清末《新民丛报》与《民报》论战中的“国民”议题

The “National Qualification” Issue in the Debate Between Xin-Min-Cong-Bao and Min-Bao in Late Qing Dynasty

在清末变法时期,思想界一度出现"国民程度不足论",亦即主张当时中国国民的智识、道德和法政知识水平,皆不足以支撑近代宪法的运行。"国民程度"议题,也以"共和国民资格"之争这一形态,出现在1905至1907年间梁启超《新民丛报》与革命派《民报》之大论战中。对本次论战双方言论的系统梳理,能够表明双方虽在各具体问题上一度展开激战,但却共享一个思考上的前提,亦即实行近代宪法要以充足的"国民程度"为前提。"国民程度论"所依赖的思维方式主要源自儒家思想,尤其源自心性儒学。该论调一方面意识到政治领域之外的思想文化因素对于宪法运行质量的间接影响,另一方面也相对忽视了政治领域之内诸因素对于宪法运行的直接影响。

During the late Qing constitutional reform,some intellectuals raised the issue of“national qualification for constitutionalism”,namely whether Chinese people could meet demands of a modern constitution in terms of intelligence,morality,or legal-political knowledge.This issue had been vehemently debated in the great controversy between Liang Qichao’s Xin-Min-Cong-Bao and the Revolutionaries’Min-Bao during 1905-1907 over whether China could immediately become a republic.A careful observation of their opinions shows that,while the two sides carried out heated debate on several concrete issues,they shared the same mode of thinking,i.e.,that the practice of modern constitutions takes adequate“national qualification”as a prerequisite.Such mode of thinking mainly originated from Confucianism,particularly from Neo-Confucianism,which paid close attention to inward moral and intellectual experience of the human mind.The“national qualification”doctrine on the one hand recognized indirect influences of intellectual-cultural factors outside the political sphere on the constitutional practice and on the other hand neglected direct influences of factors inside that sphere.