【中文标题】中国启蒙：拥抱艺术，忘记思想
【原文标题】Enlightenment in China: Love the art, forget the ideas
【登载媒体】经济学家
【原文链接】http://www.baidu.com/baidu?word=The+Art+of+the+Enlightenment&tn=lqowendg
Gottfried Leibniz在1699年写道：“实话说，我们很难描述中国人的法律与其它国家的法律相比较，多么美妙地营造出了稳定的公众情绪和社会秩序。” Leibniz看到，中国在仁慈的——没错，而且开明的——领导人管理下，呈现出一种令人尊敬和羡慕的理想化国家模式。他并不是唯一一个这么认为的欧洲启蒙时代思想家。
今天，维护社会秩序和稳定（某种程度上的）依然是中国人最首要的工作。最好的印证是，这个月在北京中心地带，充满政治不愉快经历的天安门广场上，由德国人赞助的“启蒙的艺术”展览在新装修的中国国家博物馆开幕。但是对大部分外部世界来说，中国政府为维护社会秩序而常常采取的暗杀式行动，无论如何也不像是值得效仿的榜样。
令人不感意外的是，这个长达一年的高调展览引发了一些紧张的关系。德国汉学家Tilman Spengler曾经被列为“专家小组”的一员，计划安排一系列的讨论会议。但是，去年他在一个公开场合中的讲话推崇刘zm——一名中国的不同政见者、诺贝尔和平奖得主，因此而被拒绝发放签证。中国文化部的一名高层官员董俊新说，Spengler先生“伤害了中国人民的感情”。他被排斥在外，似乎与公开质询和思想自由的启蒙理想背道而驰，董先生说这与展览无关。
同样令人不感意外的是，中国刻意地关注艺术层面，对启蒙思想稍具煽动性的方面草草带过。占地19万平米的中国国家博物馆现在是世界上最大的博物馆，其给予中国历史的待遇也同样略过了有争议和不讨好的内容。比如灾难性的文化大革命十年几乎没有提及，所涉及的内容紧紧围绕中国宣传性的官方路线。
德国外交部长Guido Westerwelle在展览开幕式上，强调了启蒙艺术中所蕴含的理念，比如个人尊严、法制和人性的自由。他说，这些理念促成了柏林墙的倒塌。但是为了照顾中国主人的情绪，他还说这些概念与社会稳定并不矛盾。
总共耗费1000万欧元的展览组织者是三家德国顶级研究所——德累斯顿国家艺术藏品中心、柏林国家博物馆和巴伐利亚国家绘画藏品中心，展览呈现出将近600件绝世艺术品，包括Antoine Watteau,、Caspar David Friedrich、Francisco de Goya的绘画作品，以及雕塑、家具、服装和手工艺品。
展览分为九个章节，探索了欧洲启蒙时代的宫廷生活、现代科学的出现、历史的观点、爱情和大自然。其中一个章节值得关注——“自我解放与公共领域”，其中绝妙地提出了对个人意见的容忍这个微妙的主题。这个章节大厅的入口处是康德的半身塑像，下面刻有他的名言：“鼓起勇气运用你自己的思想吧！”
在今天的中国，这仍然是一个麻烦的话题。你的记者或许想要问一问艾未未——中国最著名和最直率的当代艺术家之一，看看他对这个展览有关欧洲启蒙与中国的关系有什么看法。但是展览开幕两天前，艾先生被逮捕了，他的工作室被搜查、电脑被没收、他的同事被拘留审查。在被捕前，他在面对德国媒体时，对中国对待不同政见者的方式痛心疾首，认为就和中世纪一样。
评论：
Tai Chi：
“中国文化部的一名高层官员董俊新说，Spengler先生‘伤害了中国人民的感情’”。
哥们，这个有关中国国际关系的短语几乎被用在任何试图干涉台湾和西藏问题的国家或个人的身上，应该是外交部对此更敏感。
Chinachip：
天啊，难怪艾被逮捕了，他当时应当引用Leibniz的话。（中国人并不相信他们“天生有罪”，本性难移，对不？）
L.Y.Z.：
很遗憾，西方的历史也充满了类似的事情——美国本土、大洋洲和非洲的大屠杀，中国在人权问题方面不像西方那么果断，但是也不需要向西方的说教卑躬屈膝。西方如果想做人权的捍卫者，首先应当洗清自身的污点，这样才能赢得尊重。
Alastore：
我喜欢这篇文章，但不赞同其理念。
“鼓起勇气运用你自己的思想吧！”并不是简单地代表德国组织者和中国官员的意图。理性比什么都重要。
ShaolinSurgeon：
这篇文章关注的焦点是在现代中国的背景下处理微妙的欧洲启蒙理想，我觉得这忽略了一个大有深意的因素。
东方传统的启蒙概念（佛教）与欧洲启蒙时代的理念完全不同。欧洲启蒙代表了社会和科技的加速发展和解放，说这给佛教背景的国家带来一系列伟大的启蒙是不靠谱的。
两种理念均强调了思想，因为个人的努力是权力和价值的核心所在。如何培养并约束思想？这种力量所追求的目标是什么？对这两个问题的不同回答是差异所在。
