近代中国的生化战知识转译与传播(1918-1937)

Understanding of and Defensive Measures against Poisonous Gases and Bacterial Warfare in Chinese society(1918-1937)

书写近代中国的生化战历史,要放在全球化战争的脉络中来理解。它牵涉到新式武器进到现代战争的问题,对于科技相对落后于西方的中国而言,认识与防御新武器所可能带来的伤害,是非常重要的课题。特别在中日战争爆发前夕,新的生化战武器种类、杀伤力评估和防御方式等知识,早已透过报刊与专书的介绍,传入中国社会;这种跨国科技知识的转介,一开始是用了一个非常笼统且大众化的名词——"毒"气。透过介绍,人们逐渐了解,它的背后其实是一整套西方化学和医学知识支撑起来的理论架构和日常保卫生命的基本操作事项。本文将分析这些知识内涵,呈现当时一般民众与民间的防毒技术,并梳理新的军事科技知识如何在中国在地化呈现的丰富样貌。

Currently, scholars have made preliminary research achievements regarding biochemical warfare, weapon types, and postwar remaining weapons in the Sino-Japanese War. However, past studies have focused on political and military influences, overlooking the fact that biochemical warfare itself was a new global form of war; it implicates the perspective of entry of new weapons to modern warfare. Other than the military aspect, the understanding of and defensive measures against possible harms brought by new weapons is also a history of technological knowledge in contemporary China that is worthy of investigation. Before outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, new knowledge on biochemical warfare was gradually transmitted into Chinese society through newspapers, journals, and books. This type of transmission of transnational technological knowledge began with a very generic and popularized term ＂poison＂ gas. Through these introductions, people gradually came to understand that behind it is actually a theoretical framework and daily operations based on Western chemistry and medical knowledge. This article will evaluate this process and explore the relationship between such knowledge and the construction of defensive systems. Finally, understanding of the ＂anti-poison＂ knowledge will be used to piece together the pre-war atmosphere which is rarely discussed in previous histories of war.