晚清儒学新变与“新小说”的国家想象

New Changes of Confucianism during the Late Qing Dynasty and the New Novel's Imagination of the Nation

20世纪初"新小说"的国家想象,是现代小说的重要开端,更是现代意义上民族国家叙事的一个重要起点。这既与西方现代性的传入有关,更是晚清儒学突围的结果。公羊学朴素进化论与西方进化论的化舍,改变了中国小说的传统时空结构,三代、桃源叙事转向了指向未来的"新中国"的想象。政治小说在引入西方政治理念的同时,以文明和道德的理想主义重构了现代国家的符号体系。"华夷之辨"与民族国家意识的相互激发,在"新小说"建构民族国家认同中扮演了关键角色。"新小说"东方式的国家想象,渗透着对现代性的反思,揭示出儒学现代转型对人类文明的贡献所在。

New Novel＇s imagination of the nation in the 20th century marked the beginning of modern Chinese novel as well as the narrative of a modern nation state. It was related both to the introduction of western modernity and new changes of Confucianism during the late Qing Dynasty. The convergence of the evolution theory in Gongyang studies and that in the West changed the traditional temporal and spatial structure in Chinese novels, which consequently resulted in the shift from traditional utopians to the imagination of the future ＂New China＂. While Chinese writers were introducing western political ideas by writing political novels, they in fact reconstructed the sign system of the nation state based on ideal civilization and ethics. The mutual stimulation between the narrative of ＂distinction between the Han nationality and ethnic groups＂ and the awareness of a nation state in the New Novel played a key role in constructing the national identity. From the perspective of a nation, the New Novel reconstructed the popular national discourse by relying on the thought of Great Harmony, and drew a picture for the perfect world -- a civilized, universal, and ethical human society. The oriental imagination of the nation embodied by the New Novel was a reflection on modernity, which was also what Confucianism contributed to human civilization.