中国的“ 文明转向” : 危险与机会
日期:11-15
柯乐山
北京大学高等人文研究院
摘要北京大学高等人文研究院
2019 年 5 月在北京主办的亚洲文明对话大会代表习主席时代文化外交的转折点:国内政策始终强调的“文明”(civilisation)的重要性,现在也成为外交政策的关键部分了。本文首先分析了习主席大会演讲的内容,然后考察了西方帝国历史的前车之鉴。能不能在中国(即在北京大学)建构一个真正的、全世界会认同的“文明对话中心”?这是一个严峻而复杂的挑战:怎么赢得中国人民和政府的信任,同时说服国外不少对中国持有疑问的组织来参加? 根本上只能靠有建设性的批评精神,幽默感与钦佩之心的奇妙结合,即真正的友情精神,才能成功。根据习主席 2014 年在文艺工作座谈会上的演讲中提到的“文艺也是不同国家和民族相互了解和沟通的最好方式”这一观点,我们认为,中国的 “文明转向”要用“文艺”精神来理解,而不能靠腐朽落后的斯大林主义的写实主义,工具理性,人类灵魂工程学等概念。杜维明先生提出的充满活力、有批评性,幽默性,对话性与全球性的精神人文主义更加符合新时代的要求,或可帮助我们积极地面对所谓 “第二次冷战”将会出现的挑战。
China’s ‘Civilisational Turn’: Risks and Opportunities
Jonathan KEIR
Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University
AbstractJonathan KEIR
Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University
The 2019 Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations, held in Beijing in May, marked an important milestone in Xi-era Chinese cultural dipomacy: the commitment to the promotion of wenming or civilisation, so prominent in many aspects of China’s domestic policy, is now firmly a feature of its foreign policy as well. We begin by analysing the content of Xi’s Opening Address at the conference before turning to cautionary tales from the annals of Western imperialism. The very serious and real challenge of building, within China (namely, at Peking University), a Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations which is both amenable to stated Chinese interests and able to be taken seriously by sceptics and critics in the West and elsewhere - in other words, turning Beijing into a true capital of human dialogue - is an extremely complex trust-building exercise which involves, crucially, finding the magic mixture of constructive criticism, humour and admiration on which all lasting friendship is based. Following Xi’s stated principle that ‘art and literary works are the best way for different nations and peoples to understand and communicate with each other,’ we argue for a‘literary’ interpretation of China’s ‘civilisational turn’ which eschews the tired materialist clichés of an outdated socialist realism based on instrumental rationality - the old Stalinist vision of ‘soul engineering’ - in favour of a more dynamic, critical, dialogical and ‘spiritual’ humanism of the kind advocated by Tu Weiming: a true World Ethos fit for the new demands of the 21st Century and the specific challenges of a potential ‘Second Cold War’ era.