历史、文化与民族:20世纪前期中国文化史的兴起

20世纪初,西方“文化”概念成为整理传统中国历史遗产的重要概念工具。国人编纂文化史有意展现传统中国的文化成就,反映出中西文化竞争下,国人隐秘的文化争胜意识。“文化”与“历史”结合,逐渐成为历史叙事的核心概念。文化史在史学研究的对象、价值判断、时代分期、研究方法等方面发展出自身特征,亦反映出西方文明史、文化史在理论和实践方面对中国“新史学”的影响。文化史在实践中注重对民族历史生活的呈现,表现出民族史的特征,其叙述特定群体或民族社会生活的方方面面,揭示群体的精神内核。历史、文化与民族融会一体,在西学东渐、传统文化权威失坠的情况下,文化史构建了一种彰显社会凝聚力的叙事。

History,Culture,and Nation:The Rise of Chinese Cultural History in the Early Twentieth Century

At the beginning of the twentieth century,the Western concept of “culture” became an important conceptual tool for reconfiguring traditional heritage in China.Chinese scholars wrote cultural history aiming at exhibiting traditional China's material and spiritual achievements.In viewing China in a competition against the West,they held a hidden belief of treating culture as a battleground.The combination of“history”and “culture,” has gradually dominated the theme of historical narrative.At the same time,cultural history paid special attention to present a national life in historical action.Not only did it exhibit various characteristics of national history,but it also revealed the spiritual core of the community.History,culture,and nation merged into one.Cultural history,thus,became a constructed narrative fabricating social cohesion under the background of the eastward spread of Western culture and the loss of traditional authority.