【作者简介】李向平，邢培霞，山东大学犹太教与跨宗教研究中心

【文章来源】《社会学研究》2026年第1期

【内容提要】作为社会、文化的重要现象，自我是文化研究的重大论题之一。源自天人关系的“天命自我”是中国文化中的原型概念，也是中国文化社会学的标识性概念。中国文化传统中成己、成人、成圣的方式和路径，以“大我”“小我”为特质的双极运作机制，以及层级递进式自我结构，大都能够通过天命自我的讨论而被重新梳理和理解。在与西方文化中的“社会自我”进行对话的同时，本文进一步讨论了中国文化的运作机制和中国人行动方式的“关系取向”，论述了中国人的自我从何而来与自我继替如何引导文化变迁这两个议题。

【关键词】天命自我；双极运作；自我继替；文化变迁

【项目基金】本文系山东大学中华民族现代文明建设研究专项重大项目“儒释道神圣信念与中华文明‘大一统’心态秩序的历史构成与变迁逻辑”的阶段性成果。

【全文链接】https://shxyj.ajcass.com/Magazine/show/?id=121905

The Mandated Self: An Iconic Concept in Chinese Cultural Sociology

Abstract: As a pivotal phenomenon in social and cultural life, the self has long occupied a central place in cultural studies. Emerging from transformations in thel Heaven - human relationship, the "Mandated Self" serves both as a prototypical concept in Chinese culture and as a defining concept in Chinese cultural sociology. Through this conceptual lens, the modes and pathways of self cultivation, fulfilling others, and the pursuit of mora spiritual excellence within the Chinese value system can be reconsidered in a more integrated manner. This framework also illuminates the bipolar structure of the Mandated Self, which is organized around the "greater self" and the "lesser self,” along with its hierarchical and progressively unfoldingl repertoire of self-roles. In dialogue with the Western notion of the "social self," the paper further examines the operative mechanisms of Chinese culture and the relational orientation underlying Chinese modes of action. It addresses two central questions: where the Chinese self originates, and how patterns of self-succession guide processes of cultural transformation.