为托克维尔“减负”——兼论西方政治与法律思想研究的中国主体性问题

Unburdening Tocqueville:the Issue of Chinese Subjectivity in the Study of Western Political and Legal Thoughts

后冷战时期的诸多论者致力于将托克维尔的“大革命进一步加强了‘旧制度’业已推进的‘中央集权’”这一论断,“移植”到20世纪中国的语境之中。这一尝试忽略了两个国家在近代国际体系中的不同位置。在托克维尔的视野中,中国居于与法国殖民地阿尔及利亚类似的位置,而被殖民者如何争取托克维尔式的自由,恰恰构成托克维尔思想的“薄弱环节”。托克维尔对于殖民者与被殖民者的不同态度,与其贵族色彩强烈的“自由”观念有着深刻的联系。对于中国在近代国际体系中的位置的自觉,不仅是重新理解托克维尔的关键所在,也是理解中国式现代化的正当性的关键所在。中国式现代化建立在对殖民主义的否定之上,深入反思殖民主义对于近代西方区域与国别研究知识传统的塑造,有助于在“自主知识体系”的建设中真正落实中国主体性,实现“自建光荣”。

Many commentators in the post-Cold War period have attempted to transplant Tocqueville's thesis,that“the Great French Revolution further strengthened the‘centralization'that the‘old system'had already promoted”, into the context of the twentieth-century China. This attempt overlooks the different positions of the two countries in the modern international system. In Tocqueville's vision, China occupies a position similar to that of Algeria, the French colony. However, how the colonized should fight for Tocqueville-style liberty is exactly the weak point in Tocqueville's thought. His differentiated attitudes towards colonizers and the colonized are deeply associated with his aristocratic concept of“liberty”. A raised consciousness of China's place in the modern international system provides the key not only to re-understanding Tocqueville, but also to understanding the legitimacy of“Chinese-style modernization”. In fact,“Chinese-style modernization”is based on the negation of the legitimacy of colonialism. A deep reflection on how colonialism has shaped the intellectual tradition of area studies in the modern West will help us establish China's subjectivity in the construction of her“independent knowledge system”.