原創 王緝思 北京大學中外人文交流研究基地
小i導讀
當地時間12月20日,著名中國問題學者、費正清東亞研究中心前主任、哈佛大學社會科學系榮休教授傅高義(Ezra F. Vogel)去世,終年90歲。
傅高義,1930年7月生,費正清東亞研究中心前主任、社會學家、漢學研究學者,也是美國著名中國問題專家。他對中國問題的觀察和寫作持續數十年,精通中文和日文,被認為是美國唯一的一位對中日兩國事務都精通的學者,撰有《鄧小平時代》、《日本第一》、《日本的中產階級》、《重整旗鼓——重建美國實例分析》和《共產主義制度下的廣州:一個省會的規劃和政治(1949-1968年)》等著作。
傅高義教授為增進中美兩國人民的理解付出了畢生努力,曾多次與北京大學國關學者展開學術交流,並對青年學者們寄予厚望。今年6月30日至7月3日,傅高義教授還參加了由《環球時報》社、美國卡特中心、北京大學中外人文交流研究基地共同主辦的「第五屆中美青年學者論壇」。他對青年人寄語:「在這個風雲變幻的世界,當科技和經濟發展迅速時,學會一門技能並不能保證讓你們的餘生都不必擔心生計的問題。在學會一門技能之後,你們必須做好適應大環境的準備。」
泰山其頹,哲人其萎。本期為傅高義教授紀念專題,以深切緬懷傅高義教授並銘記他為中國研究和中美關系所做的貢獻。本文是經王緝思教授校訂後整理的他在「第五屆中美青年學者」的主旨演講。首先分享了傅高義教授在新書《中國與日本》序言中憶起博士生導師對他說的話:「想要了解不同文化,必須真正走近被那種文化滋養的人。」
本文約6778字,讀完約17分鐘
王緝思
北京大學博雅講席教授
北京大學國際戰略研究院院長
北京大學中外人文交流研究基地高級顧問
很高興能和我的同事、朋友以及年輕一代的學者們一起探討至關重要的議題。也祝賀論壇的組織者舉辦如此意義重大的活動。很多演講者將在這裡呈現他們的實質性觀點。在接下來的10分鐘裡,請允許我分享我個人作為一位資深學者的觀察體悟,如果我可以這樣冒昧自稱的話。我很高興在我之前發言的董雲裳女士分享了她作為外交官的一些有趣的經歷。
I'm very happy to join my colleagues, friends, and scholars of the younger generations to discuss very important issues. I would also like to express my congratulations to the organizers for holding this significant event. Many speakers will present their substantive views. So please allow me to use my own 10 minutes to share some of my personal observations as a veteran scholar, if I could be presumptuous enough to identify myself as such. I'm happy that Susan Thornton before me said something intriguing about her experiences as a practitioner.
我的第一點感悟是,理解國際政治的關鍵是理解其他社會與文明。昨天,在準備這次演講的時候,我收到了傅高義教授的新書《中國和日本》。在中文版的序言中,傅高義教授提到了大概65年前他的哈佛博導說的一句話——理解我們社會的最佳方式是走出國門感受文化差異。傅高義的博士生導師告訴他,要想大體了解一種不同的文化,就必須真正走近一些被那種文化滋養的人,並試著透過他們的眼睛看世界。
My first observation is that the key to understanding international politics is to understand other civilizations and societies. Yesterday, when I was preparing today's presentation, I received a copy of Professor Ezra F. Vogel’s new book: China and Japan. In the preface to the Chinese translation, Professor Vogel released a comment made by his PhD advisor at Harvard about 65 years ago that 「the best way to understand our own society was to go abroad to feel cultural differences.」 Ezra’s professor told him that 「to get those general understandings of a different culture, we have to really know some people nurtured by that culture and try to look at the world the way they do.」
《中國和日本》英文版,傅高義 著,Belknap出版社,2019年7月出版
就我個人而言,我經歷過一些文化衝擊。例如,1984年,我作為加州大學伯克利分校的訪問學者第一次訪美。在到達伯克利的第二天,我就遇上了校園附近的一場大遊行。我看到了一張「男同性戀者和女同性戀者反對種族隔離」的大幅海報,非常震驚。過了一會兒我才意識到同性戀和種族隔離,或者說種族歧視之間的關聯。當時我是剛從中國來的一個青年學者,對這些概念都很生疏。這些年,我一直在持續關注美國的社會和文化變化,現在理解美國的「黑人的命也是命」之類的概念就比較容易了。但是你們覺得這些與外交政策或是中美關係有關聯嗎?我認為絕對有,雖然今天沒有時間解釋箇中原因。
In my own experiences, I have encountered cultural shocks. For example, my first visit to the United States, dated back to 1984, when I was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley. The second day I arrived at Berkeley, I witnessed a big demonstration near the campus. I was shocked to see a big poster saying 「gays and lesbians against apartheid.」 It took me a few moments to catch the connection between gays, lesbians, apartheid or racial discrimination. These concepts were alien to me as a younger scholar coming from China. Following the societal and cultural changes in the States over all these years, it would not be hard for me today to comprehend things like Black Lives Matter in the US. But are these things relevant to you as students of foreign policy or US China relations? My answer is a definite 「yes」 although I don't have time to explain why and how.
