Lecture 2 China and the European Enlightenment

第二講　中國與歐洲啟蒙運動

Stewart J. Brown

《神學與教會》 42卷1期 (2017/01) Pp. 102-118

https://doi.org/10.6888/TC.201701_42(1).0008

摘要

As we saw in the previous lecture, the European Enlightenment of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was a diverse cultural movement that changed perceptions of the nature and destiny of humankind, and of the foundations of individual and social ethics. It represented in part the growing European awareness of non-European cultures and beliefs. The Enlightenment embraced a global perspective, and a sense of humankind as an interconnected web. It was, according to the intellectual historian, Jonathan Israel, a 'revolution of the mind', bringing new conceptions of individual freedom, human capacity, and human progress. Vital themes in Europe's Enlightenment included a new cosmopolitanism, rooted in the growing appreciation for other world cultures, an interest in forms of natural religion, and efforts to find a new grounding or foundation for social ethics, apart from the moral laws and teachings of Christianity, as these were expressed in Scripture and interpreted by the Christian Churches. As scholars have long been aware, Europe's growing awareness of China, and especially of Confucian thought, played a significant role in shaping the European Enlightenment. Many thinkers of the Enlightenment admired China as an ancient, orderly, stable and humane society, but with a social ethic that had developed independently of Christian influence. The existence of China's sophisticated civilisation raised serious questions about the need for Christian revelation to support a social ethic. For centuries, most Europeans had believed that Christianity formed the one truly sound basis for individual and social morality. But from the later seventeenth century a growing European knowledge about China's ancient culture suggested there were other possibilities and this in turn opened up new ethical horizons. Some European thinkers became convinced that China's ancient social ethics could provide a model for Europe and this idea had a profound influence on the European Enlightenment. For the distinguished American historian, Arnold Rowbotham, China was a 'laboratory for the philosopher', and 'any discussion of the thought of the Enlightenment must, therefore, of necessity consider the literary and cultural contacts between this great Oriental country and the West'. As Jonathan Israel has observed, China represented 'a philosophical thought experiment' for the 'enlightened philosopher, enabling us to determine how far unaided reason can attain valid moral concepts without revelation'. One German intellectual historian went so far as to describe Confucius as 'the patron saint of eighteenth-century [European] Enlightenment'. This lecture will explore the vital influence of China, and especially Chinese moral philosophy, upon the moral and religious thought of the European Enlightenment.

並列摘要

對中國文明日益增長的認識對歐洲早期啟蒙運動是一個主要的影響。受過教育的歐洲人首先通過天主教耶穌會傳教士翻譯儒家書籍，來了解中國文明和哲學。他們認為中國除了具有效力的社會倫理，且是一個古老而精密的文明。其獨立發展於基督教影響之外，並且顯示出基督教對一個道德社會而言，不是必要的。有些人認為，中國人擁有一種藉由蒼天透過四季向他們顯露的自然宗教，並且中國儒家的教義包含了古代智慧神學的遺跡，也是神聖啟示的最早形式，可能是形成所有世界信仰聯合的基礎。一些早期啟蒙運動有影響力的思想家都被中國吸引。其中最有影響力的可算是萊布尼茲（Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646-1716），他是一位有天賦的哲學家和數學家，對中國的社會倫理提供的世界團結與和諧鑰匙的觀點極為傾倒。他甚至認為歐洲需要中國傳教士去教導一個純自然的宗教。其他突出的啟蒙思想家，包括法國的伏爾泰（Voltaire）和普魯士的沃爾夫（Wolff）也是中國倫理的推崇者。但在1750年左右，啟蒙思想家對中國的態度開始改變。這種啟蒙思想家如孟德斯鳩（Montesquieu），康德（Kant）和赫德（Herder）對他們所視為專制的中國政治提出更多批評，也不再推崇中國的社會制度和道德。他們開始相信歐洲在製造業，農業和商業方面是進步的，而中國卻停滯不前。雖然中國過去對歐洲早期啟蒙運動是一個重大的影響，但隨著啟蒙運動的發展，許多歐洲國家將中國，甚至整個亞洲，視為落後及不先進的。