经济学人下载:中国-天下之事,古已有之

For scholars like Mr Yan and Mr Zhao, the pre-Qin thinkers offer fresh approaches to solving the problems of what Mr Zhao calls a “failed world”, with its endless wars. One is that the nation-state system of notional equality between countries fails to recognise that some are more equal than others. As China’s foreign minister bluntly pointed out last year at a meeting with its South-East Asian neighbours: “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that’s just a fact.” A second problem is that national governments—especially, some in China would argue, in democracies—often ignore the interests of those without a vote, such as unborn generations and foreigners.

对于像阎和赵这样的学者来说，先秦思想家为解决赵称之为“失败的世界（其战争没有休止）”的问题提供了新方法。其中的一个问题是国家间名义上平等的民族国家体系没有能认识到有些国家就是要比别的国家享受更多的平等，即一些国家享有特权。正如在去年与东亚邻国共同召开的一次会议上中国外长所宣扬的那样，“中国是一个大国，其他国家是小国，那就是事实”。第二个问题就是民族国家的政府（national governments）， 尤其是那些民主政府，——中国某些人有如此议论——经常无视不能参加投票选举那些人的利益， 比如未出生的后代， 以及外国人。

Abroad these theorists’ ideas tend to be greeted with suspicion as excuses for China’s exceptionalism and its rejection of international rules it does not like. But at home they face equally daunting obstacles. The Communist Party, heavily pragmatic, is unlikely to adopt the moral precepts at the heart of classical Chinese philosophy. And just as fundamentally, for all that the idea of the nation-state, inviolable in its sovereignty, is a Western idea, China has become among its staunchest supporters—and is the fiercest critic of any perceived “interference”. Moreover, it is hard to maintain that China’s astonishing success in recent years has been won in spite of the current international system. Indeed, China has arguably been one of its biggest beneficiaries.

在国外，这些理论家的思想常常被怀疑为中国卓异主义的借口，和它对自己不喜欢的国际规则进行抵制的托词。但是在国内，他们遇到的阻碍同样令人望而生畏的。极为务实的共产党不会接受这些位于中国经典哲学核心的道德戒律，并且尽管主权不容侵犯这种民族国家思想是西方的舶来品（在西方，其地位与中国经典哲学之于中国同样重要），但是中国已成为其最坚定的支持者之一，它甚至对自己想当然的干涉，也会进行最激烈的抨击。再者，如要申论中国近些年所取得的惊人成就乃是在挣脱当前国际体系的束缚之下取得，这将很难自圆其说。实际上，中国很可能就是当前国际体系最大的受益者之一。