晚清疾疫理解的更新与世界的祛魅
The Updating of the Explaining of Infectious Diseases and the Disenchantment of the World in Late Qing Dynasty
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摘要: 在古代中国,疾疫往往被认为是鬼神的作为或阴阳失序所致,身体观遂与人格化的鬼神或非人格化的宇宙秩序密切相关。因为鬼神或宇宙秩序一般存在道德意义上的善恶区分,所以传统的身体观也具有一定程度的道德属性,应对疾疫的方法中往往也包含了道德修省。然而,晚清输入的卫生学、细菌学说等科学知识认为是细菌导致了疾疫的发生。新解释具有更稳定的可重复性,说服力更强,对传统的鬼神致疫说和邪气致疫说构成了强有力的挑战,更新了中国知识分子的疾疫理解和身体观念。新的疾疫解释是纯粹世俗化的因果关系,人格化的鬼神或非人格化的宇宙秩序不再必要,新的身体观也不再预设神圣存在,也不再具备道德属性。身体观的“绝地天通”,折射出来的是世界的祛魅,也反映出中国思想与信仰传统遭遇现代性挑战而发生的危机。Abstract: Infectious diseases were often ascribed to ghosts and gods, or caused by the disorder of Yin-Yang in ancient China. Therefore the body view were closely related to personal ghosts and gods or impersonal cosmic order. Because ghosts, gods and cosmic order could be divided into good ones and evil ones, the traditional body view had a certain degree of moral attributes, thus the methods of dealing with infectious diseases often contained moral self-cultivation. However, the scientific knowledge on hygiene and bacteriology imported in the late Qing Dynasty believed that bacteria leads to infectious diseases. The new explanation having more stable repeatability and stronger persuasiveness, thus triumphed over the traditional theories on infectious diseases and Chinese intellectuals’ understanding of infectious diseases and their body view were updated. The new explanation of infectious diseases is a purely secular cause-and-effect relationship, and personal ghosts and gods or impersonal cosmic order are no longer necessary. The new body view no longer presupposes the existence of divine beings, nor does it have moral attributes. This disconnection of secular world from divine beings in the field of the body view reflects the disenchantment of the world, and reflects the crisis of the tradition of Chinese thought and belief caused by the challenge of modernity.
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Key words:
- infectious diseases /
- body view /
- world view /
- disenchantment /
- modernity
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