唐代政治思想史研究評述與展望

Commentary and Prospect on the Studies of Political Thoughts in the Tang Dynasty

在中國政治思想史研究領域中，唐代是個長期受到冷落的時段，受到蕭公權撰成於 1945 年的典範著作《中國政治思想史》影響，學者普遍認為這時期沒有太高的思想原創性，連帶使得研究議題多帶有很高的因襲性。然而，若從方法論的視角加以檢討，可以發現既有評價實反映了普遍存在於中國政治思想史研究中的哲學式、 菁英式取向。晚近，華文學界開始意識到既有研究取徑的侷限，且開始尋求突破。 筆者以為，發軔於英國劍橋學派、並對歐美思想史界造成重大影響的「政治論述」 研究取徑，值得作為借鏡。有別於傳統政治思想研究偏好具有思想獨特性、體系性的特定文本與人物，「政治論述」研究要求研究者從更宏觀的角度，對各種類型的政治語言進行「脈絡化」分析，以再現隱含在語言背後的政治思維，至於該思維是否 具有創發性，則不是其首要考量。職是之故，其篩選機制遠較傳統政治思想研究寬鬆，很適合拿來研究被貼上「思想平庸」之時代與群體。本文嘗試對與唐代「政治論述」相關的領域進行了初步整理，將許多過去不曾出現在唐代政治思想研究中的 文本與人群，都拉進研究視野之中。筆者相信，若能有效運用「政治論述」的語言分析進路，重探唐代政治思想，未來定能描繪出一幅遠較過去豐富的圖景。

To most researchers of Chinese political thoughts, Tang Dynasty is not a very noticeable period. Influenced by the paradigmatic work, Hsiao Kung-chuan's A History of Chinese Political Thought (published in 1945), they tend to consider Tang Dynasty as a period lacking intellectual originalities, which leads them always to concern similar topics. However, if we reviewed the methodologies of the past studies, we could find their evaluations are limited to philosophical or elitist orientation—a dominant research tendency in the Chinese political thoughts studies. In recent years, some historians attempt to adopt new approaches to break the old research framework. This article believes the “political discourse” approach, initiated by the Cambridge school and causing significant influences on the Euro-American academia, has the potentiality to change the landscape of Chinese political thoughts studies. Other than the past approaches emphasizing the intellectual originality and logical rigorousness of certain individuals or texts, the “political discourse” approach pays more emphasis on the practical intentions, functions and efficiencies of political language, and tends to reconstruct political thoughts behind the languages from a more macroscopic and contextual way. This perspective is suitable for certain periods, such as the Tang Dynasty, which used to be considered as intellectual mediocrity, and it could provide us an opportunity to rewrite the history of political thoughts in the Tang Dynasty