摘要
在漢語文獻中，「國民」一詞，古已有之。不過，作為一個指涉特定價值與意義的現代政治概念，當前常用的「國民」一語，卻是十九世紀末、二十世紀初，中國知識份子自日本的漢字新詞中輾轉假借而成的政治術語。本文的主旨即在闡明此一重要概念的形成過程及其主要內涵。
晚清以來的「國民」一詞，大抵有兩個層面的指謂。就其實質層面而言，「國民」一語與英文中的 citizenship 頗為近似。它所展現的，乃是晚清以來中國知識份子在政治上的一種嶄新的意識覺醒。透過對「國民」的論述，他們開始強調個別個人在國家政治過程中的主體性，以及偕以俱至的各項權利、義務。二十世紀初期以來，中國知識界對傳統政治、社會與文化、思想的批判與反思，基本上便是循著「化臣民為國民」的思想理路而展開。
不過，近代中國「國民」論述所由產生的歷史條件，卻是在外患交逼的群體危機下，對一個強固之國族國家體制的追求。在「國族認同」此一形式層面的侷限下，晚清以來對「國民」的論述與建構，始終無法擺脫「國家」巨靈的籠罩。「國民」，在這種意識形態的形塑下，只能是達成「救亡圖存」之國族主義企劃的手段，而無法確立為一個自主的普遍性範疇。「國民」，一如其字面所示，始終只是「國家的子民」。
The term guomin is found in Chinese texts from an early period. However, as commonly used today—as a modern political concept of special value and significance—guomin belongs to a political vocabulary adopted by Chinese intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Japan’s new usages. The goal of this essay is to explain how this important concept was formed and what it signified.
The term guomin has basically conveyed two levels of meaning since the late Qing. In essence, the term is similar to the English word “citizenship,” and it reveals a kind of awakening of a new political consciousness on the part of Chinese intellectuals since the late Qing. Through the discourse of guomin, they began to emphasize the subjectivity of each individual in the national political process, along with all of their rights and duties. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the criticisms and reflections of Chinese intellectuals about traditional politics, society and culture, and thought have basically developed along the lines of the logic of “turning subjects into citizens”.
However, the pursuit of a strong nation-state under the civil crisis of foreign pressure marked the historical conditions that generated the modern Chinese guomin discourse. Limited by this kind of “national identity,” the discourse and construction of the guomin since the late Qing has never been able to escape the shadow of the state. Under these ideological conditions, guomin could only become a means of nationalist project for survival. It could never become an autonomous and universal category. Guomin, as it turns out, has been, and shall remain, “the people of the state”.
關鍵詞
國民論述 晚清 國族主義 國權 民權
guomin discourse, late Qing, nationalism, state sovereignty, popular sovereignty