梁启超与20世纪前期社会阶级话语的流行

Liang Qichao and the Propagation of Class Concept in Early Twentieth-Century China

中世纪西欧旧制度下的等级,在19世纪末20世纪初以“阶级”的译名传入。中西对比之下,梁启超始终判断中国无此“阶级”制度,肯定中国传统社会流动性优于他国。民初政治失败,促使他反思“阶级”的缺失可能导致议会基础不稳。20世纪20年代,随着“五四”社会意识萌发与社会主义讨论的展开,“社会阶级”作为一种新的社会结构分析工具,普遍受到知识人重视。梁氏进一步辨析马克思主义“阶级”概念,甚至创制新名词,来阐发中国适用性问题。梁启超“阶级”更近西欧社会主义者的思路,饱含现实关怀,客观上促成了这一模糊概念的广泛流行。

At first Liang Qichao did not think there were any classes in the Chinese society and argued instead that the traditional China outdid the rest of the world in terms of the social mobility.Then the failed political practice in the early Republican China and the growing popularity of social class as a new tool of socio-structural analysis urged Liang to discuss the Marxist concept of class and its applicability to China.Generally Liang's class was similar to that of the socialists of Western Europe.