李学勤 清华大学
Li, Xueqin, Tsinghua University
原文Original
重新发现中国经典
国际上的汉学是在西方文化传播到东方，中西不同的文化传统开始接触、碰撞和交流的时候诞生的。在中国历史上被喻为“天崩地解”的明清之际，来到中国的外国传教士和学者，首先探索和研习作为中国传统文化核心的文献经典。对于那些将中国经典介绍到西方的学者，我们不会忘记，是他们首先进入中国历史文化的殿堂，将中国文化介绍给世界。
有的学者，如著名的中国学者王国维、钱穆等先生，力主“学无中西”。就具体的知识而言，“学”固然不分中西，但中西文化传统究竟是不相同的。因此在中西文化接触交融的过程中，在力求认识了解中国的西方产生了汉学，而在中国为区别彼此文化学术，也有了新创造的名词“中学”或“国学”。于是从明清之际到晚清，再到“五四”前后，都出现中学、西学的讨论，后来就有“国学热”。这些讨论，都涉及如何认识和对待中国传统文化，特别是经典的问题。同样，在西方，汉学界对怎样理解和诠释中国经典，讨论也从未断绝。
今天，我们又走到这样的关键时期，此次大会可谓风云际会，给了大家深入分析交流的机会。不久前，我们建立了翻译《五经》的大课题，确是涵义深远。同时，我们又正处于王国维先生说的“大发现之时代”，近几年新发现了先秦写本的《周易》、《老子》，西汉写本的《诗经》、《论语》，最近清华大学收藏的战国简又有多篇《尚书》和类似《竹书纪年》的《系年》，这大量的新发现，为重新了解和诠释中国经典，创造了前所未有的条件，也使汉学的发展有了新的契机。
重新发现中国经典，我们将有新的汉学。
译文Translation
Rediscovering the Chinese Classics
What we call international sinology was born at a time when western culture was transmitted to the east, and when the different cultural traditions of China and the west came into contact, when they began to clash and to dialogue with each other. In a period know in Chinese historiography as a time when “heaven collapsed and the country was divided” (tian beng di jie), namely the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the foreign missionaries and scholars who came to China wanted first of all to explore and study the documents and classics that form the core of the Chinese traditional culture. We will not forget the western scholars who at that time introduced the Chinese classics to the west, because they were the first to enter the thesaurus of China’s history and culture, and they started to introduce Chinese culture to the world.
Some scholars, for example the famous scholars Wang Guowei, Qian Mu and others emphasized that “studies do not know east or west”. As to tangible information and knowledge, the word “study” (xue) does truly not know east or west, but as to the cultural traditions, east and west are really different. Therefore, in the process of the encounter between Chinese and western culture, in the west there emerged sinology as the diligent effort to understand China, but in China we should distinguish this discipline because of the different academic culture, and thus in China a new word has been created, namely “Studies of the Middle Kingdom” (Zhong Xue) or “National Studies” (Guo Xue). From the period of the Ming and Qing until the end of the Qing dynasty, and again before and after 1919, there occurred debates concerning Chinese learning and western learning, and after these there was the “National Studies Fever”. These discussions all were concerned with the question of how to deal with Chinese traditional culture, especially with the classical scriptures. Likewise in the west, the discussion about the understanding and interpretation of China’s classics has never stopped within sinological circles.
Today we have reached a very decisive moment again, this conference is like “a meeting of clouds and wind”, it gives everyone the opportunity for in-depth exchange. Not long ago I established the big study project of the translation of the Five Classics, and this truly has a far-reaching significance. At the same time we are still in what Wang Guowei has called the “period of great discoveries”. Some years ago the pre-Qin texts of the Zhouyi and Laozi, and the Western-Han texts of the Shijing and Lunyu were discovered, and Tsinghua University recently received bamboo slips from the Warring States Period, which contain many passages from the Shangshu and a kind of chronology (Xinian) similar to the Zhuzi jinian. All these new discoveries have created unprecedented new conditions for the interpretation of the Chinese classics, and this is also a new opportunity for the development of sinology.
If we rediscover the classics of China, we will have a new sinology.