“文明”话语与甲午战争——以美日报刊舆论为中心的考察

“Civilization” Discourse and the First Sino-Japanese War: Public Opinion in American and Japanese Newspapers

甲午战争发生于19世纪下半叶西方“文明”话语盛行之时,以“文明”与“野蛮”二元划分为基础的文明等级观将中国和日本列为“半文明”国家。但日本以其“文明开化”而自诩为“文明”国家,宣称甲午战争是“文明”对“野蛮”的战争,并通过操纵“文明”话语而影响西方舆论。美国报刊从西方文明价值观出发将甲午战争参战双方分别设定为两种角色,即中国代表“野蛮”和“保守”,日本代表“文明”和“进步”,并以此为前提来评价这场战争,“文明”成为判断战争是非的标准。这样,“文明”话语依附于西方霸权而在当时成为国际政治和国际舆论中的一种潜在规范力量,并强加于中国而成为一种话语暴力。由此,清朝被贴上“野蛮”标签,丧失了对日战争的正义性,遭受屈辱而未能得到美国舆论的同情。日本则因声称战争目的为推进“文明”而符合并顺应了当时西方的“文明使命”,虽制造了旅顺大屠杀并最终通过《马关条约》损害中国主权,反而得到美国舆论的支持。

In the late 19th century, when the First Sino-Japanese War took place, discourse couched in terms of “civilization” was common in the West. Within the concept of a hierarchy of civilization based on a binary division between “civilization” and “barbarism,” China and Japan were considered “semi-civilized”, but Japan boasted of being a “civilized” country because of its “civilized progress.” It presented the First Sino-Japanese War as a war between “civilization” and “barbarism,” and influenced Western public opinion by manipulating the discourse of civilization. Starting from the values of Western civilization, the American press allocated two roles to the combatants, with China representing “barbarism” and “conservatism” and Japan representing “civilization” and “progress.” The press evaluated the war on the basis of this assumption, making “civilization” the criterion for judging its rights and wrongs. Thus the discourse of civilization became attached to Western hegemony as a potential normative force in the international politics and public opinion of the time, wreaking discourse violence on China. The Qing dynasty was labeled “barbaric,” so was not fighting a just war;a humiliated China was unable to gain the sympathy of the American public. Japan, on the other hand, claimed that the purpose of the war was to promote “civilization,” which fitted the Western “civilizing mission” of the time. Although Japan had carried out the Lüshun (Port Arthur) massacre and eventually undermined China’s sovereignty through the Treaty of Shimonoseki, it was still supported by American public opinion.