晚清毀家廢婚論與親密關係政治

A Politics of Intimacy: Abolishing Family and Marriage in the Late Ch’ing Dynasty

本文探討晚清毀家廢婚言論出現的軌跡與內容，一方面嘗試放在當時知識分子歷史語境中理解，一方面也從晚近學界所開拓之性／別研究的視野回看這一段歷史的殘存。主要想梳理的，是此一時期知識分子毀家廢婚論述中所開啟的對於家庭與親密關係作為政治經濟與階序權力場域的認識，及其置疑婚姻、家庭之理所當然與自然而然而予以歷史化、政治化的討論，並觀察其烏托邦想像另類親密關係形式所勾連的當時其他基進與保守論述資源。本文認為，晚清毀家廢婚論在批判以私有為基礎的婚姻家庭「制度結構」的同時，也鎳拔了對於親密關係連結於公／私這對範疇的重行思考。「毀家廢婚」論所抗抗的是壞的「制度」，躍然其中的卻是對於性、性別、性交、家庭與社會的生養照顧等種種親密關係如何可以脫離婚姻家庭私有制，而思考另類的可能性。本文試圖指出，毀家廢婚論所質疑的是特定的婚姻家庭制度，在批判婚姻家庭制度的同時，更細緻地思考親密關係作為一種公共性的議題，從特定私有制度解放出來的可能性。

This paper aims to trace the trajectories and contents of the discourses of destroying the family and abolishing marriage in early 20th century China. On the one hand, it interprets the discourses within the context of the late Ch’ing intellectual milieu; on the other hand, it looks back to the historical residue of this period from the perspective of recent academic gender/sexuality and intimacy studies. My paper interrogates the arguments through which late Ch’ing intellectuals expounded on marriage-family and intimacy as a problematic in the economic-political and hierarchical power relations field. It also observes how their utopic imaginations of alternative forms of intimacies articulated other contemporary radical or conservative discursive resources. The paper argues that while late Ch’ing discourses on destroying family and abolishing marriage seemingly mainly criticize the marriage-family as an institution based on private property, the other side of the coin is that they rethink the politics of intimacy along with the categories of public/private. Discourses on “destroying family and abolishing marriage” primarily argue against a bad institution; however, equally important is their attempt to recreate a possible reality where issues of intimacy along with sex, sexuality, gender, social care, happiness, well-being etc. can be publicized and critically rethought without being confined to the form of the private family.