清末群学辨证——以康有为、梁启超、严复为中心

The Late Qing Dynasty Concept of Qunxue (“Social Studies”)

清末群学同名之下 ,有合群立会之说、社会学和广义社会科学之别。康有为、梁启超等人倡导的群学 ,实由传统典籍中“敬业乐群、会友辅仁”等思想而来 ,他们关注的中心是政治 ,却希望刚刚传入中国的社会学作为其学理支撑 ,遂以群学名其合群立会之说 ;严复在以群学为名介绍社会学时 ,引经据典 ,也大谈合群保种 ,并以群学为政治学、法学、宗教学等社会、人文科学之总称 ,致使后人产生误解。只有梳理其中的纷纭委曲 ,才能显示清末群学的真实面貌。

In the late Qing dynasty, the term qunxue refers at the same time to arguments for sociability, sociology and social science in general. What Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao advocated came from classical Chinese ideas that saw gregariousness as a virtue. Since they hoped to find theoretical support for their political concerns from sociology that was newly introduced to China, they labeled their arguments qunxue. Yan Fu also talked about being sociable for the survival of the nation when he introduced Western sociology to China, which he named qunxue. He also employed the term to refer to the social sciences and humanities, including political science and studies of laws and religions, and caused much confusion. Careful combing is needed before we may have a clear picture of the meanings of qunxue in the late Qing.