梁啟超的「學者」「晚年」形象

Liang Qi Chao's Images as 'Scholar' and of the 'Old Age' in the 1920s: A Re-investigation

前人為1920年代的梁啟超建立了兩個解釋模式：一為「學術」二為「晚年」。因此，在相對於人生前段豐富的研究而言，梁啟超自北洋政府下野後的情況，則較為學者所忽略，其少量的研究又以「晚年」與「學術」兩大預設以及五四與民國史架構為出發點，梁氏真正的人生觀與計畫遂被掩蓋。本文認為，所謂「學者」是建立在梁氏「政治不正確」且成王敗寇下，政治活動為人所隱晦下的解釋，其中特別以國民黨褒揚梁啟超一案作為「學者」形象確立的標誌。然而這「學者」形象與當時梁氏受到北大知識分子排擠的「政客」形象形成相當明顯的矛盾。至於所謂「晚年」，則是學者以後見之明逆推梁氏由逝世到北洋政府下野的十年，並將梁氏的死亡視為一連續的病例所造成。然而這與梁氏本身對其身體積極樂觀的態度形成明顯的對比。最後，藉由回到梁啟超身處的歷史處境與生命處境，並將焦點集中於梁氏以積極樂觀的態度給予回應，由此可見在後見之明所謂「晚年」以及「學者與政客」的二元對立下，梁氏其實抱持的是相當積極樂觀的態度。從梁氏的例子可以了解，不論是主動參與「政治」的慾望或是被動受「政治」的影響，對中國讀書人而言「政治」其實是無所不在的。

The typical accounts of Liang Qi Chao’s life in the 1920s had been established in terms of his image either as “scholar” or of the “old age” within the framework of May Fourth Movement. Compared with abundant literature of Liang’s earlier life, discussions of his later life after quitting the Beiyang government(北洋政府) are relatively few. As a result, Liang’s true attitude toward life and his career plan in the 1920s had been obscured. In this article, I argue that, Liang’s image as “scholar” is foregrounded to play down his “political incorrectness,” which was largely established by the case of KMT’s citations for conferring honors(褒揚令). It should be noted, however, that this image posed an obvious contradiction to his image as despicable “politician” in the eyes of contemporary Peking intellectuals. On the other hand, his image of the “old age” was constructed with hindsight from Liang’s succession of illnesses in the 1920s, but it in fact contradicted to his optimistic and positive attitude of his health. By focusing on Liang’s optimistically positive and active attitude in response to his historical and life situations, this article intends to render a more truthful image of Liang in his later years based on his own words. Furthermore, from Liang’s case, it is clear that whether Chinese intellectuals actively participated, or was passively involved in the political affairs, politic is everywhere.