以共通文本超越文化认同:以《老子》为例
日期:04-03
邰谧侠
北京大学高等人文研究院
摘要北京大学高等人文研究院
本文旨在以一种特别的方式描述建立于语言、观念、信仰和礼仪基础上的文化认同——通过考察某个对不同的人意义不同的单独文本如何产生超越特定文化的共通的认同。这也许给我们讨论的文本负担过重,但我们的大部分的讨论都是描述性的。
中国文化以其“至圣先师”闻名,其中首当其冲的就是老子和他的《道德经》,亦即《老子》。《老子》比任何其他中文文献具有更深远的影响。据我调查,老子已经有 73 种语言、1625 种不同译本。这一惊人的数量和不同的诠释来自多种多样拥有相异认同的人。因此,这一全球化的文本不再仅仅代表中国的认同,而是已远远超出这一狭隘的范围。
出于种种缘故,日本无政府主义者、意大利法西斯、美国古鲁教徒、反纳粹斗士、俄罗斯反战主义者、菲律宾民族主义者、斯洛伐克马克思主义者、伊朗伊斯兰神秘主义者都得益于《老子》。不同地域、语言、文化和意识形态的人都借由《老子》这一文本连结在一起。
为什么会这样?《老子》的一些特征使其能够跨越认同的边界。最重要的是,尽管来自一个特定的文化,《老子》几乎并不带有厚重的文化印迹。这与很多其他中西方经典大不相同。某种意义上,《老子》超越了时空。更重要的是,这一文本本身是开放的。它宣称它的存在超越其自身,并非自身的权威,给予读者丰富的诠释空间。
这一文本的传播也很特别,不同于译本繁多的《圣经》或《薄伽梵歌》,这一经典在全球的传播背后从来不存在作为正统的裁定者的组织。《老子》意义的再生是有机的,因而产生了一张不同文化认同的人们彼此交织的网络。
未来的人类应当兼具统一性和多样性,这要求文化多样性能够通过中国经典《老子》这样共享的文本联系在一起。这一文本中心的结构使我们能够发现通常所称的文化圈背后潜在的统一认同。
Transcending Cultural Identity Through Shared Texts: The Case of the Laozi
Misha TADD
Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University
AbstractMisha TADD
Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Peking University
This paper proposes a particular way of delineating cultural identity—something commonly constructed on the basis of language, idea, creed, and ritual—by considering how a single text, meaning different things for different people, can function as a shared identity that transcends specific cultures. Perhaps this places too great a burden on said text, but much of this discussion is purely descriptive.
Chinese culture is known for its “wise masters” and most famous among them is Laozi and his Daodejing, more commonly know in Chinese as simply the Laozi. The Laozi has spread farther and deeper than any other Chinese text, as it has, according to my investigations, been translated 1625 times in 73 languages. This staggering quantity of translations, and hence interpretations, was produced by a wide variety of people holding divergent identities. As such, this globalized text no longer represents a pure Chinese identity, having long moved beyond such narrow confines.
Somehow individuals as divergent as Japanese anarchists, Italian fascists, American self-help gurus, Nazi resistance fighters, Russian pacifists, Filipino nationalists, Slovak Marxists, and Iranian Islamic mystics all see themselves in the text. Separated by place, language, culture, and ideology, all these people are united through the single text of the Laozi.
How can this be? The Laozi has a few characteristics that facilitate its traversing of identity boundaries. Most importantly, though originating in a specific culture, it does not display almost any “hard” or“thick” cultural markers. This contrasts with most other Chinese or Western classics. In a sense it exists beyond time and place. Furthermore, the text itself invites openness. It proclaims its truth exists beyond itself, that it is not its own authority, investing its reader with a broad interpretive license.
The transmission of this text is also somewhat distinctive, in that unlike the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita, the other two most heavily translated works, there has never been an organization, hence an arbiter of orthodoxy, behind the global spread of this classic. It has proliferated organically and so intertwines a rich web of people holding all types of cultural identities.
The future of humanity requires both unity and diversity, and this case suggests that cultural multiplicity can be connected through a single shared text like the Chinese classic Laozi. This text-centric frame enables us to discover possibly unifying identities apart from normally defined cultural spheres.