从天命史观向社会进化史观的过渡--论清代学人为中国社会自我演变所做的史观准备

由“公羊学”所宣扬的天命史观,是将社会的变化视为天道运行“副本”的观念。它既宣扬“君权天授”,又承认“天命所授者博,非独一姓”,认定社会在周期性的循环中发展。但在整个中世纪,“君权天授”的观念一直是维护家天下专制制度的精神武器。在从古代社会向近代转型的过程中,“前清”学者在批评天命史观时,将主宰人类命运主体的“天”置换为“社会”;到了清代中期,“常州”学人则注意到“天命”史学中所包含的变易思想;晚清之时,恰遇“千年未遇之变局”,康有为等一方面援引前清学者的社会主体观念,另一方面则直接将公羊学的变易思想与西学相对接,于是,“通三统”、“张三世”、“《春秋》当新王”便被改造成社会进化论学说。

From the Mandate of Heaven to Social Evolution-- On Historic Views Prepared by Scholars of Qing Dynasty for Chinese Social Evolution

"Gong Yang theory" advocates the mandate of heaven,considering social change as a copy of the heavenly order.It proclaims the emperor is empowered by the heaven,and,on the other,believes in the cyclic development of society.The idea of the emperor empowered by the heaven used to be the spiritual backbone of feudal despotic regimes.In the process of social transformation from the feudal to the modern,scholars in early Qing period replaced "heaven" with "society" as the supreme power that determines human destiny in their criticism of the mandate of the heaven.In middle Qing period,scholars of Changzhou school took notice of the conception of "change" in the idea of the mandate of the heaven.In late Qing period,Kang Youwei and his students,having inherited the notion of social determination and attempting to weld the idea of change in Gong Yang theory with Western thoughts,transformed such conceptions as "three-era cycle","three-era evolution" and "Confucius's writing Spring and Autumn in order to establish a new dynasty" into a theory of social evolution,and thus laid an ideological foundation for their democratic reform movement.