1900年前后中国人的“世纪”情结与“世界”想象

Chinese People’s “Century” Complex and “World” Imagination Around 1900

庚子前后,晚清中国人在跨进新世纪时,首次具备了"世纪"这一来自西方的新的时间观念。这一紧扣人类社会发展进程的线性时间观,使得中国古已有之的"世界"原本虚空的时间指向借"世纪"这一单位变得清晰,与其空间指向的落实为全球、重心在西方相辅相成,刺激和鼓舞国人按照西方来塑造自己,将西方的今天当作自己的明天。带"世界"字样的报刊或专栏于此时集中出现,它们在语义上糅合了"世界"的古今多重含义,时空交融,虚实互用,内容和宗旨上则集中体现了面向西方、着眼未来的新追求。"世纪"联合"世界",塑造和影响了国人新的时空观和历史观,成为时髦而又紧要的话语。人们越来越习惯面向"世界",以"世纪"为单位规划中国,关注未来,与传统日益疏离。

Chinese in the late Qing had for the first time acquired a new time conception of"century"from the West,as they entered the new century around 1900.The linear time conception,which was closely related to the development of human society,made China’s traditional but vague time reference explicit from"world"to"century,"and interacted with its spatial reference to the globe with a Western focus,stimulating and inspiring the Chinese to shape themselves according to the West and take the Western present as their future.Newspapers and columns with"world"sprang up at this time,which combined multiple ancient and modern meanings of"world"semantically,with time and space blended and reality and virtuality used interchangeably,while the content and purpose focused on the new quest for the West and the future.The"century"and the"world"had shaped and influenced a new time-space conception and historical conception of Chinese,and became a fashionable and important discourse.People had become increasingly accustomed to facing the"world,"planning China by"century"and focusing on the future,and became increasingly distant from the tradition.