中国有一个灿烂、悠久的历史，也是西方和佛教相互并存、冲突的历史。还有什么更好的地方可以探索这两种不同意义的启蒙的内涵吗？
Lesterliu：
你真的在乎中国人是否有民主吗？你太沉浸于我们的幸福生活了，我们有了更多的物质享受、经济繁荣、生活水平提高。然后呢？中国人抢走了我们的所有生产型就业岗位，上帝保佑他们不会抢走你的科研工作。
还是说你根本不在乎我们自己的命运？在暗地里期望传播这篇带有偏见的文章可以让中国衰退，这样你在国际竞技场上就少了一个竞争对手。
但是我觉得自己多虑了，你只不过是我们的一个朋友。
Lesterliu：
经济学家说中国国家博物馆是世界最大的博物馆，这是没错，其中还有一些物品在文化大革命中丢失。但是我相信，如果英国、法国和其它国家能够归还他们在颐和园中掠夺的宝物，这个博物馆的规模还要大很多。颐和园现在还是北京的一片废墟。
Beef Supreme：
他们不喜欢艺术，在中国，艺术就像劳力士手表，是炫耀和假装财富的一种方式。
Imperial Talon：
“在被捕前，他在面对德国媒体时，对中国对待不同政见者的方式痛心疾首，认为就和中世纪一样。”
欧洲基督教集权主义者把持不同政见的人绑在柱子上烧死。艾未未通过所谓的艺术作品“草泥马祖国”所取得的知名度和财富远远超过了他在美国居住10年里所取得的一切。基督教集权主义统治了欧洲几个世纪，在那时，佛教、道教和伊斯兰教在中国共存。在启蒙活动兴起之后，欧洲人才开始奴役和殖民非欧洲人民。所以，德国人在中国办启蒙展览，是希望从政治方面影响中国。但是德国在20世纪发生的事情并没有显示出德国人自身的启蒙也相当有限。
Vanbrugh：
“中国文化部的一名高层官员董俊新说，Spengler先生“伤害了中国人民的感情”。”
只要有人惹恼了中共小团体，他们就刻意曲解为“中国人民”。真滑稽。
JAIHA：
我真是被这篇文章吸引了……但是，我要说，我得休息一会。经济学家很愿意刊登这类文章。我其实很想跟“你的记者”找时间聊聊。
Tocharian：
Guido Westerwelle早就死了，他已经是历史了。德国自民党的新领袖是Philipp Rösler（出生于前南越的巴川庆洪）。或许中德新“轴心国”的下一个计划是展示越南的启蒙历史。中国人的确喜欢德国车、德国涡轮机和高速列车，但是他们懂得欣赏Joseph Beuys、Karlheinz Stockhausen，甚至康德吗？我很怀疑。在对Tilman Spengler发脾气之前他们应当先读一读Oswald Spengler。
我希望没有伤害到中国人民的感情，我承认，在中国人眼里，我就是个野蛮人。
JAIHA：
启蒙只不过是个引人遐想的词汇。佛的含义是“觉醒”，但是佛称自己为“如来”。老子和庄子寻求的是不可捉摸的“道”。印度教寻求的是“解脱”。远古三智者看来要笑掉大牙了。
Chipojo：
一个是艺术，另一个是古代法律，还有一个是60年专制。这三件事绝对有关联！！！
duke_widin：
韦斯特韦勒（译者注：自民党党首和德国现任副总理兼外长）和德国要教中国自由和民主？真是天大的笑话。韦斯特韦勒的自民党和美国国务院是要准备为拉萨和新疆的大屠杀粉饰吗？
Felix Qui：
L.Y.Z.，区别是，在西方，我们可以讨论过去的罪行，我们承认这些罪行。公民可以自由地研究和发表不招人喜欢的历史事实。
在中国，监控制度让中国对自己的历史和领导人一无所知。所以，中国人对于亲爱的领导人和他们的历史的任何见解都是值得怀疑的，因为这些见解都是建立在官方造就的无知的基础上的。
在西方，至少有可能在具备一定知识的基础上形成对历史和领导人的观点。这是有价值的。
country road：
我认为“启蒙的艺术”展览能够帮助中国人更多地了解德国，双方形成了更加强大的商业和文化纽带。
尽管艾先生的行为艺术就像中共一样臭名昭著，很多人只会感到恶心和厌烦，但是艾先生的被捕的确是令人遗憾的一件事。
我们都知道，罗马不是一天建成的，中国也需要更多的时间来实现民主和现代化。我们看到，越来越多的中国人在试图探寻一条出路，而不是在民主和专制间进行二选一。
顺便说一句，很少有中国人知道艾未未这个名字，也没有人认为他是中国最著名、最直言不讳的当代艺术家之一。但是有些人知道他的父亲——艾青，一位诗人。
原文：
