“儒家的困境”這一書名就足以構成人們注意的話題。當今社會困擾我們的，是歷史上的儒學嗎？
“五四”運動成功地埋葬了儒學。而今，它正 在社會學研究的重大課題———如人文倫理或道德哲學中悄悄復活。作者甚至認為，儒學在歷史發展過程中消失的一些東西，實際上也是現代社會自工業時代以來崩 潰的情感和被破壞的環境所同樣短缺的。儒家思想的困境或許正是現代世介面臨的困境。
近日，北京大学出版社推出译著《儒家的困境》。作者狄百瑞是前哥伦比亚大学校长、东亚语言和文化系教授，也是海外研究中国思想的著名学者。
随着东亚的复兴，儒家思想重新成为全世界学术领域的重要课题，比如，东亚的崛起与儒家思想有什么关系？儒家的人格在现代社会中能起到何种作 用？作者用旧约传统中的“先知”同中国儒家传统中的“君子”进行比较，认为真正的君子就是要对朝廷的不义进行谴责和匡正。君子和帝王的关系是中国古代政治 重要的主题。君子的力量源于替百姓和上天代言的社会角色，但是君子却没有有效地得到百姓的托付，也没有从上天那里获得宗教性的支撑，而是一直陷入黎民苍生 和专制皇权的裂缝之中，这成了历史上儒家最大的困境。（却咏梅）
The Trouble with Confucianism
Wm. Theodore de Bary
Photo by Eileen Barroso/Columbia University
Wm. Theodore de Bary is John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University, Emeritus and Provost, Emeritus of Columbia University.
Amazon.com Review
As Confucian thinking makes a comeback in contemporary China, people are wondering if it will merely serve as a conservative tool for a despotic government as in imperial times, or if it could act instead as a liberalizing force. Wm. Theodore de Bary, depicting Confucius and certain later Confucians as Old Testament prophetlike figures, suggests that the true Confucian spirit is one of protesting and rectifying governmental injustices. This model of Confucianism, de Bary illustrates, is not a backward dogmatist intent on maintaining the status quo at all costs, but a whistle-blower, a moralizing evangelist responsible to the people and to heaven for speaking out against existing evils and abuses. Throughout, de Bary sympathizes with the scholar-official who feels trapped between the needs of the people and the will of an autocratic government, which reflects a parallel dilemma in today's China.
Review
It is a pleasure to read a book by a fine scholar who is not distracted from his discussion of the evolution of Confucianism from the time of Confucius himself (who drew on earlier traditions) by the trouble Confucianists had, and created, over the millennia. Gu Jiegang, who said we should study one Confucius at a time--he changed from a historical figure to a mythological one (even a magician) and a sage--would have liked this book. (Asian Studies Review )
