官民階級與階級意識：中國的階級模式

A CHINESE MODEL OF CLASS AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS

本文試圖從中國社會文化的角度，建構階級與階級意識的概念架構。結果發現，中國人的階級就是等級，也就是地位群；並以政治職位和政治權力為主要依據，財富、知識都只是次要條件。這樣就建立了貴、賤，也就是官、民的兩個階級秩序，這種階級關係因時間長久而形成官民文化。這種階級透過職業市場和過程而產生，就是階級的職業取向。階級意識則表現在地位意識、利益意識、生活意識諸層面，並引起官民間的階級衝突與對立。但因受結構中的家族、地方、倫理、命運諸因素的影響，使衝突和對立得以緩和，而沒有產生強烈的階級鬥爭。

This essay explores the conceptual grounding of class and class consciousness in Chinese culture. Results from historical research strongly support the hypothesis that the Chinese meaning of 'class' (teng-chi) is based upon the hierarchy of civil servants in imperial China. In this concept of hierarchy, political position and power is more important than property. Chinese class society was basically made up of two subclasses. One was of officials who held political positions in the central or local government and occupied a higher status (kuei), and the other was of common people or peasants who were without office (chien). That is to say, the fundamental structure in the Chinese class system was only two classes: officials and people. Class conscious-ness was manifest in the three dimensions of status consciousness, interest consciousness, and living consciousness, and it was along these three dimensions that class conflict between officials and people took place. Finally, class struggle does not seem to have been as virulent as in other societies, since it was contextualized within such specific characteristics of Chinese culture as clan organization, local identity, Confucian ethics, and belief in fate.