从设议院到立宪法——晚清“Constitution”汉译与立宪思潮形成考论

From Parliament to Constitution: Impact of Translation of "Constitution" upon Constitutionalism in the Late Qing Dynasty

在中国,英文"Constitution"一词早期曾被译为"国例"、"例制"、"国法"、"章程"、"国律"等中文词。中国近代立宪意义上的"宪法"一词,最早见于王韬和郑观应的著作,但他们只是一提而过,并未作深入的阐述。维新期间的康有为、梁启超也多次提到"宪法"一词,但他们只是把宪法当作一般的律法看待,并无立宪涵义的认知,更谈不上提出了立宪的主张。学界长期使用的史料、康有为《请定立宪开国会折》中"立宪法"、"三权鼎立"的内容是后来改窜添加的。戊戌时期康、梁的政治主张主要集中在兴民权、设议院上,并非如学界长期认为的那样,已经成为了立宪主义者。康、梁真正成为立宪主义者,要在逃亡日本、大量阅读日译或日著的宪法著作之后。在日本,"Constitution"早期也被译为"国宪"、"政体"等词。日本近代立宪主义上的"宪法"一词,最早出现在明治初年对西方宪法的翻译中,后经立宪进程的推展而成为公定用语。中国近代对宪法概念首次展开深入分析的,是流亡日本后的梁启超于1899年撰写的《各国宪法异同论》一文。英文"Constitution"和具有立宪主义涵义之"宪法"概念,正是经"同文同种"之日本学者的翻译、梁启超以及留日学生的转述而在中国真正广泛传播开来。随着日俄战争中日本取胜,"立宪救国论"随之而起,中国立宪的进程才真正得以开启。

In early times, the word constitution was translated into Chinese as guoli, lizhi, guofa, zhangcheng, huolv, etc. The word xianfa with the modern constitutional sense was first used in Wang Tao and Zheng Guanying＇ s works, but only mentioned off without in-depth elaboration. During the Reformative Move- ment, though Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao repeatedly referred to xianfa, they treated it merely as a general law, without any constitutional sense, even less constitutional advocacy. The ideas of separation of powers and build-up of constitution in the Memorial of Constitutionalism and Congress by Kang Youwei, a known academic material, are indeed supplemented by distorters. During the Reformative Movement, Kang and Liang focused their political views on civil rights and establishment of parliament rather than converting to constitutionalism as certain academia long believed. The time when Kang and Liang truly became constitutionalists was after their escape to Japan and finishing wide reading of Japanese books about Constitution. In early Japan, constitution was also translated as guoxian, zhengti and so on. The word constitution with modem constitutional sense first appeared in Japan in the translation of the West Constitution during the early years of the Meiji Restoration and was officially sanctioned in the constitutional process. The first in-depth analysis of the concept of Constitution in modem China was seen in the Similarities and Dissimilarities of the Constitutions by Liang Qichao in 1899, when exiled in Japan. The word ＂constitution＂ and the concept of xianfa with modem constitutionalism sense were introduced into China with Liang and some overseas Chinese students＇ retranslation based on the translation of Japanese scholars since Japanese and Chinese seem of the ＂same language＂. With Japan＇ s victory in the Russo-Japanese War, the theory of salvation of the state with constitutionalism began to prevail and so commenced the constitutional process in China.