市民社会与中日的近代化

中日两国的近代化历程具有较大的差异性。从市民社会的角度出发去考察:第一,在历史时段上,日本在元禄时代(18世纪前后)市民社会力量就已经成长起来,而中国则是在清末“新政”时期(20世纪前后)才产生了市民社会的萌芽。第二,在社会力量上,日本的武士阶层是市民社会的特殊力量,而中国的士绅阶层,却成为维护封建制度和秩序的顽固势力。第三,在社会经济上,日本的新兴商人作为市民社会的重要力量和反抗幕藩统治的生力军,而中国的商人最终不是作为独立的阶级(或阶层)出现于社会,而只是地主、官僚阶级的附庸而已。中日两国市民社会的不同状况和发展差距,决定了近代化过程中的差异性以及不同的历史命运。

Citizen society and modernization of China and Japan

There are differences in the process of modernization in China and in Japan, which can be analyzed from the perspective of citizen society. First, Japan had already developed its citizen society from Yuan Lu Times while in China it didn't appear until the New Deal' of Qing Dynasty. Second, the knights of Japan were a main force of citizen society and they had the spirit of knight soul with merchant talent'. In China, the social forces were mainly the countryside gentlemen, who relied heavily on agriculture and status quo and formed the gentlemen society of landlord-gentlemen-feudalist tycoon'. Thirdly, the newborn merchants in Japan were the backbones of its economy, while the Chinese merchants were only appendants of the feudalists. These differences determined the directions of the histories of China and Japan.