歷史書寫與新女性形象的初立：從梁啟超〈記江西康女士〉一文談起

本文以梁啓超1897年寫的〈記江西康女士〉一文爲核心文本，比較基督教會歷史檔案及康女士自己的作品，藉康女士這一具體例案，探討性別觀念與近代歷史書寫之間錯綜複雜的關係。梁啟超的〈記江西康女士〉，勾畫了一個「以中國之積弱引爲深恥，自發大心，爲二萬萬人請命」的新式女性康愛德，使她成爲古代才女的對立面，成爲歷史發展的化身，中國前途的希望。這個「歷史發展」「中國前途」是有特定歷史含義的，是戊戌變法前夕維新派的歷史構想。基督教會當時所設想的「歷史發展」「中國前途」與維新派有一些相同之處，甚至有些語言也十分相近，如鼓勵女子教育等等。教會檔案中稱康女士作「孔子嫡傳後裔」，更頌揚她爲「基督徒的優秀榜樣」，當然最終教會認爲中國的前途應是全面信奉基督教，而這是維新派所未能苟同的。以這兩大語系爲框架，關於康女士個人的故事的不同版本就必然對歷史有選擇有拋棄有掩埋，甚至可以說任何一個版本的故事之所以講得圓，就是因爲康女士一生中某些成份已經被遺忘了。晚清歷來被認爲是從傳統到現代的轉折階段，但當我們從性別這個角度對這一史觀加以審視時，我們發現「傳統」與「現代」都被賦予特定的性別色彩，抽象的歷史階段從而變得戲劇化形象化，某些個人或群體便成爲某一時代的典型代表。具體地說，受傳統教育裹小腳的舊式女子成爲中國傳統社會的標幟，類似康女士這樣的受過現代西方教育的新式職業女子則與中國的未來緊密聯繫在一起。這一歷史敘述對於20世紀長大的人們來說，幾乎成爲不言而喻的常識，毋庸質疑的真理。但追溯歷史淵源，這所謂歷史常識其實恐怕是晚清民初製造出來的一種很有吸引力的而且相當耐久的歷史敘述。而我們知道，任何歷史敘述本身必然是建築在對另外一些沒有被寫入歷史的史實的否定和遺忘上的，關於中國現代化的歷史敘述自然也不例外。與其他近代史上的名人不同，康女士從小生長在晚清社會邊緣上，而中國近代歷史社會的滄桑變故使她在上個世紀末一夜之間忽然成爲眾目睽睽的新式女子，轉眼之間成爲歷史核心人物。康女士這一個案的有趣之處就在於她從邊緣到中心的過程，恰恰是晚清歷史一個側面的寫照，從而使我們得以仔細觀照一個現代神話的創造過程。康女士這一個案因此印證了一個歷史的悖論：雖然「新女界」「新女杰」這類詞彙在晚清文章中屢見不鮮，似乎被賦予很重要的涵意，但是這類詞彙的歷史可釋性是建築在對真正生活中女子遺忘上的，具體說，「新女子」的前身「才女」從此被貶爲「舊式女子」，而「新女杰」本身任何不夠「現代」的因素也被掩埋被遺忘。從康女士這一個案我們清楚地看到，搬演「現代」這齣戲，即使在晚清民初之際，也是充滿了矛盾和爭議的。

關鍵字

梁啟超；性別觀念；現代；歷史書寫；康愛德

並列摘要

Hailed as the first female medical doctor of China, the exemplary new citizen of the burgeoning Chinese nation, and a model of Christian conversion, Kang Aide (1873~1930) is a figure to whom others attributed tremendous representational power as well as different meanings. Comparing three versions of her story, one by late Qing reformers represented by Liang Qichao, one by American Missionaries, and one by herself, this paper traces the enactment of modernity at a particular historical moment, an enactment fraught with ambiguity and contested at the very moment of its conception. As a primary way of signifying difference, gender was one of the most potent metaphors of the late Qing. The status of women was intimately linked to the representation of history, as the image of the traditional woman was closely associated with the past and that of the modern woman rhetorically wedded to the model of progress. The late Qing, once described as a transitional period between tradition and modernity, yields fascinating stories when we shift our attention to the understanding of historical representation itself in other words, to the necessary conditions for the conceptualization and narrativization of history. The discourse of history-making, critics have recently argued, necessarily suppresses other stories; that is to say, the intelligibility of history is predicated on what is repressed and forgotten. As gender figured prominently in the narrativization of history in the late Qing, its intelligibility also depended on what was forgotten. Seen in this context, the late Qing is not so much a transitional period as a period that originated a particular and gendered version of tradition in an effort to produce and enact a particular and gendered modernity. The case of Kang Aide is interesting because of her apparent centrality as well as her hidden marginality to various projects of modernity. Her case illustrates a peculiar historical paradox: while the term ”woman” was given tremendous representational power in the late Qing, its existence and intelligibility was predicated on what was forgotten about women, that is to say, both her predecessors who were dismissed as ”traditional” as well as elements in her that were deemed less than modern. Through the case of Kang Aide, this paper traces the enactment of modernity at a particular historical moment, an enactment fraught with ambiguity and often contested at the very moment of its conception.