在中西隔空对话中理解司马迁的历史哲学

On the Understanding of Sima Qian’s Historical Philosophy in a Cross-Time Dialogue between Chinese and Western Context

“史家之绝唱,无韵之离骚”是鲁迅先生对《史记》历史性与文学性完美融合的高度概括与总结,也是对司马迁历史哲学的形象化表述。如果联系20世纪以来西方历史观念对研究方法的影响,大体经历了客观的重建论、主观的建构论和语言的解构论三种不同方法论的交替转变。司马迁通过《史记》创作体现的历史哲学观念接近主观的建构论,但它却以早熟的叙事策略,独领风骚两千年。这样一来,人们自然而然地联想到,司马迁“无韵之离骚”的美学追求与美国哲学家海登·怀特构建的后现代历史叙事学的基本理念极其相似。即便如此,我们只能将其看作后现代主义与古典主义的隔空对话,而各自的观念和指涉终究不同。

Lu Xun renders a high praise and summary of the perfect fusion of historicity and literary quality in Historical Records by employing“the pinnacle of historiography,the unrhymed Lament”,which is also a vivid expression of Sima Qian’s historical philosophy.Considering the influence of Western historical perspectives on research methods since the 20th century,there have been three main methodological shifts:objective reconstructionism,subjective constructivism,and linguistic deconstructionism.This paper holds that Sima Qian’s historical philosophy reflected in Historical Records is related closely to subjective constructivism,yet it stands out for two millennia with its precocious narrative strategy.This naturally leads one to think of the aesthetic pursuit of Sima Qian’s“unrhymed Lament”as being remarkably similar to the fundamental concepts of postmodern historical narratology constructed by American philosopher Hayden White.Even so,we can only regard this as a dialogue across time between postmodernism and classicism,with their respective ideas and references ultimately different.