也谈“贾而好儒”是徽商的特色——与张明富先生商榷

Again on trading while favoring Confucianism,the characteristic of the Merchants in Huizhou of Anhui Province -Discussion with Mr. Zhang Ming-fu

张明富先生认为“贾而好儒”不是徽商特色,而是明清商人的普遍特征。本文不赞成这种观点,指出:一,张明富先生的论证方法有问题,单纯的例证法不足以证明某个事物的基本趋势、基本倾向。二,徽商“贾而好儒”的特色也得到了同时代人的认同。这一特色的形成,是与徽州这一特殊地区密切相关的。三,张文所分析的明清商人普遍“贾而好儒”的原因,从逻辑上说是不能成立的。四,儒家观念并非传统商人未能踏入近代门槛的主要羁绊,能否超越儒家思想的屏障也非中世纪商人与近代商人的最大区别。

Mr.Zhang Ming-fu holds that trading while favoring Confucianism is not the characteristic of the merchants in Huizhou of Anhui Province, but the general feature of the merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasty.The author of this article disagrees with Mr.Zhang based on the following points.Firstly,there's something wrong with Mr.Zhang's way of argumentation.Simple exemplification is insufficient to prove the basic trend of a certain thing.Secondly,this characteristic of the merchants of Huizhou has been identified by the contemporaries. The forming of the characteristic is closely related to the special prefecture of Huizhou.Thirdly,the reason why the merchants in Ming and Qing Dynasty generally favored Confucianism, analyzed by Mr.Zhang, is untenable logically.Lastly, the thoughts of Confucian school is not the main fetter that prevents the traditional merchants from crossing the modem threshold,whether they can surmount Confucianism is not the biggest difference between medieval and modem merchants.