葉榮鐘的「述史」之志：晚年書寫活動試論

Determination to Write History for the Taiwanese: Writing Activities of Ye Jung-chong in His Later Years

本文嘗試刻畫臺灣抗日知識分子葉榮鐘的後殖民身影。葉榮鐘在戰前是抗日民族運動右派陣營的知識分子；戰後，在戒嚴令仍長期實施中的1960年代後半期以降，發表了《臺灣民族運動史》等一連串的著作，以1920年代抗日運動當事者的身分，將其經驗與記憶傳述後世。這是臺灣現代史中對葉榮鐘理解的原型。從抗日知識分子到傳遞過往歷史經驗的書寫者，這樣的形象是在何種歷史背景與人生歷程中積累而成？為了回答此一問題，筆者將葉榮鐘晚年的書寫活動放在歷史脈絡中去檢討。從研究結果可見，非戰後世代的葉榮鐘因《臺灣民族運動史》受到海內外及戰後世代的注目，並現身於1970年代「回歸現實」的思潮中。而《臺灣民族運動史》的撰寫背景，雖起因於蔡培火、吳三連等人為了反駁楊肇嘉回憶錄的記述，延請曾是抗日運動右派的「文膽」葉榮鐘來執筆寫作，但更重要的是，葉榮鐘本人的「述史」之志。戰後，《林獻堂先生紀念集》的編纂，可以視為其堅定「述史」之志的契機。葉榮鐘作為「文膽」的角色，和「述史」的經營可謂是重疊的。葉榮鐘的述史之志，在留下紀錄的同時，更向廣大的臺灣社會全體發話，要求承認臺灣人歷史與文化之對等，其傳遞的精神，也同為康寧祥、黃煌雄等戰後世代繼承。此外，為了紀念逝世的抗日運動前輩，撰寫相關文章以公諸於世、傳承記憶的這種做法，更被繼承在黨外雜誌之中，這也是葉榮鐘在1980年代後半期臺灣史研究興盛之前，留下的遺產之一。藉由釐清葉榮鐘晚年的書寫活動，我們捕捉到其進行後殖民主義文化活動的身影，也看到與日本殖民統治對抗的臺灣人歷史經驗，在戰後國民黨一黨支配體制的環境中，被論述、成為社會記憶一部分的過程。

This article describes the life of Ye Jung-chong as an anti-Japanese intellectual in the post-colonial era. Before World War II, Ye Jung-chong was a right-wing intellectual of the anti-Japanese movement. Such had been his image in modern Taiwan. After the war, he published a series of works in the 1960s when Taiwan was still under martial law, thereby passing down his experiences and memories of the anti-Japanese movement in the 1920s to the younger generation. This article attempts to explore the historical background and his life experiences that changed Ye Jung-chong from an anti-Japanese intellectual into a writer of historical experiences. Although not belonging to the postwar generation, Ye Jung-chong attracted much the attention of the postwar generation both domestic and overseas because of his book, History of the Taiwanese National Movement, and because he was part of the 'back-to-reality' trend of thought of the 1970s. Although he was invited to write History of the Taiwanese National Movement as a refutation of Yang Chao-chia's memoirs, it did reveal his strong 'determination to write history.' In the aftermath of World War II, his role as a 'writer' overlapped with his engagement to 'write history.' Ye Jung-chong's zeal to write history stemmed from his demand for equal recognition of the Taiwanese history and culture. His spirit of recording history had set a precedent for the postwar generation, including Kang Ning-hsiang, Huang Huang-hsiung and others. Moreover, every time a predecessor of the anti-Japanese movement died, Ye Jung-chong published essays of commemoration and passed down memories of the forerunners. The 'tangwai' magazines inherited his literary style, which was also a part of his legacy prior to the study of Taiwanese history in the later half of the 1980s. Analyzing the writing activities of Ye Jung-chong in his late years can shed light on the post-colonial cultural movement and the process through which historical experiences of Taiwanese under Japanese colonial rule were discoursed, which makes it a part of social memory under the KMT's dominant, one-party regime in the postwar era.