“INDEED it is difficult,” wrote Gottfried Leibniz in 1699, “to describe how beautifully all the laws of the Chinese, in contrast to those of other peoples, are directed to the achievement of public tranquillity and the establishment of social order.” Leibniz was not the only European Enlightenment-era thinker to see in China a worthy and enviable model of an idealised state under the rule of benevolent—and, yes, enlightened—leaders.
Today social order and public tranquillity (of a sort) remain a top Chinese priority. Nowhere is this more evident than at central Beijing’s politically fraught Tiananmen Square, where a German-sponsored exhibition, “The Art of the Enlightenment”, opened this month in the newly refurbished National Museum of China. But to much of the outside world, the Chinese government’s often thuggish approach to maintaining social order looks anything but exemplary.
Not surprisingly, this has generated some tension in the staging of this ambitious year-long exhibit. Tilman Spengler, a German sinologist, was listed as part of the “expert group” arranging a companion series of panel sessions. But having spoken last year at an event honouring Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace prize laureate, Mr Spengler was denied a visa. According to Dong Junxin, a top official in China’s Culture Ministry, Mr Spengler had “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.” His exclusion hardly seems in line with the Enlightenment ideals of open inquiry and freedom of thought; Mr Dong insisted it had nothing to do with the exhibition.
There is nothing surprising about China’s desire to concentrate on the art and glide over the more provocative aspects of Enlightenment thought. With more than 190,000 square metres of floor-space, the National Museum of China is now the world’s largest, and its treatment of China’s own history is similarly slanted away from the controversial or unflattering. The disastrous decade of the Cultural Revolution, for example, is barely mentioned, and what is covered hews closely to China’s tendentious official line.
