晚清士绅的文化权力与近代政治运动

The Gentry’s Cultural Power in Late Qing Dynasty and Modern Political Movement

士绅集团是影响晚清政治的一支举足轻重的文化及政治势力,其文化权力来源于科举制度下他们掌控儒家思想解释权的独特地位。晚清主要政治运动及其结果都可以从士绅争取文化权力的斗争中得到解释,如太平天国反孔的文化立场遭到了士绅的激烈抵制是其失败的深层次原因之一;晚清的自我改革运动由于侵犯了士绅的文化权力而遭到失败;近代乡村由于士绅势力的没落而导致乡村文化素质的普遍降低等。

Gentry class, an important cultural and political power in the late-Qing Dynasty, greatly influenced the politics by its superior cultural power originated from the system of imperial examination in interpreting Confucianism. Why the major political movements in the late-Qing finally all ended up in failure can be best explained by the fact of the gentry＇s striving for cultural power. The reasons that Taiping Rebellion failed can be summarized as the gentry＇s radical resistance to the Anti-Confucianism stand and the self-reformation carried out by the rulers in late-Qing Which failed to defend gentry＇s cultural power and met its waterloo. It is concluded in the paper that the rural culture declined mainly because of the decline of the gentry class.