Page 34 - 《社会》2024年第4期

优绩主义陷阱的本土检视：从“上下有别”到“先赋应得”

LIU Cheng YU Xiulan YUN Ruxian
Abstract：From Michael Young to Michael Sandel，the meritocratic trap has
remained a significant public and academic issue that has sparked ongoing debates.
Fundamentally，the meritocracy trap，with the potential to disrupt social harmony
and shared prosperity，represents a form of individualistic attribution bias，which
conceals one’s family background and luck behind the formula of “ability +effort =
success”. Consequently，the meritocracy trap creates arrogance among the elites and
resentment among the underclass in Western societies，and ultimately leads to social
fragmentation. This study aims to reveal the different manifestations of the
meritocracy trap in China by examining Chinese students’ attribution towards the
country’s unique form of meritocracy—gaokao. With the help of a qualitative
research design，we conducted a comparative analysis of the intuitive attribution
schemas used by two groups：urban students from elite universities vs rural students
from second鄄tier universities，in attributing their own and each other’s success or
failure. The study identifies a phenomenon called “upper鄄lower distinction”（上 下
有别），indicating that the structural degree of individual attribution depends on the
relative social positions between the self and the attribution target. This partially
supports the theoretical hypothesis of the meritocracy trap，but the unique Chinese
culture of modesty somewhat mitigates the arrogance of the elites. More crucially，
the study reveals a concept，termed “ascribed鄄desert”（先 赋 应 得），is shared by
both groups. It consists of a few Chinese cultural notions，including the Taoist
concept of“naturalness”，consequentialism，and“ethical standard”. The idea holds
that talent and pedigree，viewed as uncontrollable elements，should be considered as
neutral or even legitimate. The notion of “ascribed鄄desert”，unlike the desert鄄less
principle in John Rawls’s theory of justice，is the conceptual basis upon which the
Chinese meritocracy trap rests. It forms a strong functional relationship with the
Chinese meritocracy trap，buffering it from possible social consequences similar to
those in the West. However，it also conceals deeper cultural pitfalls. The main
contribution of this study is to advance the theoretical discussion related to the
meritocracy trap with Chinese particularity.
Keywords： meritocracy， “upper鄄lower distinction”， “ascribed鄄desert”， educational
inequality

· 27 ·