论明治维新的初衷与维新的双重命运

On the Original Intention and Double Destiny of Meiji Restoration

19世纪60年代中期的日本,还是一个落后的封建国家,在1868年推翻德川幕府的封建统治走上资本主义道路,70年代建立第一批现代工业,20世纪初完成产业革命,迈向了世界体系中心,后又在二战中战败。在不到一个世纪的时间里,日本从一片稻田之地发展成世界强国,又从世界强国沦为战败国。日本的这种命运上的大起大落,与明治维新的初衷及其后来的变异有着密切关系。明治维新并不完全是史学界所说的那种少有的成功的革命,其命运并非是单一的。

Japan was a backward feudal country in the middle of 1860＇s. Japan overthrew the feudal rule of Tokugawa Shogunate and established the capitalist system in 1868, set up the first batch of modern industry in the 1970s, completed the industrial revolution in the early 20th century, and then went towards the center of the world system, but was defeated in World War II afterwards. In less than one century＇ s time, Japan has developed to a world power from a paddy field, but then became a defeated state from a world power. Japan＇ s radically fate change, was closely connected with the original intention and variation of Meiji Restoration. Thus the Meiji Restoration is not totally the rarely successful revolution that historians have said, and its fate is not that simple.