始进终退:再论近代地方士人与“国”的关系变迁——以刘绍宽《厚庄日记》为个案

First Advances and Finally Retreats:Examining the Relationship between the Local Gentry and State in Liu Shaokuan's Houzhuang Diary( 厚庄日记)

本文以清季民国浙江省平阳县士人刘绍宽所作的《厚庄日记》为主体资料,对其经历与观念所反映的近代"乡"与"国"之关联的变迁,做一相对长程的梳理分析。概言之,借助轮船海运、近代报刊等要素,地方士人即便未曾长期脱离乡里,亦可产生"国"与自身、与地方命运关联空前紧密的认识,并在乡以地方变革应对国族危机。而另一面,中土原有的学术文教,亦被其视为"国"之所以继续为"国"的主要因由,和"乡"与"国"之间起码的精神关联所在。由此形成"始进终退"的关系变迁轨迹:民国代清后,此前趋新预流的地方士人对于危及本土之"学"或"教"的国家建设,已纷纷转入消极。"地方"在近代趋向"国家"的"统合"进程,终却可能吊诡地加剧了一国以内知识思想版图与社会的"分裂",促使形成了新旧更加分明、明暗更为不一的多个"世界"。

Primarily having concerned discussions based on the Houzhuang Diary authored by Liu Shaokuan,a gentry from Pingyang County,Zhejiang,the present author attempts to do an intermediately longue-durée-styled study in the diarist's experience and perceptions of state-societal relationship. He summarizes several key points of his arguments. Exposing themselves to the modernity embodied in the shipping industry and new media,the local gentry perceived the unprecedentedly close connection between the state and the local society including themselves,even though they did not leave their hometowns for quite a long time. Furthermore,they even tried to cope with the deepening national crisis by the means of local activism. And meanwhile,the indigenous Chinese cultural attainments as a whole were revered as the sacred place wherein the Chineseness exactly lay,as well as the spiritual lynchpin interlinking the state and the locality. Thus,there was such a trajectory of change – first the local gentry advanced and finally they retreated. Specifically,in the wake of the Republican China's replacement of Qing,the active local gentry,who had fervently embraced the new trend,assumed by degrees an increasingly conservative stance on the state-building that was detrimental to the basic indigenous teachings. Paradoxically,the modern incorporation of the locality into the state furthered the separation of the intellectual realm and the society within a certain country and consequently created a pluralistic world wherein the old and the new were increasingly distinct from each other.