曾懿与晚清“疾病的隐喻”

Zeng Yi and "Illness as Metaphor"in the Late Qing

借用西方性别研究中"疾病的隐喻"这一概念,对曾懿——晚清女诗人、医生和维新思想者——展开个案研究,我们可以探寻晚清女性和疾病等概念的重新形成如何导致女性对自身才女身份进行回应和重塑。曾懿这一个案的重要性在于她一身而兼具数种身份。在她对自身身份的选择取舍之中,我们可以清楚地看到她由传统才女向"新女性"过渡的趋势。同时,她以女诗人身份所写的咏病诗、以医生身份所写的《医学篇》和以维新者身份所写的《女学篇》,具体地呈现出不同话语之间在女性与疾病这一问题上相互融合、借鉴和冲突的错综关系。尤为重要的是,她重新定义女性与疾病的努力,正代表着晚清激进知识分子,将一切纳入"强国保种"大目标下的倾向和与传统决裂的信念;但她所体现出的过渡性,又揭示出这种倾向和决心之下传统持续不断的影响。

Borrowing the concept of “illness as metaphor” in Western gender studies, this case study of Zeng Yi, the late Qing woman poet, physician, and reformist intellectual, explores how the reconceptualization of women and illness during the late Qing affected the ways in which women engaged with their cainti （or “talented women”） identity. The very significance of Zeng Yi lies in her multiple identities. From the ways she switched from one identity to another, we can see clearly her transition from the traditional cainǔ towards the “new woman”. At the same time, the ways in which she framed illness in her writings, when assuming different identities, unveil both the juxtaposition and the conflict between different discourses surrounding illness. Most importantly, her efforts to redefine women and illness pointed to the general tendencies among the late Qing reformists to subsume everything under the grand project of national revival and to break with tradition; yet the tran-sition she represented also disclosed the lasting influence of tradition behind such tendencies.