Web Excursions 2022-06-23
黄仁宇:被羞辱的晚年
在留美华人史学家的人生中,黄仁宇具有戏剧性的代表性。他的经历极为丰富,
他既有共产党方面的挚友,又是国军军官;
既在前线当过排长带兵,又在高层当过参谋,目睹过史迪威和郑洞国的冲突;
在中、日参加受降时观察过冈村宁次、麦克阿瑟和天皇。
他曾就读美国陆军参谋大学和密歇根大学历史系,
后来在纽约大学执教后与常春藤盟校的许多中国史学权威们都有过充满恩恩怨怨的交往,
又应邀到剑桥李约瑟那里愉快地合作,结下了终身友谊。
这些,尤其是他晚年的悲剧性遭遇,都具有某种超出个体偶然事件的历史意义。
黄仁宇在愤怒和申辩后也逐渐意识到这一点,在其自传中向“大历史”上升。
黄仁宇的各种史学著作都毫不掩饰地表达了他的一贯信念:
西方现代的理性化体制高于中国传统的道德诗性管理。
人类历史的发展方向就是从传统农业社会的管理方式走向现代商业经济管理方式。
他不反对把这样的现代性称作“资本主义”,只要避免其意识形态价值贬谪涵义即可:
黄仁宇经常喜欢用一个简单的术语来概括现代化的本质——“数目字管理”。
对于现代化的渴望,几乎是所有当代中国历史学家的共同信念。一代又一代华人知识分子几乎都在这个范式下思考
其热忱甚至让已经进入“后现代”的西方学者感到不解。在改革开放后到美国留学的杨志国的一段回忆可以说集中反映了这一现象:
……很多西方中国问题专家已经对用现代化理论来指导中国近现代史研究不以为然了,原因之一就是这一理论带有很强的社会达尔文主义色彩
其次,它还是西方中心论的一种翻版,
因为用现代化理论来研究非西方社会现代化进程,实际上也就是研究西方模式如何被用来改造世界的历史。
对“现代化”的影响有着强烈的切身感受。呼唤现代化者可以着眼于个人,也可以着眼于集体。
有人因为现代体制给个人带来自由、权利、舒适而肯定现代性,但是值得注意的是许多中国人渴望现代化都是出于民族和国家的生存危机。
李泽厚说近代中国的主要矛盾是救亡与启蒙。
其实对于当时的中国人来说,启蒙就是为了救亡
正因为黄仁宇看重国家行动力,他对现代性的强调就和许多中国学者不同,
不是关心个体性的宪制自由,而是关心集体的实力比如国家财政力量和整体动员能力。
中国现代的羸弱必须从传统政治文化中找原因。
在研究明朝政府财政的“统计”工作时,黄仁宇发现这其实只是“行政算术”,是儒家的礼制规矩在先,然后官员们编造各种数据填写进去;
所以它虽然看上去很美,合乎天理,但是根本无法计算,从而也就无法管理。
现代化体制也是算术,但是不是演绎的,而是归纳的,是自然算术,是消费者导向经济的商业化“数目字管理”。
现代国家的经济力量的本质就是丰富的物质和量化管理体系
然而,历史经常呈现出悖谬性。
黄仁宇为之不遗余力赞美一生的现代理性化体制最终几乎吞噬了他。
当黄仁宇晚年遇上解雇风波时,美国的“完善”详尽的法治体制展现出一幅完全不同的面孔:互相推诿,自相矛盾,毫无效率;
他去见律师,却被“上了一堂阴谋、诈欺和欺骗的课”,被告知纽约的公务人员法如何如何不支持他的情况,而且规定他如果诉讼成功获赔偿金,应当由纳税人承担,等等。
实际上,黄仁宇在现代性体制中遭受的打击有着深层次的原因。
首先,他被解雇的直接理由就是他的量化成果即所谓“业绩点”不达标:课时不够(选课学生少),出版不够(书稿一直被拒)。但是,“业绩点”管理方式正是黄仁宇津津乐道的“数目字管理”即投入-产出的经济化管理普及到学术领域。
黄仁宇真的与这种把人当做物流处理的体制无比融洽吗?显然不是。他的个性、他骨子里的“前现代”特点使他难以服从集体和规则。
其次,黄仁宇与现代性的整个学术生产方式的潜规则也格格不入。
现代性要求严守专业分工。
现代学术体制绝不鼓励所有学者创新,而是要求他们老老实实在历史上选择 20 年范围,做一个小题目。
而新的“社会科学”研究方法论(主要是数量经济学方法)引入历史学后,更对收集数据和数学建模有专门的要求。
