对“民族”概念的一些思考

Thoughts on the Concept of “Nation”

西方的nation概念具有鲜明的国家性和现代性,几乎是现代国家的同义词。中国传统的"民族"一词则是一个历史-文化概念,可以泛指一切具有一定文化共性的社会群体。20世纪之交,nation被译为"民族"后,两个概念之间一直不能和谐对接,概念混杂、错位问题长期存在。1949年前,nation的国家性被强行移植到"民族"机体上,既引起了思想混乱,也产生了现实负面效应。1949年后,中国人仍将斯大林所讲的nation定义误用为"民族"定义,既引起不必要的学术辩论,也给民族识别工作带来麻烦。最近30年,中国对外交往增多,以nation为基础的系列基本概念频繁出现在国际问题研究中,概念错位的影响向国际问题研究领域、大众媒体扩散。如果引进"国族"概念同nation相对应,可为"民族"概念减负,纠正100多年来的概念混杂、错位问题。"国族"的归国族,"民族"的归民族。

In the West,the concept of "nation" has a distinct meaning of state and modernity,and is almost a synonym of"modern states".The traditional Chinese word"minzu"is a historical-cultural concept that can refer to all social groups with certain cultural commonalities.Since "nation" was translated as"minzu"at the turn of the 20th century,the two concepts have not been compatible with each other.Mismatch and misplacement of the two concepts existed for a long time.Before 1949,the meaning of state in"nation"was forcibly transplanted to the word"minzu",which caused both confusion and negative effects.After 1949,the Chinese still misused Stalin’s definition of "nation",which caused unnecessary academic debates and brought trouble to ethnic identification.In the past 30 years,China’s international interactions have increased.A series of basic concepts based on"nation"have frequently appeared in the study of international issues,and the impact of misplacement of concepts has spread to the research field of international issues and mass media.If the concept of"guozu"is introduced to correspond with the concept of"nation",the burden of the concept"minzu"will be reduced,and the confusion and dislocation of concepts over the past 100 years will be corrected.