Inrigidly stratified ancient China ,equality was only some“reckless”individuals ’marginal call;it ,however ,turned out to an axiom of mankind in the minds of intellectual elites such as Kang Youwei and Tan Sitong since the Opium War. The lofty position of equality was the result of the serious unequal positions between China and Western powers. Kang and Tan admired the advanced cannons and warships ,political systems and ideas of Western powers so much that they generously accepted their concepts of democracy , freedom ,and equality. They did not accept the concept of equality like John Locke ’s“tabula rasa”,though. Instead ,they tried to find basis from the ancient traditional Chinese ideological sources. Due to the absence of individualist tradition and the underdevelopment of capitalist commodity economy in China ,Kang and Tan misread equality in its modern sense. Nevertheless ,ever since them ,equality has attracted more and more attention of the mainstreamelites and become animportant part of China ’s modern spirit.%在等级森严的中国古代，平等只是一些“胆大妄为”之人的边缘性呼唤。然自鸦片战争开启中国的近代化以来，边缘性的平等一跃成了康有为、谭嗣同等知识精英口中所说的人类公理。而平等之所以具有如此崇高的地位，在于中国与列强之间的严重不平等的现实。列强的船坚炮利及其背后的政治制度与政治理念为康、谭等知识精英羡慕不已，于是大方接受其民主、自由、平等观念。但他们并不是以洛克式的“白板”来接受平等观念，而是从中国古代传统思想资源中找寻接受平等的依据。由于缺乏以个人为本位的传统与资本主义商品经济不发达的现状，康、谭对现代意义的平等存在着误读。然其对平等的重视使得平等进入了主流精英的视野，进而成为了中国现代精神传统的重要组成部分。
展开▼
