當代學者追溯中國現代性的問題時,往往追溯到晚明,中國左派學者所提的「資本主義萌芽說」、新儒家學者所提的「良知學轉出說」以及日本學者島田虔次、溝口雄三所提的「近世思維說」可為代表。本文檢證了「資本主義萌芽說」與「良知學轉出說」,指出前說提供了以往學界不太注意到的社會經濟史資料,顯示作為下層結構的經濟生產模式反應了某種的思想史內涵。然而,此說很難解是王學的核心理論跟這些社會經濟史現象之間的關聯,它也沒有解釋這些現象和明清之際興起的專制批判論的內容之間的關係,以及可能的展望。相對之下,「良知學轉出說」持的是混合現代性的立場,它強調民主是內在於中國文化內部的要求,民主的基礎不一定要建立在階級意識或抽象的個體意識上,它也可建立在良知學基礎上。但西方進來的民主清單項目也是需要的,兩者結合才是較合理的中國現代化的方案。
When contemporary scholars deal with issues concerning Chinese modernity, they tend to trace back to the late Ming discourses. Examples include the Chinese left-wing scholars' sprouts of capitalism, the Neo-Confucianists' development of conscience, and Shimada Kenji and Mizoguchi Yūzō's "the theories of modern thinking". This article examines "the sprouts of capitalism" and "the development of conscience" and reveals the important social-economic background of the two accounts. It also manifests the underlying relations between mode of economic production and intellectual history. My research, moreover, takes the perspective of Neo-Confucianists and discusses their standpoint on the plurality of modernity. Finally, I argue that Neo-Confucianists proposed more comprehensive ways of looking at Chinese modernity.