蘇格蘭啟蒙思想中的中國

China in the Making of the Scottish Enlightenment

本文目的在重構蘇格蘭啟蒙盛期至晚期，知識界如何評述中國歷史與文明，並進而分析其評價背後的知識論理由。本文研究發現，活躍於一七五○至六○年代的蘇格蘭作家們如大衛休姆、亞當史密斯、約翰米勒、亞當佛格森、坎姆或多或少接受物質主義文明觀，他們傾向以社會演化的觀念，展示人類大歷史如何從遊牧、農業進入到工商業社會；從野蠻無文而逐漸走向富裕、注重個人能力、知識、和平、尊重個體與社會和諧。在此一被稱之為四階段論的歷史敘述中，中國一面被認為是人類物質文明的高峰，卻同時保留許多野蠻時期的風俗習慣。物質論者相信，高度的經濟成就代表文化創造能力的成就；而物質文明進程與保持舊風俗習慣的不一致，固然引人注意，但與其視為例外或不正常，毋寧應該視為歷史事實——處於同樣高度物質文明的國家與民族可能表現出不同的文化生活樣貌。另一支啟蒙哲學——心智哲學幾乎與物質主義同時興起，但在啟蒙晚期擅場。此一以湯瑪士里德為首的哲學派別，影響了許多關注文化，尤其是語言的興起的啟蒙作家，如詹姆士比提、孟波多、斯圖亞特、法蘭西斯‧傑佛瑞等人。在這些心智主義論哲學家與作家的理解中，由心智所創造的文化，其高低就是文明的高低。根據此種見解，由於中國象形文字的不利學習以及政治等因素，中國文明未曾發展至歐洲十八世紀的高峰，而且未來發展限制重重。換言之，歐洲尤其是英國對中國評價由欣賞推崇轉為嘆息見棄，其智識上的原因在於其世界觀的哲學基礎由物質主義史觀，轉變成心智主義所致。

Giving an account of how major writers in the Scottish Enlightenment considered and viewed the state of civilization in China, this article provides epistemological explanations of why the luminaries and men of letters alike perceived it as they did. It argues that the enlightened writers active in the 1750s–60s, including David Hume, Adam Smith, and John Millar as well as—to alesser extent—Adam Ferguson and Lord Kames, adopted amaterialistic worldview and accordingly understood human history in terms of social evolution: from hunting to pasturage and then to agriculture with commerce and manufacturing being the last stage. In line with economic progress from the general poverty of the former stages to the prosperity of the latter, human societies were believed to evolve from savagery to astate in which individuals’merits, knowledge, sociability, and security were increasingly appreciated and realized. Within this historic outlook commonly known as the“four stages theory,”China was generally depicted as acountry of great affluence but tainted by customs derived from the time of barbarianism. To be sure, these writers did not consider the co-existence of the modern prosperity of material civilization and outmoded rites or institutions as aperplexity, but rather as amatter of historical fact. Another branch of Scottish philosophers and men of letters, however, saturated in the philosophy of mind championed by Thomas Reid as well as his associates largely concerned with culture and language such as James Beattie, Lord Monboddo, Dugald Stewart and Francis Jeffrey, and again to alesser degree, Lord Kames, maintained that the level or progress of culture as developed by the mind is equal to that of civilization. Based on this view, the irreparable disadvantages of Chinese writing, including being regarded as an ideographic language difficult to learn and other political factors, prescribed the backwardness of China’s past, present, and future civilization, which was incapable of developing to the level of eighteenth-century Europe. This article concludes that the immense shift in the Scottish evaluation of the cultural accomplishments of China, namely moving from admiration to disparagement, appeared in the last two decades of the eighteenth century and was aligned with the advent of different schools of philosophy shaped by distinct outlooks, as exemplified by ashift towards the philosophy of mind.