英国汉学家艾约瑟的“唐宋思想变革”说

当代学术发展日益重视学术史的反思。西方汉学之根基常常追溯到十九世纪。近年来,日益受到重视的"唐宋变革思想"说在学术史上的变化己引起广泛的讨论,但学者们比较关注其逐渐完善的过程,而忽略其草创期之发源。实际上,早期传教士的汉学论题中已经提出唐宋时代思想在文化领域的急剧变化,或可视为唐宋变革论之滥觞。根据英国传教士艾约瑟在1886年《华北的秘密教派》一文的提示,十世纪是一个关键的变化期,对以后的历史发展有很大的影响,主要表现为儒生从关注文学和佛学转向关注哲学,其中关注易学更不容小觑。此观点乃后世所谓唐宋时代从文学到道学变化之先鞭。艾约瑟还指出,宋代印刷术之发达,有益于当时人保存更多文化资料以及接触儒释道思想,从而引起思想上的变化。

British Sinologist Joseph's Theory of Innovation in Tang and Song Dynasties

Contemporary scholarship in Chinese studies has recently drawn new attention to the development of many crucial paradigms and attempts to figure out the context in which they emerged.Many issues discussed by contemporary Western scholarship should also be traced back to the nineteenth century.This paper aims to explore the possible origin of the paradigm of the intellectual transition in the Tang-Song periods.In reading Joseph Edkins's essay published in 1886,the author suggests that Edkins has already touc...