从“心力”到“民彝”:民国初年李大钊关于政治正当性的思考

Power of the Will and Basic Ethics:Li Dazhao's Rumination on the Political Legitimacy in the Early Republican Period

随着"天理"世界观的超越性来源发生动摇,清末民初的中国社会面临着政治秩序的深重危机。本文通过对民国初年李大钊思想中"民彝"观念的考察,呈现其论证现代政治正当性的独特方式与复杂面相。作为共和制度与宪政秩序的倡导者,李大钊确信,良善政治与理想社会,其根源来自个人"良知良能"汇聚而成的公共道德。因此,他借助"民彝"观念,将政治秩序背后的现代价值诉求,与"内在超越"这一传统道德价值实践方式相结合,尝试以此论证其政治理想中"德性统治"的正当性。从"心力"对旧有政治制度的瓦解,到"民彝"对于宪政制度的形塑,清末民初知识分子的思想演变,折射出近代中国转型过程中理想政治秩序的再造,并非只是符合程序正义的宪政重建,其背后新的道德精神,才是政治正当性的真实来源。

The transcendence of the worldview based on the Heavenly Principle had been deeply shaken during the Qing-Republican transition. As a consequence,the Chinese society must be faced with a greatly deepening crisis inflicting on the established political order. Against such a drastically changed political backdrop,the present author reexamines Li Dazhao's idea of minyi( 民彝),or the basic human ethics; and in doing so he tries to shed light on the uniqueness and complicatedness of Li's rumination on the modernpolitical legitimacy.