黄仁宇曾经希望在费正清的哈佛系列丛书中出版自己对明朝财政的研究,但是作为指导专家之一的一位计量经济学家却一再指责他的研究“不合规范”,否认其文稿的价值
黄仁宇认为历史学如果要真正出成果,必须不守常规,思出位。
但是这就可能遭到体制的激烈打击。实际上,他的学术生涯一再说明了这一点。为了表达他的大历史观点,他选取了一个宏观和一个微观角度,分别写作了《中国并不神秘》的一个纵切面历史和《万历十五年》的一个横切面历史。
然而这两本书都被视为“不合规范”而很久难以在美国面世。
每一位中国现代史学家都可能郁闷地面对一个事实:整个中华民族近代以来在占据物质实力和道德高地的西方国家面前,长期处于“申辩”的尴尬处境中。
在悲剧家和史学家那里,申辩通常会上升到“命运”层次
历史学家多强调人生中种种超出个体自由选择的偶然际遇的影响,黄仁宇也不例外。
然而他的际遇其实有一个独特之处,这就是他遭受的最大命运打击其实来自“现代性命运”。
韦伯曾经指出,现代人面对社会体系,就像面对铁笼,无能为力。
马克思亦早就洞察到,在资本主义的异化社会形态中,一个叫做“经济周期”的东西成了独立本体;
它宛如霍布斯的利维坦,独立于所有参与其中的资本家,更不要说是独立于一般民众。
它自行地运行,一路吞吐着千百万人的生计滋养自己。
在周期的一定时段上,“它”会吸纳成千上百万的人就业;
在周期的一定阶段,“它”又会吐出他们,于是就呈现为成千上百万人的失业,这是任何个体都无法阻挡的。
视野能使人从道德评判走出来,走向中性的技术考虑。这才是真正决定性的因素。
黄仁宇通过他的“大历史”研究为中华民族申辩:中国人(以及其他亚洲民族)并非某些史学家渲染的是“东方专制主义”民族。并非低贱卑鄙之辈。
世界上所有人在道德上都差不多,西方人没有资格感到道德骄傲。
问题不在于个人品性,而在于体制。
大陆型经济总是比海洋性经济更难以进入货币管理体制。前现代的体制过于简单,所以无法应对现代复杂社会的要求,于是不得不使用许多“不合理”的方式如用人唯私甚至“贪污”等来弥补管理体制上的真空,而不是外国人所惯于想象的那样中国人天性喜欢贪污。
不能把结果混同于原因。
尽管“黄仁宇们”盛赞现代性的投入—产出之自动物流化生存,
但是他们的著述中真正感人的、有价值的——或许也是他们自己真正珍视的——却都是第一人称视角下的自传性经历。
有这些感性生活与私人情愫或许没有“经济基础史”的沉重力度,或许是“前现代”的和“非理性”的,但是在进入到历史回忆后却如此温馨,如此具有历史的质感,如此富有人性。
这才是人类的历史。
How to Buy a New Mattress Without a Ph.D. in Chemistry
Before we can talk about buying a new mattress, you’ll need a Ph.D. in chemistry and another in mechanical engineering
How else to make sense of the latest concepts in mattress technology—for instance, hyperelastic polymer, buckling column gel, phase-change molecule fabrics, ballistocardiograph sensors, ice fabric, and 3-D-matrix layers? A master’s degree in marketing and bullshit will also come in handy.
Welcome, mattresses, to the weird new disrupter world, where your neighbors include prescription eyeglasses, used clothes, and pets.