Speaking at the exhibition’s opening, Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Foreign Minister, emphasised the ideals embodied in the art of the Enlightenment, such as respect for personal dignity, rule by law and individual freedom. These concepts, he said, brought about the fall of the Berlin Wall. But mindful of the views of his Chinese hosts, he added that these notions do not run counter to stability.
The €10m exhibition has been organised by three of Germany’s leading institutions—the Dresden State Art Collections, the Berlin State Museums and the Bavarian State Painting Collections—and features an impressive selection of nearly 600 works. These include paintings by Antoine Watteau, Caspar David Friedrich and Francisco de Goya, as well as sculpture, furniture, clothing and artefacts.
Divided into nine chapters, the show explores Europe’s Enlightenment-era court life, the emergence of modern science, conceptions of history, love and nature. One notable chapter, called “Emancipation and the Public Sphere”, admirably broaches the tricky subject of tolerance for the voices of individuals. A bust of Immanuel Kant stands near the entrance to this section, engraved with his words, “Have the courage to use your own understanding!”
This remains a troublesome concept in today’s China. Your correspondent intended to ask Ai Weiwei, one of China’s most prominent and outspoken contemporary artists, for his views on the exhibition and the relevance to China of the European Enlightenment. But two days after the exhibit opened, Mr Ai was arrested, his studio searched, computers confiscated and colleagues detained for questioning. Before his arrest, however, he lamented to German media that China’s approach to dissent was more like the Middle Ages.
Tai Chi wrote:
According to Dong Junxin, a top official in China’s Culture Ministry, Mr Spengler had “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”
Oh brother. This peculiar phrase of Chinese international relations would used to be almost exclusively applied to states or people who intruded on Taiwan or Tibet issues, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is becoming more sensitive.
chinachip wrote:
OMG, no wonder Ai was arrested. He should have quoted Leibniz. (The Chinese just don’t believe they are ‘born in sin’. Geography is destiny, huh? ;-)
L.Y.Z. wrote:
I just regret that China is not more assertive with the West, about human rights, because due to the West's background in the matter, punctuated by genocide of natives in the Americas, Oceania, and Africa, only naming the most striking facts, China does not have to kowtow to the preaching of the West.
Whether the West wants to pose as human rights watchdog, firstly it should to correct its own past and present flaws in such issue to gain more credibility.
Alastore wrote:
Love the art, criticise (or being critical about) the ideas.
“Have the courage to use your OWN understanding!”, not simply follow whatever the German organisers (or the Chinese officials) aim to promote.
Rationalism matters more than anything else.
ShaolinSurgeon wrote:
While the focus of this article is on the handling of delicate European Enlightenment ideals in modern Chinese setting, I think it overlooks a far more fascinating juxtaposition.
The concept of enlightenment in Eastern (Buddhist) traditions is quite far afield in many respects from the ideals of the European Age of Enlightenment. While the European Enlightenment represented accelerated social and intellectual progress and liberalization, to say it brought about a period of greater collective enlightenment in the Buddhist sense would be hard to argue.
The commonality of the two concepts is rooted in the emphasis on the the human mind, in that its power and value should be central to human endeavor. How to train and harness the power of the mind, and which goals to pursue with said power, are where the contrasts begin to emerge.
China has a long, colorful, and conflicted history with both the West and Buddhism. What better place to explore the meaning and history of these two definitions of enlightenment?
lesterliu wrote:
Really? You cared that much if a chinese would have democracy or not? You are so emotionally invested in our wellbeing. So we can enjoy more things freely, prosper in economy,better our standard of living and finally take all ur manufacturing jobs,and God forbid, your R&D jobs all together.
or you dont care about us at all. you just secretly hoping that somehow printing all these biasd storied will actually cause China to fail, and you have one less competitor in international arena.
But i guess i worry too much, you are just a friend to us.
lesterliu wrote:
Yes TE is right to say National Museum of China is the largest, and some of the items could be lost in the Cultural Revolution.
