章太炎的「神經病」：作為生存位置與革命知識情感動能

Zhang Tai-Yan's 'Insanity': Affect, Survival and Revolutionary Knowledge

1906年，章太炎（1869－1936）在日本〈東京留學生歡迎會演說辭〉中，提出「神經病」作為召喚革命感情與學問事業的重要動能。本文試圖提供一種理解章太炎生命與學術的方式，是重新思考章太炎的「神經病」作為一種經驗立場，以及經常被忽略掉的作為革命知識與感情的重要動能。本文大略追究了19世紀晚期到20世紀初期「神經病」一詞的源流與多重語義，並且從兩個脈絡閱讀章太炎的「神經病」，一是「革命者」，一是有「腦病」的人。透過這二個線索的閱讀，本文一方面試圖將「神經病」的具體血肉經驗清晰化，另一方面也將章太炎的「神經病」闡釋為一種論述位置，亦即一個說話的位置，在這個位置上，凝聚了章太炎經驗、政治、社會以及知識立場。

This paper attempts to provide a new way to understand the life and work of radical intellectual Zhang Tai Yan (1869-1936) by rethinking 'insanity' as both an experiential standpoint and an overlooked impetus for the development of revolutionary knowledge and affect. When giving a speech in Japan in 1906,Zhang Tai-yan used the unlikely term 'shenjing bing' (literally nerve disease, but meaning insanity or, more colloquially, a person who is 'psycho') to evoke the spirit of revolutionary knowledge and affect. This paper provides a preliminary study of the meanings of 'shenjing bing' from the late 19th to early 20th century. The paper then reads Zhang as a 'shenjing bing' in two ways, as a revolutionary and as a person with a 'brain disease' (he was epileptic). Through this double reading, the paper attempts, first, to articulate (rather than avoid) the concrete, embodied experience of 'shenjing bing.' Second, 'shenjing bing'is explored as a discursive position, a speaking site where Zhang's experiential, political and social groundings converge in an epistemological standpoint.