Rethinking Max Weber's View of Chinese Culture

本文针对韦伯的《中国的宗教:儒教和道教》一书中西文化比较研究中的得失提出了个人的一些管见,指出由于时代的局限,韦伯像他那个时代的大多数欧洲思想家一样具有“欧洲中心论”的思想倾向,这导致他在论述包括中国宗教在内的东方宗教时显露出极高的睿智和洞见,同时也含有许多曲解和误读。譬如,他判定道教是“纯粹的非理性”,进而把包括儒释道三家学说在内的东方宗教界定为“神秘主义”类型,并与西方的“禁欲主义”宗教—文化类型对列成犄角之势,构成了韦伯视野中的东西方文化—历史比较研究的基本格局。文章认为韦伯对中国文化的这些见解既和他的比较研究的理想类型有关,也与他思想深处源于古希腊的理性哲学和中古希伯来的信仰意识所奠定的欧洲文化统一性具有深刻的联系。

Through examination of Max Weber's discussion in The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism，the author points out that Weber，like many of his European contemporary thinkers，had a Eurocentric tendency in his comparative history culture study． This tendency made his study of Chinese religion extremely sharp and insightful，meanwhile led to many errors and misunderstandings in his commentaries， however． Considering Taoism as“absolutely irrational”and defining Oriental religions including Confucianism，Buddhism and Taoism as the mysticism type，Weber put them directly against the Western asceticism religion-culture type，and then developed the basic framework of his comparative religious study． Based on this research framework，Weber tried to figure out and explain the peculiar development routes of major civilizations around the globe through comparisons and contrasts to modern Western rationalism． The author argues that Weber's views of Chinese culture not only rested upon his ideal-type methodology of cross-cultural study，but also resulted from the European cultural unity deeply rooted in the ancient Greece rational philosophy and Medieval Hebrew religious beliefs．

苏国勋

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