晚清国民性批判中的“奴隶”话语辨析

The Discourse of "Slaves" in National Criticism in late Qing Dynasty

在晚清的思想和文学中,普遍认为奴隶是中国人的本性。对奴隶的认识和批判实质是对中国政治与社会关系的多重揭示,不仅把矛头指向了君主专制,也包含满族的统治以及帝国主义的侵略和压迫。奴隶批判的目的是要国民从奴隶的状态中摆脱出来,它是民族国家想象的一个重要步骤。另外,一个重要的事实是无论亚洲和欧洲都经历了政治奴役的历史,启蒙主义和民族主义对"奴隶"的批判也具有历史的普遍性。因此,把"奴隶"当作是中国人的本性,这实在是一个极大的历史误解。

Thought and literature in the late Qing dynasty common thought slavery was the nature of the Chinese people.The critique about slaves reveals the political and social relations of China—to the monarchy,and also to the rule of manchu and imperialism aggression and oppression.The purpose of criticizing slaves is to let the nation get out of the state of slaves,which is an important step of national imagination.In addition,an important fact that both Asia and Europe experienced political history of slavery,and that the enlightenment and nationalism on ＂slave＂ also has a history of criticizing.Therefore,the ＂slave＂ was regarded as the nature of the Chinese people,which is a great historical misunderstanding.