催熟民族国家:两次世界大战与中国的国家建构

Ripening Nation-State:The Two World Wars and China's Modern Nation-State Construction

中国的现代国家建构,具有内生与外生两种交互作用的动力。在内生力量方面,经济社会的变迁是一个动力,而内战也是不可忽视的驱动力量。在外生力量方面,国际经贸往来固然发挥着推动作用,但两次世界大战对中国建构民族国家也发挥了显著的推进作用。一者,“婴儿”民国在形式上确立的民族国家还需要坐实于国族建构与现代政体的平台上,以成熟起来。二者,两次大战让中国从一个长期的战败国转变为战胜国,进入国际条约体系的处境有了结构性的改变:此前,中国以民族国家身份加入国际体系的条件是给定的,因此中国总是处在挣脱国际条约体系束缚的修约与废约被动状态,传统帝国机制并没有受到根本撼动;此后,中国便以争取民族国家的正当权益的态势进入国际社会,或寻求收回丧失的国家权益,或致力建构新型国际秩序,已经在形式上建构起来的国家终于坐实为民族国家的机制。简言之,两次世界大战让中国在民族国家的政治理念、制度建构与国际交往方面进入成熟状态,从而真正作别了传统帝国,转进为民族国家。

China's modern state construction has external and internal interactive forces.In terms of internal forces,economic and social changes were a driving force,and the civil war was also a driving force that cannot be ignored.As for external forces,international economic and trade exchanges certainly played a role in promoting China's construction of a nation-state,but the two world wars played a more significant role in promoting China's construction of a nation-state.Frist,the nation-state formally established by the“baby”Republic of China still needed a platform of national construction and modern political system to mature.Secondly,the two world wars helped transform China from a long-term defeated country to a victor,which facilitated its access to the international treaty system.Previously,the conditions for China to join the international system as a nation-state were strictly restrained,putting it in a passive state of either amending or abrogating treaties free from the shackles of the international treaty system,and the traditional imperial mechanism was not fundamentally shaken.After the two World Wars,China began to enter the international community with the goal of striving for the legitimate rights and interests of the nation-state,or seeking to recover the lost national rights and interests,or striving to construct a new international order.In short,the two world wars brought China into a mature state in terms of the political concept,system construction and international exchanges of the nation-state,thus truly leaving behind its long-term status as a traditional empire and becoming a nation-state.