威廉·卡洛斯·威廉姆斯有句名言：“没有想法，但在事物”。W. J. T. 米切尔的作品表明“没有观念，但在图像”。根据米切尔的说法，元图像为有关我们世界的理论提供了逻辑依据。这一点在我们对人际关系的想象中最为真实。征服或相互住宿的元图像在历史上是分散的，因为在任何时代和地方，人与人、群体与群体，国家与国家之间的平等不是被肯定就是被否定。这是结构性的；几乎没有其他选择。因此从历史上看，人们常常把人际关系想象成不平等，很少想象成双方在同一水平面上。
我们的教科书告诉我们，欧洲对人际关系的主流看法是民主的，但欧洲的元图像告诉我们另一个故事。正如卢梭、潘恩和杰斐逊都肯定的那样，在欧洲，社会总是被想象成自上而下的、占主导的或被主导的，就是说零和情势。从历史上讲，只有在帝国中国，我们才会发现国体的元图像以和谐，互鉴与双赢的形式出现。在当时的中国，“编编户齐民”、“任人唯贤”、“公议”、以及“名实相符”的观念在结构上都是双边而互鉴的，不是主导或被主导的情势。
卢梭、潘恩和杰斐逊等人在与这四种中国先驱的对话中发展了对我们现在的“权利”、“平等”、“言论自由”和“制约”的理解。你们的课本可能没有提到这一点，但在这个系列中，我们将一个接一个地探索这些对话，展示元图像是如何体现现代人类形象的逻辑的。
William Carlos Williams famously said “no ideas but in things”. W.J.T. Mitchell’s work suggests “no ideas but in pictures.” According to Mitchell, metapictures figure the logic informing theories about our world. This is nowhere more true than in how we imagine human relations. Metapictures of domination or mutual accommodation are scattered throughout history, because in all times and places equality between persons, groups, or nations is either affirmed or denied. This is structural; there are few other options.
Historically human relations were most often imagined as some above and some below, rarely as both sides on a level plane. Our textbooks tell us the mainstream European view of human relations is democratic, but European metapictures tell another story. As Rousseau, Paine, and Jefferson all affirmed, in Europe, society was always imagined as top-down, dominant or dominated, and 零和。Historically speaking, it’s only in Imperial China that we find metapictures of society figured as 和谐、互鉴与双赢的。In China, “编户齐民”、“任人唯贤”、“公议” and “名实相符” were all relational and bilateral in structure, never top-down.
Men like Rousseau, Paine, and Jefferson developed the modern understanding of “rights,” “equality,” “free speech,” and “checks” in dialogue with these four Chinese precursors. Your textbook likely didn’t mention that, but in this series, we’ll explore those dialogues one-by-one, showing how metapictures figured the logic permeating modern images of humankind.
