天下、民族与认同:国家观念在传统中国的历史演进

All-under-Heaven,Nation and Self-Identity:The Evolution of State Concept in Traditional China

中国现代国家观念的形成是长期历史演化的结果,传统中国文明模式之中始终内含着对国家的想象和构建。在先秦时代,天下主义塑造了中国人的文明观、国家观和世界观,在天下主义视域下国家是一个相对性的存在,以家为模型外推形成疆域格局,以天下为终极原则构建政治秩序。始于秦朝的古代中国开启了以国家为政治单位的国家政治。文化与国家的同构性衍生出中国对世界和他族的态度和策略,也决定了个人身份认同的方式和来源。古代中国以文化主义为支撑,以王朝国家为载体,形成的中心—边缘观念是理解国家的关键。晚清时期中国以“被迫”的方式进入了国际体系,中心—边缘秩序观受到了破坏,文化主义作为一种身份认同形式无法再对来自外界的冲突做出调整适应。文化意义上的国家观念开始向民族主义促成的主权意义上的国家观念转变。

The formation of the modern state concept is the result of a long historical evolution in China.The civiliza-tion model in traditional China always includes the imagination and construction of the state.In the pre-Qin period,the concept of all-under-Heaven shaped the Chinese view on civilization,state and the world.The state was a relative existence from the perspective of the concept of all-under-Heaven.The state formed its territory structure according to the family model and constructed its political order according to the ultimate principle of all-under-Heaven.The ancient China started its state politics whose political unit was the state.The homogeneity of culture and state derived the attitude and strategy to the world and other ethnic groups of China;it also determined the way and source of self-identity.The ancient China,supported by culturism and conveyed in the form of the dynasty-state,came to form the concept of center and periphery that is the the key to understanding state.China was forced to enter the international system in the late Qing Dynasty so that the concept of center and periphery order suffered damages and culturism as a form of self-identity failed to adjust itself to the external conflicts.The state concept based on culture changed to the state concept based on sovereignty that was facilitated by nationalism.