商的正当性与儒的新出路：余英时对韦伯论题的回应

揭示现代理性资本主义精神的宗教起源和追索现代理性资本主义所承载的伦理精神，乃韦伯论题的一体两面，而重塑现代资本主义的伦理精神则是潜藏在韦伯竭力避免“价值判断和信仰判断”的科学话语之下的一个意图。余英时对“韦伯论题”的承接，一方面纠正了韦伯在一定程度上对于中国宗教特别是对于近世儒家工作伦理的误读；另一方面他试图得出“恰好与韦伯相反”的结论，即中国近世的宗教伦理，尤其是儒家伦理，能够“为中国资本主义的出现提供精神的基础”的努力，则并不完全成功。而余英时对“韦伯论题”论述方向的转换，则通过对明清儒学、儒士之“转向”的考察分析，表达了一个与韦伯不一样的关怀，那就是，在新的政治社会生态下，何处是儒学、儒士，特别是作为儒士后代传人的现代知识人新的出路、新的安身立命之所。

Legitimacy of Business and the New Way-out for Confucianism: Ying-shih Yu's Response to Weiber's Thesis

Revealing the religious origin of the spirit of modern rational capitalism and tracing the ethical spirit of modern rational capitalism are the two sides of Weibers thesis, while the remolding of the ethical spirit of modern capitalism is a hidden intention under Weibers scientific discourse that evades “value judgment and belief judgment”. Ying-shih Yu‘s inheritance of the “Weiber thesis”, on the one hand, corrected Weiber’s misunderstanding of Chinese religion to some extent, especially the work ethics of modern Confucianism, on the other hand, his attempt to come to the conclusion that “just the opposite of Weber”, that is to say, the modern Chinese religious ethics, especially Confucian ethics, can “provide the spiritual foundation for the emergence of Chinese capitalism”, is not entirely successful. On the change of direction of “Weibers thesis”, through the investigation and analysis of the “Turn”of Confucianism and Confucian in the Ming and Qing dynasties, Ying-shih Yu expressed a different concern from Weiber's, that is, under the new political and social ecology, he showed the new way out, the new place to settle down for Confucianism, Confucians, especially modern intellectual descendants of Confucianism.