明清時期的文化一體性、差異性與國家－對標準化與正統實踐的討論之延伸

Cultural Unity, Variation and the State in Ming and Qing Times: A Contribution to the Debate on Standardization and Orthopraxy

蘇堂棟(Donald S. Sutton)

《歷史人類學學刊》 7卷2期 (2009/10) Pp. 139-163

摘要

本文針對科大衛和劉志偉兩位學者在本刊2008年10月「國家建構與地方社會」專號的批評文章作出回應。他們圍繞《近代中國》（Modern China）2007年華琛專號的系列文章，對我們重新闡釋華琛理論的相關論點作出批評。而我們認為，關於近代中國文化標準化與正統實踐的討論，我們的闡述基於華琛的理論而展開；相反，科、劉兩位學者拋棄了華琛「正統實踐」的提法，同時忽略了華琛關於國家對宗教的管理改造僅限於實踐／儀式而非信仰／教義層面上的有關論述。他們也否認了我們所提出的「偽標準化」和「異端實踐」等概念對華琛理論的進一步完善。他們認為，無論其客觀基礎，地方或個人自我標簽的正統（正確／合法性），在不同的地域歷經漫長的時間層累，終將以某種不確定的方式，導向文化一體化。毋庸置疑，這些自我標簽有助於人們對「中國性」的最終認同，但是，我們認為科、劉所提出的概念和相關闡述無法解釋文化共同性的傳播以及國家、地方精英和其他地方勢力在創造這些共同性的進程中各自所起的作用。我們強調，文化標準化的進程極其緩慢，直到晚清尚未完成，因此，不容忽視民間文化對多元性的再創造；今後的研究應該關注不同的地方利益對文化變遷的塑造作用，尤其是地方文化背景下的心理訴求與權力地位競爭。

關鍵字

民間信仰 ； 文化標準化 ； 文化多元性 ； 中國性 ； 正統實踐 ； 偽標準化異端實踐

並列摘要

This paper responds to the October 2008 critique, in this journal, by David Faure and Liu Zhiwei. Their target was our ＂Modern China＂ issue (2007) reconsidering James L. Watson's arguments in the 1980s. We find ourselves closer to Watson than to them on the related questions of cultural standardization and orthodoxy in early modern China. Unlike us, Professors Faure and Liu reject Watson's term orthopraxy and ignore his argument that in reforming religion the state limited its efforts to practice rather than doctrine. They also reject our refinements of Watson, including the concepts pseudo-standardization and heteroprax standardization. They argue that local and individual claims to being orthodox, or correct, or legitimate, no matter what their objective basis, accumulated under different regional conditions and, over time, in some still undetermined way, produced cultural unity. Without denying the role of such claims in the ultimate acceptance of ＂Chineseness＂, we think that the Faure/Liu terminology and interpretation make it difficult or impossible to explore the spread of cultural commonalities and the respective roles of the state, local elites and other locals in creating them. We emphasize that because the process of cultural standardization was extremely slow and still very incomplete by the late Qing, the reproduction of diversity in popular culture cannot be ignored. We favor a research agenda that gives due attention to a variety of local interests in fashioning cultural change, and especially to the role of affect and of status competition in the context of local tradition.

並列關鍵字

popular beliefs ； cultural standardization ； cultural diversity ； Chineseness ； orthopraxy ； pseudo-standardization ； heteroprax standardization