秩序与主权:宜昌商民自请设立租界事件探析(1920—1921)

Order and Sovereignty: Yichang Merchants Applying for the Establishment of a Concession Incident (1920—1921)

北洋时期,各省兵变频发。1920年11月19日,湖北宜昌发生兵变。时隔半年,宜地再发兵变。两次兵变皆使宜昌中外商民损失惨重。鉴于情势之严重,宜昌旅京同乡会为急救地方,竟提出自请租界的激进计划;宜地商民则提出设立华洋联合董事会的折中方案。同时,为防止兵变事件重演,并确保外人生命与财产安全,北京外交团尝试推动设立宜昌租界计划,但该方案却遭到美国的反对。英国出于自身利益考虑,多次通过外交途径劝说美国政府,但美方坚持"十四点原则",不愿介入中国内政。此后,美国提出一个照顾到中国主权及各国利益的替代方案,并获得外交团通过,宜昌租界计划遂胎死腹中。事件的最终解决以国家主权居于首位,而秩序则以其他方式解决,从中可窥见民初军阀政治下普通民众在追求理想秩序与主权利益之间所面临的两难,亦可凸显失序社会下层民众的认知状况。另外,该事件引发的一系列外交争议,既包含中国与西方的交涉,也涉及英、美、日等国之间的外交平衡,还反映了20世纪20年代的国际政治形势与外交状况。

From November 1920 to May 1921,there were two mutinies in Yichang,Hubei Province. In view of the seriousness of the situation,yichang beijing fellow villagers proposed a radical concession plan;local businessmen proposed a compromise for the establishment of a joint board of directors. Beijing’s foreign mission tried to push for a concession in Yichang,but the plan was opposed by the United States. Britain persuaded the US Government repeatedly through diplomatic channels in its own interests,but the US adhered to the Fourteen-point Principle and was reluctant to intervene in China’s internal affairs. Since then,the United States proposed a plan that took account of China’s sovereignty and interests. The Yichang concession plan was aborted. The final settlement of the incident was dominated by national sovereignty,while order was resolved in other ways,from which we could see the dilemma faced by ordinary people in the pursuit of ideal order and sovereign interests under the warlords’ politics in the early Republic of China,and also highlight the cognitive situation of the people in the lower classes of out-of-order society.