本文一開始羅列了幾種可能與近代中國線性歷史觀的形成有關的資源，而且區別了無意間符合某種意義的線性史觀與有意識地受一種歷史觀念引導的歷史寫作的不同。 本文接著提到《社會通詮》一類書所展示的世界發展「公例」就像範本，把歷史發展變成一條刻度清楚的計算尺，史家所面臨的問題是一道簡單的填充題。此後，援用西方歷史的線性架構來重新詮釋中國歷史，按著計算尺上的刻度把中國方面的內容填上去以獲得嶄新的歷史圖像，成為一個流行趨勢。 由於歷史成為一把計算尺，其中每一 「階段」 是世界萬國所必歷，所以進化本身有它的意志與目的；而歷史人物也有其意志與目的，有時與大的進化歷程「體合」，有時又是分開的，這就形成了梁啟超的所謂「二義」，在道德倫理方面有一種弔詭性的意涵，即極惡劣的人物或事件也可能在線性進化的歷史歷程中具有美善的價值。此外，本文也提到社會進化論使「古」「今」差異極大化，並形成了一種新的時間意識，使得歷史想像與歷史解釋出現種種新的可能，以及線性歷史觀在化「經」為「史」進程中的作用。

At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, Chinese traditional historiography as a field changed in dramatic and far-reaching ways. The military defeats of Qing China by the Western powers and Japan created a fertile ground for the absorption of the Western linear view of history. A new generation of Chinese historians began to apply this linear model in historical writing. Yan Fu’s translation of Edward Jenks’ A Short History of Politics (translated by Yan as “Shehui tongquan”社會通詮) was particularly influential because it gave intellectuals a structural framework, a model of linear historical progression that could be copied and applied, much like a fill-in-the-blank exercise, to the analysis of Chinese history. This new generation of Chinese intellectuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came to view the linear model of history as a universal scientific truth or a general convention (gongli 公理/ gongli 公例) which could be applied in historical scholarship and contemporary criticism. 

According to this linear model, the course of historical progression could be likened to a ruler with clear, graduated markings, each of which signified a stage of historical development, from the most primitive forms of existence to that of highly advanced nations. The evolution of human society could be divided into stages, and the passage through each historical stage was the ineluctable destiny of all nations. The absorption and application of the linear view of history transformed the traditional Chinese perception of ancient history and created a new perception of time. Chinese history was drastically elongated, and Chinese antiquity was perceived as part of an extremely remote past. Now, according to the new linear view of history, the Golden Age of ancient China was nothing more than a primitive, transitional stage in historical progression. 

The linear model of history also gave rise to what I term the “dual evaluation of ethical meaning” (daodeshang de eryixing 道德上的二義性). War, military clashes, violence, and selfishness – while hateful in and of themselves – now began to carry a positive meaning because they served to spur the advancement of history. The linear view of history also redefined the duty of historians. Historians now served as pioneers who delineated the genealogy of the past and future according to the linear model and became advocates of progress endowed with the mission of serving as spiritual guides of a nation undergoing historical transition. In the 1920s, as socialism and anarchism became more popular, the five stages of historical development theorized by Marx and Engels (primitive commune → slave society → feudal society → capitalist society → socialist society) gradually became the predominant linear historical model, and would dominate Chinese historiography and politics for decades to come.

社會進化論; 線性歷史觀

Chinese historiography; Edward Jenks; social evolution; linear model of history