世界革命語境中的中國「革命」

Abstract

在二十世紀中國流行的關鍵詞中，最具影響的大約非「革命」莫屬。由此詞所構成的政治意識形態，其最初形成須追溯到十九世紀末二十世紀初，通過漢語「革命」、英語”revolution”和日語「かくめい」之間翻譯、傳播、衝突和融合的複雜過程。古代儒家經典中「湯武革命」的話語在後來頻繁發生的政變和改朝換代的歷史中，成為新皇朝建立的合法根據，但其叛亂與暴力的性質構成儒家倫理的內在矛盾。因此「革命」既是禁忌也是圖騰。十九世紀以來世界革命風起雲湧，在中國要求改革的聲浪中，「革命」被召喚到歷史前臺。本文以王韜、孫中山與梁啟超為例，具體分析他們在跨語言、跨文化語境中使用「革命」的不同情況。在英語、日語的翻譯和流通中，「革命」意義變得寬廣而複雜微妙起來，既指政治上的劇烈變革，也指社會各行各業及日常生活的變化。一方面由於進步史觀的加盟，政治暴力被合法化，另一方面給人們帶來美好未來的許諾，遂使「革命」意識形態站穩了腳跟。

Among the keywords used and circulated in twentieth-century China, geming was perhaps the most influential one. With geming at its core revolutionary ideology was formed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century through complicated processes of translation and interpretation between the Chinese geming, the English revolution and the Japanese kakumei. Rooted in ancient Confucian texts, the meaning of geming was originally related to the military overthrow of previous regimes by the emperors Tang and Wu, while in later periods it was increasingly employed to legitimize newly established dynasties. Yet as dynastic overthrows often went hand in hand with violent upheavals and were thus at odds with Confucian ethics, geming, too, took on a pejorative connotation, becoming both totem and taboo. In the Late Qing period, under the influence of an international rhetoric of world revolution, geming reemerged in the context of anti-Manchu sentiments. Focusing on Wang Tao, Sun Yat-sen and Liang Qi-chao, this article analyzes their respective uses of geming in translingual and transnational contexts. It is shown that through numerous acts of translation the signification of the term was rhetorically and ideologically broadened: On the one hand, geming legitimized anti-Manchu revolution in the name of a progressive narrative of history, while on the other hand it called for a change of the whole of society, carrying with it promises of a bright future. As a consequence, the ideology of revolution gained a foothold in modern China.