But im sure the Museum would be much much larger if British, French and the others could return all the treasures they looted from the Summer Palace, which until today, still lay in ruins in Beijing.
Beef Supreme wrote:
They don't love the art, in China art is like a rolex, just another way to strut your wealth or pretend.
Imperial Talon wrote:
"Before his arrest, however, he lamented to German media that China’s approach to dissent was more like the Middle Ages."
The European Christian totalitarians burn religion dissidents at stakes. Ai Weiwei was able to become much more famous and richer making the so-called art works like "Cao Ni Ma Motherland" than he was during the 10 years when he lived in the US in the 80s and 90s. The Christian totalitarianism ruled Europe for centuries. During that time Buddasm, Taoism, Islams coexisted in China. It is during the time of the Enligtenment, Europeans started enslave and colonize non-European peoples. So Germans put up an Enlightenment show in China, hoping it can change China politically. But what happened in Germany in the 20th Century shows the limit of this Enligtenment on the Germans themselves.
Vanbrugh wrote:
'According to Dong Junxin, a top official in China’s Culture Ministry, Mr Spengler had “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”'
If something annoys the CCP clique they twist it to say "the Chinese people". Very funny.
JAIHA wrote:
I'm terribly tempted...
But then, I said I would take some time off.
TE really knows how to keep these articles coming. ;-)
I wouldn't mind "a chat over a cup of tea" with "your correspondent"...
tocharian wrote:
Guido Westerwelle is history. He's gone! The new German FDP leader is now Philipp Rösler (born in Khanh Hung, Ba Xuyen Province, in the former South Vietnam). Perhaps the next time it would be the history of Vietnamese enlightenment in this new China-Germany "axis". Chinese do love German cars, turbines and speed trains, but would they appreciate Joseph Beuys or Karlheinz Stockhausen or for that matter even Immanuel Kant? I doubt it. Instead of complaining about Tilman Spengler they should read Oswald Spengler.
I hope I didn't hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. I admit that I am a barbarian in Chinese eyes!
JAIHA wrote:
Enlightenment is but a fancy word.
Buddha means "the Awakened". And the Buddha referred to himself as Tathagata, "one who has thus come".
Laozi and Zhuangzi sought to attain the nameless "Way".
And Hindus sought moksha, "liberation".
The ancient three wise men would have been laughing all the way to the tea house...
chipojo wrote:
One thing is art, other thing is ancient laws, and another thing is the 60 yeas dictatorship. It's relevant !!!!!||
duke_widin wrote:
Westerwelle and Germany to teach China about Freedom and democracy
A perfect Yoke
Was it not Westerwelles Party FDP and the US State department paying for the Pogroms in Lhasa and Xinjiang
Felix Qui wrote:
@ L.Y.Z.
The difference is that in the West we can and do talk about our past sins. We admit them. Citizens are free to research and publish unflattering historical facts.
In China, censorship ensures that the Chinese people are ignorant of their own history and their leaders. Therefore any ideas and feelings the Chinese have regarding their dear leaders and their history is of dubious worth, being founded on nothing better than officially enforced ignorance.
In the West, there is at least a possibility of a well informed and well formed view about both our history and our leaders. And that is worth something.
country road wrote:
I think that the exhibition,“The Art of the Enlightenment”,helps Chinese to know more about Germany, and contribute to stronger business and cultural ties.
Although Performance Arts Made by Mr Ai and other artists are notoriously just like CCP that many people feel a qualm of disgust and boredom.But that Mr Ai was arrested is a quite regrettable thing.
We also know that Rome was not built in a day,China need more time and a long way to go in democratization and modernization.We also don't ignore the fact that more and more Chinese want to find a new way,not a simple democracy or dictatorship.
BTW,few Chinese hear his name,Ai Weiwei and agree that he is one of China’s most prominent and outspoken contemporary artists.Some people know his father,Ai qing,a poet.
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发表于 2011-4-10 21:28
发表于 2011-4-11 03:07
