走向现代的“乡贤”——20世纪30年代的乡贤事略编撰活动

Insight into Modern Chinese Xiangxian: A Study of Compilation of Biographies of Local Worthies in the 1930s

20世纪30年代中期,曾有一场中央发起、各地响应的乡贤事略编撰活动。编撰对象为“省”乡贤,着力凸显乡贤对于“国”而非“乡”本身的贡献,以求古为今用,助力于复兴“民族”。各省的乡贤遴选标准,多强调科学、理性的“现代”眼光;在书写中,则须兼顾学术性与中等学校内外的教育需求。活动促成了延续到抗战之后的乡贤文化热潮,参与者对于近代外来的纪念方式与表现要素亦持开放的态度。然而,“乡贤”与本“乡”的关联呈现通常居于次要地位;女性、科学等类乡贤的地位提升有限,其特殊价值也未得到深入开掘。对此次乡贤事略编撰活动的考察,有助于进一步揭示中国近代“乡”与“国”之间精神联系的脉延与变异。

The present author argues that,in the state-initiated nationwide endeavor to compile biographies of xiangxian( local worthies) in the 1930s,xiangxian were predominantly provincial elites,who made greater contribution to the state rather than to their homeplaces,that is to say,xiangxian was not treated in the local but in the national context. Furthermore,the author,investigating the compilation,content and role of these biographies,sheds new light on continuity and changes respecting the cultural connection of local society and state.