The Permanent and the Changeable in Chinese Philosophy
中国哲学中的“常”与“变”
The advancement of science has conquered geography, and China is no longer isolated "within the four seas."
科学的发展已经战胜了地理的限制，今日中国已不再是封闭在“四海之内”。
She is having her industrialization too, and though much later than the Western world, it is better late than never.
中国也走上了工业化的道路，虽然还落后于西方，但来得迟比不来好。
It is not correct to say that the East has been invaded by the West.
说东方被西方侵略，并不确切，
Rather it is a case in which the medieval has been invaded by the modern.
不如说是现代化侵入了中世纪世界。
In order to live in a modern world, China has to be modern.
中国要在现代世界生存，就必须现代化。
One question remains to be asked: If Chinese philosophy has been so linked with the economic conditions of the Chinese people, does what has been expressed in Chinese philosophy possess validity only for people living under those conditions?
人们会问一个问题：既然中国哲学产生于过去中国的经济环境之中，它的内容是否只对过去的中国才有意义？
The answer is yes and no.
这个看法，也对，也不对。
In the philosophy of any people or any time, there is always a part that possesses value only in relation to the economic conditions of that people or of that time, but there is always another part that is more than this.
任何民族在任何时代的哲学里，总有一些内容只对处于当时经济条件下的大众有用，
That which is not relative has lasting value.
但是，除此之外，还会有一部分哲学思想具有持久的价值。
I hesitate to say that it is absolute truth, because to determine what is absolute truth is too great a task for any human being, and is reserved for God alone, if there be one.
我不敢说那是绝对真理，任何人都不可能担当起判定绝对真理的任务，只有神一一如果有神的话一一才能决定什么是绝对真理。
Let us take an instance in Greek philosophy.
让我们从希腊哲学中取一个实例：
The rational justification of the slave system by Aristotle must be considered as a theory that is relative to the economic conditions of Greek life.
亚里士多德曾论证奴隶制度的合理性，这是古代希腊人的经济生活对他的思想制约。
But to say this is not to say that there is nothing that is not relative in the social philosophy of Aristotle.
指出这一点，并不是说亚里士多德的全部社会哲学都只具有一时的意义。
The same holds true for Chinese thought.
这个道理同样适用于中国思想。
When China is industrialized, the old family system must go, and with it will go its Confucianistic rational justification.
中国实现工业化后，旧的家族制度势必衰颓，儒家对家族制度所作理性论证的话也将随之而去。
But to say this is not to say that there is nothing that is not relative in the social philosophy of Confucianism.
指出这一点，并不是说，儒家的社会哲学中就都是相对的东西了。
The reason for this is that the society of ancient Greece and ancient China, though different, both belong to the general category which we call society.
这是因为，古代希腊和中国的社会虽然不同，却都是属于我们称之为“社会”的这个大概念。
Theories which are the theoretical expression of Greek or Chinese society, are thus also in part expressions of society in general.
有一部分是有关人类社会的一般性理论。
Though there is in them something that pertains only to Greek or Chinese societies per se, there must also be something more universal that pertains to society in general.
有关希腊社会和中国社会的理论，其中有一部分是只对希腊或中国有效的理论，
It is this latter something that is not relative and possesses lasting value.
也都正是这后一部分，具有持久的而不是一时的价值。
The same is true of Taoism.
这个道理也同样可以应用于道家思想。
The Taoist theory is certainly wrong which says that the utopia of mankind is the primitivity of a bygone age.
道家认为人类的理想国在于回到原始，这显然是错的。
With the idea of progress, we moderns think that the ideal state of human existence is something to be created in the future, not something that was lost in the past.
现代人相信历史是进步的，认为人类生活的理想国在于人类未来的创造，而不是在已经过去的古代。
But what some moderns think of as the ideal state of human existence, such as anarchism, is not wholly dissimilar from that thought of by the Taoists.
但是，有些现代人把无政府主义看作人类的理想国，这与道家的思想不无相似之处。
From YLYK《中国哲学的故事》专辑S02E15
