物質基礎、理念慣性：中國「王道」戰略文化的實證檢驗1838～1842

中國戰略文化（Strategic Culture）的研究，是當今現實主義（Realism）與建構主義（Constructivism）間理論爭議，與如何面對崛起中國政策辯論的交會點。依循現實主義的傳統，崛起後的中國將走向侵略擴張、破壞體系穩定；但從建構主義的觀點出發，現實主義純物質的見解則被認為是忽略了文化對行為的作用，是只基於西方經驗的片面斷言。中國與西方有若不同的戰略文化，是中國「王道」與西方「霸道」的差別，如果不考慮中國此一戰略文化的獨特性，將不能瞭解中國的戰略行為。只不過，這種「王道」與「霸道」之別的見解，往往缺乏嚴謹的實證檢驗。目前雖有研究嘗試以有系統的方式呈現宋、明兩代的歷史紀錄，視這兩個朝代為中國戰略文化解釋最可能成立的案例，來駁斥這「王道」不同於「霸道」的論點，但這樣的實證研究仍然只佔相對的少數，且亦存有概念與方法上的缺陷。「王道」戰略文化對中國的戰略行為究竟有沒有影響？本文將採取物質基礎、理念慣性的觀點，針對「王道」戰略文化解釋真正最可能成立的晚清時代，以鴉片戰爭為案例，嘗試對這有關中國戰略文化的焦點問題提供解答。

關鍵字

現實主義；建構主義；戰略文化；物質；理念；武力使用

並列摘要

The Chinese strategic culture is the convergence of theoretical debates between realist and constructivist, which drives the policy debates on the means to deal with the rising China. Following the tradition of realism, a rising China will favor aggression and expansion, undermining international stability. In contrast, according to the constructivist perspective, the realist materialist perspective ignores the role of culture on state’s behaviors thus an incomplete assertion based on the Western experience only. In fact, China and the West have different strategic culture. Chinese ”benevolence” is different from Western ”hegemony”. Only when this unique Chinese strategic culture is considered can one understand China’s strategic behavior. Nonetheless, this ”benevolent/hegemony” argument often lacks rigorous empirical testing. Some attempts were made by presenting historical records of China’s Song and Ming Dynasties, the two most likely resemblences for strategic culture explanation. However, such empirical researches are relatively rare and contain conceptual and methodological flaws. Did Chinese ”benevolent” strategic culture ever make an impact on China’s strategic behavior? This article introduces a material basis/ideational inertia perspective on the strategic culture and takes the Opium War in the late Qing Dynasty as the true resemblance to test the validity of cultural explanation.