“中央集权”在中国:一个现代概念的历史生成及其理论检视(1899—1911)

“Centralization” in China: The Historical Formation of a Modern Concept and Its Theoretical Examination(1899-1911)

“中央集权”概念在中国的输入及引发的论争可作为研究百年来中国政治学概念体系和主导性政治话语的典型案例。自输入以来,“中央集权”即被放置在多样化的政体论框架中加以理解,体现出两种不同的思想路径,一种将之放置在地方自治、专制、立宪等概念所构成的政治理论化进路之中,一种是将之作为社会历史分期某一特定阶段的历史化进路。“中央集权”概念在1904年后的政治改革和思想文化场域的兴起,乃是以清朝中央政府和地方督抚的权力斗争为背景,并在思想界关于国体、政体的论争中,同专制政体既相区别又深刻绑定在一起。因此与后来被视为普遍适用的历史政治概念不同,“中央集权”概念在兴起之初遭受了来自多方面的质疑和批判,这在很大程度上导致了该概念的负面化印象以及“集中”概念的兴起。“中央集权”在中国的传播伴随着对中国传统文化资源的继承与延续,同时相关的现代西方思想也不断地对中国传统国家治理的经验和学说进行冲击和重构。透过这一视角,我们可以于传统和现代之间展开更具深度的理论对话和观念重思,现代立国的历史政治解释也亟待由此开辟新的学术理路。

The introduction of “centralization” in China and the its controversies can serve as a typical case to study the conceptual system of Chinese political science and the dominant political discourse in the past hundred years. Since input, the “centralization” is placed in the frame of the theory of regime to get understanding and cognition, from Liang Qichao to Yi Shu Hui Bian in the beginning of the 20th century, “centralization” actually reflects the thought of two different paths. The first one is placed in the political theoretical approach which consists of local autonomy, despotism, the constitution and so on. The other is the historical approach as a specific stage in social historical stages. The rise of the concept of “centralization” in China’s political reform and ideological and cultural field since 1904 was based on the power struggle between the central government and local governors at the end of the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, the concept of “centralization” is different from the historical and political concept that later became widely applicable. At the beginning of its rise, it was questioned and criticized from many aspects, which partly led to the negative tendency of the concept and the rise of the concept of “centralism”.The spread of “centralization” in China is accompanied by the inheritance and continuation of traditional Chinese ideological and cultural resources, while the relevant modern western ideological and theoretical theories was constantly impacting and reconstructing the experience and theories of traditional Chinese state governance.From this perspective, we can not only carry out in-depth theoretical dialogue and rethink between tradition and modernity, but also need to open up a new academic road for the historical and political interpretation of the establishment of modern China in the past hundred years.