Meanings of “Guomin” and State-building in Early Modern China and Japan: From the Meiji Japan to China's revolution

nation state在中日两国分别被理解为“民族国家”和“国民国家”,其原因可以从分析并比较"国民"的语义变迁中得到解释,它们反映出两国近代以来不同的国家构建历程。古汉语“国民”在近代日本首次获得归属和参与的现代语义,回归中国后,在晚清最后10余年间变得更为复杂。近代中日的“国民”承载权利、成员身份等现代西方的公民概念语义,并与“人民”、“公民”、“臣民”、“民族”等相关语词形成一个概念网,传递出对国家主义的强烈追求。两国的“国民”语义差异明显:在日本明治中期以后容纳了天皇的“臣民”,融入文化民族的部分语义,成就其君主专制和泛民族主义相糅合的歧路；在晚清则成为立宪/共和之争的标志,与大民族主义/汉族主义的“民族”语义之争一起,辛亥革命后汇入为“中华民国”的民族国家话语。近代中日的国家构建是在外力作用下相互参照的结果,但却迈上迥然不同的道路。

Classical Chinese phrase “guomin” firstly got the modern Western meanings of belonging and participation in the Early Meiji Japan． After its return to China， the meanings were more complex． “Guomin” in China and Japan shared the same meanings of the Western concept of citizen，such as rights and membership， while it was involved into a network of concepts with other related phrases，implying the strong pursuit for the statism. However，the phrase of  “guomin” in the two states had many different meanings． After the mid-Meiji period，the phrase tolerated the subject of emperor and the cultural nation，and pushed the mixture between monarchy and pan-nationalism forward; while in late Qing，it became the sign of conflict between constitutionism and republicanism，and came to the nation-state discourse of  “Chinese republic”． Modern Japan and China's state-building are the results of interreference with the extra-forces，but have taken widely different paths．

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