还没有机会读郝大卫与安乐哲的名著《汉哲学思维的文化探源》，虽然闻名已久。在网上却找到了Saniba Knight 一篇评论该书的文章。文章中提到的《中国男人主义》(Chinese Sexism) 部分引人注目。
作者认为，在男人支配的西方社会，虽然在个人事业发展和社会地位方面给于的男人很多特权，女人至少还有机会达到男人同等的社会地位。可是在中国，由于传统阴阳观念强调阴阳调和，男女互补，所以男女平等这颗种子根本就没有机会被播种，更不用说开花结果了。老子《道德经》提出阴性地位只是为缓和男女间极度不平衡而下的解毒药。
结论就是：中国的男人主义其实十分残忍，它根本就没有给于妇女一个做人的可能性。换句话说，汉代人并不把妇女当作人来看待。
这个看法和结论令我十分困扰。男女平等是一个怎样的概念，并不是我们这些凡夫俗子所能讲清楚的。可是强调阴阳调和，男女互补，依我看，倒是一个十分实际的对待社会现实现象的办法。
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I have not had a chance to read David Hall & Roger Ames's book entitled 'Thinking From the Han: Self, Truth, and Transcendence in Chinese and Western Culture'. However I have found on the Internet a review article on the book. The article, published in Fall 99 issue of the China Review International, was written by Sabina Knight.
The section on Chinese Sexism caught my attention and I quote:
"In Western cultures male dominance has led to definitions of personal achievement that privilege masculine gender traits, and the hegemony of dualistic categories means that women can at best achieve the status of honorary males. In China, emphasis on complementary pairings means that a realized person achieves a harmony of human traits and dispositions, balancing both yin and yang characteristics. The fundamental hierarchy of these relations, however, means that no basis exists for gender equality. The authors thus argue that the Daodejing’s rehabilitation of yin characteristics and feminine traits is merely an antidote to excessive imbalance, not a privileging of these characteristics as some earlier scholarship has argued.
Chinese sexism is thus profoundly more “brutal” insofar as it denies women the very possibility of becoming human. Whereas the Western tradition guarantees a woman an essential human nature even as it forces her to resign her difference to achieve it, the Han tradition views becoming human as a cultural achievement and offers no guarantee about the sanctity of human life. The tradition thus esteems fully realized, authoritative humans who are more cultured and better educated while likening less cultured people to animals. This qualitative hierarchy has historically led to a reluctance to view women as fully realized persons and at times even been invoked to justify abuse."
"In Western cultures male dominance has led to definitions of personal achievement that privilege masculine gender traits, and the hegemony of dualistic categories means that women can at best achieve the status of honorary males. In China, emphasis on complementary pairings means that a realized person achieves a harmony of human traits and dispositions, balancing both yin and yang characteristics. The fundamental hierarchy of these relations, however, means that no basis exists for gender equality. The authors thus argue that the Daodejing’s rehabilitation of yin characteristics and feminine traits is merely an antidote to excessive imbalance, not a privileging of these characteristics as some earlier scholarship has argued.
Chinese sexism is thus profoundly more “brutal” insofar as it denies women the very possibility of becoming human. Whereas the Western tradition guarantees a woman an essential human nature even as it forces her to resign her difference to achieve it, the Han tradition views becoming human as a cultural achievement and offers no guarantee about the sanctity of human life. The tradition thus esteems fully realized, authoritative humans who are more cultured and better educated while likening less cultured people to animals. This qualitative hierarchy has historically led to a reluctance to view women as fully realized persons and at times even been invoked to justify abuse."
I am disturbed by the statement that "Chinese sexism is thus profoundly more “brutal” insofar as it denies women the very possibility of becoming human." I really do not understand what is wrong with the idea that man and woman are a complementary pair and that a realized person achieves a harmony of human traits and dispositions, balancing both yin and yang characteristics. As a Chinese, I am definitely not aware that our ancestors had in any way denied women the very posibility of becoming human.
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