Let’s start with the basic types: innerspring coil, foam, hybrid (foam and innerspring), and adjustable air. Within each category are subcategories
You’re just getting started making decisions, however. What level of firmness do you like? Do you sleep on your side, back, or stomach? When your bedmate tosses and turns, how much does it disturb you (on the Richter scale)? Do you want your mattress all-natural, or will a soupçon of nature do? Do any of the following materials alarm you: soy, hemp, horsehair, mohair, coconut fibre, green tea, polylactide derived from sugarcane? Are you for or against heat-conductive copper flecks? Is the amount of “edge support” that your mattress provides a matter of life and death? How much extra are you willing to pay for latex foam that is flash-frozen before it is baked, or will mere baking suffice
Third-party review sites, he said, generally earn commissions based on how many consumer purchases are made through their links. At Casper, he said, “I was in charge of giving out a pretty penny to affiliates
The earliest known example, discovered in South Africa’s Border Cave in 2020, is more than two hundred thousand years old. It’s made from sheaves of grass, about a foot thick, placed atop a layer of ash that was used, scientists believe, to provide insulation and to discourage bugs from crawling upward. “It would have been like sleeping on a rather compressed haystack
By most accounts, the first water bed was created around 1600 B.C., when ancient Persians filled goatskins with water. Then, in 1833, along came Dr. Arnot’s Hydrostatic Bed for Invalids, devised by a Scottish physician to prevent bedsores
Nowadays, water beds are used by dairy cows, including a hundred and sixty-five belonging to Queen Elizabeth, as an aid in milk production
Memory foam is polyurethane foam (polyol plus diisocyanate, both derived from petroleum) with additives that make it denser and more elastic. This means that it is slower to change shape under pressure yet quicker to spring back to its original shape. It should really be called short-term-memory foam. When warmed by your body, it conforms to your contours, giving you a sense of being hugged
Latex is denser and heavier than urethane foam, in addition to being more durable, and often cooler. It has more air flow because of small perforations, which resemble the peg holes of a cribbage board. Latex foam is more expensive. It is also bouncier, which puts it on many Best Mattresses for Sex lists
The first of the new mattress disrupters, a Tennessee startup called BedInABox, appeared in 2006. The C.E.O. and founder, Bill Bradley, had been inspired by Magniflex, an Italian bed-maker that, since 1986, had been offering compressed, vacuum-sealed mattresses stuffed into duffelbags
But the hegemony of traditional retailers with a physical presence wasn’t threatened until Casper arrived, in 2014, with just one mattress style, and launched a social-media campaign that made tugging a foam rectangle out of a box look like the most fun anyone could ever have. In 2010, by some accounts, less than one per cent of mattress purchases in the United States were online; in 2018, the slice was forty-five per cent; and since the start of the pandemic it’s certainly grown even larger
Did I mention that it’s almost impossible to buy a mattress that is not on sale? March through May is the best time to buy, according to Bob Vila’s Web site, because new product usually arrives in June. But everything is negotiable. Chris Regan, who manages the mattress-testing program at Consumer Reports, estimated that mattresses have a markup of forty to fifty per cent
you shop for mattresses, you will reach the conclusion that the greatest problem facing Americans today is not climate change or gun violence but “sleeping hot.”
While I waited for the couple chilling out on the Eco Organic model to move on, I asked a sales associate named Desi (long hair, leggings) if customers ever fall asleep. “All the time,” she said. “The longest was four and a half hours. He was so embarrassed that he bought the mattress
Some of this confusion is deliberate. Jerry Epperson, an investment banker who specializes in the furniture and mattress fields, told me, “We’re an industry where five companies do sixty to seventy per cent of the manufacturing.” He named them: Tempur-Pedic, Sealy, Serta, Simmons, and Sleep Number. A manufacturer often sells the same product to various retailers, each of which may differentiate it in a trivial way—changing the color or the quilting pattern, making it a smidgen thicker or thinner. The retailer then slaps on a proprietary name, deeming the mattress an exclusive. Mattress people call this practice “the name game.” This makes it difficult to ask Mattress Firm to honor its guarantee to “beat any competitor’s price by 10% or your purchase is free