日本明治前期知识界接受西方“民族”概念的思想远因——以“日本优越论”为核心

The Ideological Reason Why the Japanese Intelligentsia Accepted the Western Concept of“Nation”in the Early Meiji Period——With the“Japanese Superiority Theory”as the Core

明治初期,日本知识人将西方“Nation”一词翻译为“民族”后,他们在使用“民族”概念的过程中,直接把“日本优越论”置于其中,进而创造出“日本民族”“大和民族”等词汇,从中突出强调日本民族自古以来所形成的优秀特征。表面上看,这一思想的形成与国粹主义密切相关,但若进一步考察,志贺重昂等国粹主义者以及《启蒙日本思想》等杂志中的“日本优越论”并不是首次出现,而是江户时代的主要思想之一。事实上,由于明清鼎革和明末赴日乞师者的影响,江户前期的山鹿素行、山崎闇斋等人先后从日本皇统、日本水土两个特性构建了“日本优越论”。重要的是,“日本优越论”不只成为江户后期本多利明、佐藤信渊以及吉田松阴对外扩张设想的“思想动因”,还影响了明治前期日本知识人对西方“民族”理念的接受和使用。

In the early Meiji period,after the Japanese intellectuals translated the Western word nation intoMinzoku(民族),they put the“theory of Japanese superiority”in the process of using the concept ofMinzoku,and then created Japanese Minzoku,Yamato Minzoku and other words,highlighting the excellentcharacteristics of the Japanese nation formed since the ancient times.Superficially,the formation of thisthought was closely related to the populism of Japan.However,further investigation showed that the“Japanese superiority theory”presented by populists such as Shiga Shigetaka and magazines such asEnlightenment Japanese Thoughtwas not the first time to appear,but one of the main ideas of the Edoperiod.In fact,due to the influence of the dynasty alternation from the Ming to the Qing and the behavior ofasking for troops from Japan at the end of the Ming Dynasty,Yamaga Sokōand Yamazaki Ansai in the earlyEdo period constructed the“theory of Japanese superiority”successively from the two characteristics of Japanese imperial unification and natural conditions.What’s more,the“Japanese superiority theory”notonly became the ideological motivation of the ideas of external expansion of Honda Toshiaki,SatōNobuhiro and Yoshida Shōin in the late Edo period,but also affected the Japanese intellectuals’reception and use ofthe Western concept of nation in the early Meiji period.