化上的功利性的实用主义态度,向后看的文化视野和首都与外省、作家群体之间的隔膜,是导致其千余年文化兴衰的重要原因。

The Byzantine Empire,which spanned for over a thousand years,differed from Western and Northern Europe in the Middle Ages,and embodied a unique process of transition and transformation from ancient Greek culture to medieval culture in the Eastern Mediterranean region.Due to a myriad of factors such as geography and warfare,the history of Byzantine culture is essentially one of extensive collisions and exchanges between Eastern and Western cultures over an extended period in human history.It can be argued that the most significant value of Byzantine culture lies in its establishment of a new era of large-scale cultural exchanges between East and West.The pragmatic utilitarian attitude of the Byzantine people towards culture,their retrospective cultural vision,and the divide between the capital and the provinces,as well as the literary circles,are crucial reasons for the rapid rise and sudden fall of Byzantine culture.