中文世界研究Meritocracy in Chinese-Language Scholarship
中文世界对 meritocracy 的译名尚未统一，常见译法包括 “优绩主义”（突出“优绩/应得”）、“绩优制”（偏重制度）、“唯才是举/任人唯贤”（偏重用人原则）与 “能力主义”（偏重能力崇拜）。2019 年以来，迈克尔·桑德尔《精英的傲慢》（2021 年由中信出版社出版）等当代批判著作的中译本相继问世，“优绩主义”逐渐成为公共与学术讨论的通用译名。
中文语境的讨论往往与中国特有的制度经验交织：科举传统（“学而优则仕”的选拔理想）、高考与重点学校制度（被认为是最典型的“唯才是举”机制）、以及近年关于教育内卷、双减政策、阶层流动趋缓的公共议题。这使中文研究同时包含两条线索：一是对西方优绩主义批判理论的译介与回应；二是利用中国数据检验“教育选拔是否促进流动、是否再生产阶层”的经验研究。
Chinese-language renderings of meritocracy vary: 优绩主义 (emphasizing merit/desert), 绩优制 (institutional), 唯才是举 / 任人唯贤 (selection by talent), and 能力主义 (ability-worship). Since 2019, translations of contemporary critiques — most influentially Michael Sandel’s The Tyranny of Merit (Chinese edition, CITIC Press, 2021) — have made 优绩主义 the common term in public and academic debate.
Chinese discussions engage distinctive institutional experiences: the imperial examination tradition (selection through learning), the gaokao and key-school system (the archetypal “rule of the talented”), and recent public debates on educational involution, the “double reduction” policy, and slowing social mobility. Chinese-language scholarship thus runs along two tracks: translating and responding to Western critiques of meritocracy, and empirically testing whether exam-based selection promotes mobility or reproduces class using Chinese data.
主要讨论议题（导览）Key themes (guide)
- 概念旅行：meritocracy 的译名之争本身即研究问题——不同译法携带不同的规范预设（“优绩”预设应得，“能力主义”强调能力崇拜）。
- 科举与高考：从历史社会学角度比较科举“机会平等”与阶层再生产的两面性，及其与当代高考/重点校制度的连续与断裂。
- 精英大学的生源结构：基于学籍档案的研究（如《无声的革命》）显示，重点大学学生来源在改革开放后趋于多样化，但城乡与阶层差异依然显著——为“教育选拔是否公平”提供经验证据。
- 教育内卷与“双减”：优绩竞争加剧背景下，家庭投入（补习、学区房、课外活动）如何转化为阶层优势，政策干预能否缓解“优绩陷阱”。
- 观念调查：利用 CGSS、CFPS 等数据研究中国人对“努力—成功”关系、收入差距与教育机会的信念结构。
- Conceptual travel: the translation debate itself is a research problem — each rendering carries normative presuppositions (优绩 presupposes desert; 能力主义 stresses ability-worship).
- Keju and gaokao: historical-sociological comparison of the dual face of examination-based “equal opportunity” and class reproduction, and its continuities with contemporary selection systems.
- Social origins in elite universities: archival studies (e.g., Silent Revolution) show broadening origins after reform but persistent urban–rural and class gaps.
- Involution and the “double reduction”: how family investment (tutoring, school-district housing, activities) converts into advantage under intensified meritocratic competition, and whether policy can mitigate the meritocracy trap.
- Belief surveys: using CGSS, CFPS and similar data to study Chinese beliefs about effort, success, inequality, and educational opportunity.
信念研究的经验线索The empirical strand on beliefs
中文世界的经验研究已从宏观制度（高考、重点校、扩招）延伸到观念层面：李忠路（2018）、唐明昊与李忠路（2022）、赵青矣与史海钧（2026）等利用 CFPS 与大学生调查直接测量“绩效原则／优绩主义观念”及其影响机制；基于“首都大学生成长追踪调查”（BCPS）的一系列研究（吴晓刚 2016；吴秋翔与崔盛 2019；Tang, Li & Wu 2026）则进一步考察不同教育流动路径下大学生优绩主义信念的形成与变化。
Chinese-language empirical work has moved from macro institutions (gaokao, key schools, expansion) to beliefs: Li Zhonglu (2018), Tang Minghao & Li Zhonglu (2022), and Zhao Qingyi & Shi Haijun (2026) directly measure performance-based/meritocratic beliefs using CFPS and college surveys; studies based on the Beijing College Students Panel Survey (Wu Xiaogang 2016; Wu Qiuxiang & Cui Sheng 2019; Tang, Li & Wu 2026) track how college students' meritocratic beliefs form and change across educational mobility pathways. Click the links to open the entries in the library.
中文相关条目（自动汇总）Chinese-language entries (auto-listed)
以下为资料库中“含中文（原著或中译）”的著作、论文与面向中国的研究数据集。Books and papers available in Chinese (original or translation), plus China-focused datasets, drawn from the library.