我們要學習的文明的另一部分就是宗教。因為我們大多數都是漢族,都不信教或者是無神論者。在去伯克利之前,我曾在牛津大學待過一年。我參加了牛津的一個聖經學習班,出於某種原因聯繫了一個名為「基督復臨安息日會」的非常保守的教會。這個教派相信安息日是周六而不是周日。到美國之後,我繼續研習宗教,前往中東地區時也是如此。這對研究世界政治大有裨益。因為如果不懂基督教,就無法真正理解萊因霍爾德·尼布爾、塞繆爾·亨廷頓或者像沃爾特•拉塞爾•米德這樣的當代國際關係學者的思想。
Another part of civilization we should learn is religion, because most of us, Han Chinese, are non religious or atheist. Before I went to Berkeley, I had spent a year at Oxford University. I entered a Bible studies program at Oxford, and was somehow affiliated with a church called the Seventhday Adventist, a very conservative denomination. They believe that the Sabbath is Saturday instead of Sunday. I continued my learning of religion in America and while making tours to the Middle East. And that is very helpful for studying world politics. Without the knowledge of Christianity, we will never catch the true thoughts of political thinkers like Reinhold Niebuhr, Samuel Huntington, or contemporary IR scholars like Walter Russell Mead.
上世紀九十年代,有些中國的政府機構想讓我幫忙說服美國人,中國的計劃生育政策不僅對中國有益,對全世界都有好處,因為減少了出生人口就能節約資源,促進經濟發展。但是,我了解到當時美國爭論得熱火朝天的議題是墮胎問題,這個問題至今還是一個熱點。所謂主張胚胎生存權和主張婦女有權選擇墮胎的爭論,其實都和宗教信仰有關。一些反對墮胎的美國人相信,每一個出生的和正在孕育中的人類生命都是按照上帝的形象被創造出來的。因此,這些美國人不認為中國這樣一個國家的繁榮比個體生命的權利更重要。這就是為什麼我們當時沒能讓美國人相信中國計劃生育政策的正當性,尤其是強制墮胎的正當性。有意思的是,在這次疫情中,很多中國人認為美國人不應該顛倒主次,把恢復經濟放在挽救生命前面。這整個問題讓我覺得很惶惑。
In the 1990s, some Chinese government agencies wanted me to help them convince Americans that China's one child birth control policy was not only beneficial to China, but also to the whole world, because the reduction of births would save resources and promote economic growth. However, I got to know that a heatedly debated issue in America was, and still is, abortion and the so called prolife versus prochoice debate is related to religious faith. Because some Americans who oppose abortion believe that human life is based on the idea that each human being born and preborn is created in the image of God. In this sense, these Americans didn't think the prosperity of a nation like China was more important than individual human lives. That's why we failed at the time to convince Americans of the justice of China's birth control practices, especially forced abortion. Interestingly, at this time of the pandemic, many Chinese argue that Americans should not put economic recovery ahead of saving human lives from the Covid-19. The whole thing sounds very confusing to me.
我的第二點感受是我們應該向有政治經歷的人士學習,比如這次的三位演講嘉賓,於洪君先生、董雲裳女士和傅高義教授。我們都有學術追求,也都在研究國際政治理論。在伯克利,我結識了聲譽斐然的理論家肯尼思·華爾茲教授。他曾於1988年訪問北京大學。當時,有中國學生問他,他的理論會對美國的外交政策產生多大影響。聽到這個提問,他不太高興,但還是回答說,「我為了求知而求知。我不在乎我的知識是否能影響政策。」但私底下,我覺得他是在乎的。
My second observation is that we should try to learn from those who have had political experiences like the three speakers on this panel - Mr. Yu Hongjun, Ms. Thornton, and Professor Vogel. Of course we all pursue scholarship and study IR theories. At Berkeley, I got to know very well Professor Kenneth Waltz, a very respectable theorist. When he visited Beida in 1988, some Chinese students asked him to what extent his theory would influence US foreign policy. He did not appear very happy to hear the question, but responded: 「I pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake. And I don't care whether my knowledge is making any impact on policy.」 Privately, however, I think he did care.
1989年10月,我和一些同事與尼克森總統在北京進行了一次談話。尼克森的助理是邁克·奧克森伯格,一個著名的中國通。尼克森問我,我的研究領域是什麼。我告訴他我研究的是政治科學。他說:「政治科學?我在大學裡也學過類似的科目,但不實用。政治可不是科學。政治是一門藝術。」從那時起,我就更多地把政治作為藝術來看待,但從來沒有勇氣從政。我希望我這番偏離主題的話沒有浪費大家的時間。謝謝聽取我的發言!
In October 1989, a few colleagues and I had a chance to chat with President Richard Nixon in Beijing. Nixon was assisted by Mike Oksenberg, a distinguished China hand. Nixon asked me what was my subject. I told him I was studying Political Science. He said: 「Political Science? I also studied something like that at university, but it was not useful. Politics is not a science. It's an art.」 From that time on, I have understood politics more as an art, but have never had the courage to play with it. I hope I'm not wasting your time by saying something deviating from the major theme of this conference. Thank you very much for listening.
本文為王緝思教授在《環球時報》社、美國卡特中心、北京大學中外人文交流研究基地於2020年6月30日至7月3日共同主辦的「第五屆中美青年學者論壇」上的主旨演講。文中觀點經本人審閱。如需轉載,請註明出處。
原標題:《【紀念專欄】王緝思談傅高義新書:為世界讀懂中國》
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