清末宪政编查馆的立宪困境与反思

The Constitutional Dilemma and Introspection of the Constitutional Compilation Bureau in the Late Qing Dynasty

对于宪政改革,就欧洲的历史经验而言,大多数现代宪政国家都是由绝对主义国家过渡而来,日本明治维新的成功也证明了这无论对于西方还是亚洲专制国家而言都是一条具有可行性的发展路径,19世纪末20世纪初的清末立宪实质上也是走这样的道路。清廷成立宪政编查馆,为的是仿行宪政,统筹整个立宪改革,但该馆在立宪过程中却无法逾越如何在巩固君权的同时、又能对君权进行制度化约束并能维护君主权威的困境,这样的困境使得清末立宪最终并没有取得成功。而这种困境的无解则可以从清廷对立宪与君权之间关系的认知以及传统中国君权的维系模式中去探求答案。

From the historical experience of constitutional reform in Europe, one can come to the conclusion that transition from an absolute state to the modern constitutional state is a feasible path. It is further proved by Meiji Restoration in Japan. The constitutionalism in the late Qing dynasty is actually of the same way. In order to follow the example of European countries and Japan, the Qing government established the Constitutional Compilation Bureau to overall the constitutional reform. But during the process of Constitutionalism the bureau was unable to solve the dilemma that how to consolidate the monarchical power and carry out the restriction of system of monarchical power while maintain the authority of the throne in the meantime. Such dilemma led to the final failure of Constitutionalism. This dilemma cannot be settled because of the cognition of the Qing government of the relationship between Constitutionalism and the monarchical power as well as the maintenance mode of the monarchial power in ancient China.