清末大眾「國民概念」的啟蒙－以「京話日報」為中心的考察

現代中國公民社會的力量相對於西方現代國家而言，明顯偏弱，存在著雖有現代國家強大政府的一面，卻未見現代西方之「強大的社會與政府力量相制衡」的現象。前人的研究曾指出，清末中國其實曾有發展公民社會力量的契機，只是在壓力下走向衰萎，最後失敗收場。當時中國公民社會的發展為何最終失敗是個多面向的複雜問題，本文希望從清末大眾啟蒙行動的內涵來進行觀察，提供其中一種可能的答案。為了從大眾思維的角度切入，本文運用清末一份在北方大眾間深具影響力的報紙—《京話日報》為主要材料，來探討當時一般民眾對自己在國族中所扮演的角色之認知的變化，嘗試說明在清末的啟蒙浪潮中，平民大眾被納入現代「國家想像」之中時的初期狀況，並特別著重於「國民概念」在一般大眾之中被初步傳佈和建構時，其語言內涵及其傳佈的歷程和效應。

關鍵字

京話日報；大眾啟蒙；國民概念；想像的共同體；中國公民社會

並列摘要

Citizenship in modern China, unlike in Western countries, has been weakly practiced and realized. Performing as a modern country at surface level, China, due to its limited citizenship, however, has never encountered the check and balance between social and government power in Western countries. Previous studies indicated that in late Qing, China once faced a promising chance of citizenship development, which, unfortunately, ended up as a failure under various pressure. The reasons for this failure were complicated and multi-faceted. This study aims to investigate this issue through analyzing the enlightenment movements and propose an interpretation. The data in this study were Jing-hua Daily, an influencial newspaper in northern China during late Qing; the research focuses were the status and situation of 'nation imagining' at its initial stage, particularly the language used and the spreading process during the promotion of citizenship idea.