乡约的契约伦理色彩及其产生、变异分析

中国在北宋时期就产生了具有一定程度现代契约伦理色彩的共同体组织——乡约。不过,“乡约”这种契约伦理共同体跟现代以个体权利为本,通过契约缔结的社会组织有本质的不同。“乡约”旨在提升个体德性,以便将个人更好地收摄进家族式群体生活方式之中,而不是让个体成为独立自主的社会主体。因此,入明后,“乡约”即被君主专制权力所利用,成了官府进行意识形态灌输和牢笼人心的工具。于是,“乡约”这种具有一定现代契约伦理色彩的共同体组织终究没能发展壮大并引起中国社会结构的现代性转型。探明乡约的契约伦理特性及其产生、变异的原因,有利于推动传统伦理形态的现代转型,有利于提升当代中国社会整体的道德水平。

The Contractual Ethicsof Village Convenance and Analysis of its Cause and Variation

Village moral agreement, a community organization for encouraging kindness with modern contractual ethics, was developed in as early as the Northern Song Dynasty. Nevertheless, such contract ethical community based in village moral agreement is different from the human rights-based contract community in modern society. The village moral agreement promoted individual morality and made people fit into a collective life style rather than an individualistic being on each person. So, after the Ming Dynasty, village moral agreement was used by the feudal monarch as an instrument of inculcating ideology and winning over civilians. Consequently, village moral agreement which hada certain degree of modern contractual ethicshadn''t been further developed or expanded and failed to lead to the modernization of society structure in China. To find out the contract ethical performance of Village moral agreement and the reasons of the performance''s generation and variation will help advance the modern transition of the traditional ethical structure and promote the social morality of the Chinese nation.