陳東原《中國婦女生活史》與「五四婦女史觀」再思

Rethinking the “May Fourth View of Women's History”: Social Trends and a Historiography of Chen Dongyuan's The History of Chinese Women's Life

陳東原（1902－1978）所著《中國婦女生活史》（1928）是民國以來最被重視的一部中國婦女通史。當今學者認為該書的「五四史觀」奠定了中國婦女被壓迫印象的基調，影響其後人們對中國婦女史的想像。本文嘗試從史學史的角度探究本書撰著的學術背景與社會風潮，並再思「五四（婦女）史觀」之意涵。期待藉由考察五四時期「婦女史」知識如何被史家「發現」、「傳述」、「闡釋」與「運用」，又如何形成史觀，以對五四史學與婦女知識有進一步的了解。本研究發現該書婦女史的資料來源與編纂方式，實與五四時期的史學革新（整理國故、古史辨）、新知識的開發（社會學與社會調查），以及婦女解放風潮、國民黨婦女運動之取向，密切相關。而五四男性文人的婦女史觀，是一種線性進化史觀，他們自居啟蒙者，將五四作為歷史的分界，藉由陳述過往女性群體的苦痛來激勵當代女性向前；婦女史知識成為其改革社會、教育女性、再造文明的工具。當時婦女史雖尚未成為獨立的歷史學分支，但史學與社會科學之交融對婦女史編寫的影響已可見；其本作為改造社會的工具，卻也成為日後中國婦女史知識的重要根基。

The History of Chinese Women's Life 中國婦女生活史(1928), by Chen Dongyuan陳東原 (1902-1978), has been the most significant work on Chinese women's history since the early Republican era. Scholars presently believe the “May Fourth view of history” found within his work sets a tone of traditional Chinese women's oppression, which has influenced the imagination of Chinese women and women's history. This paper attempts to investigate the academic background and social trends present during the writing of The History of Chinese Women's Life from a historiographical perspective and rethink the meanings of a “May Fourth view of (women's) history.” By examining how the knowledge of “women's history” was “discovered,” “rewritten,” “interpreted,” and “employed” by historians of the May Fourth era as well as how it formed a view of history, the author intends to further our understanding of the historiography of May Fourth and knowledge regarding women. Interestingly, the author has discovered both the origins of the materials used and how the work was compiled by Chen, both of which are closely related to the new historiographical trends of the May Fourth era—the “Organizing Traditional Chinese Materials” or the “Doubting Antiquity” school of thought—and the emergence of new knowledge—sociology and social surveys—as well as being connected to the women's movements advocated by the Kuomintang (KMT) and popular fervor over women's liberation. Moreover, the view of women's history held by May Fourth male intellectuals can be defined as a linear progression of history. Occupying the position of being enlightened individuals, they viewed May Fourth as a point to demarcate history. Specifically, due to the utilization of the women's collective suffering in the past to prompt women forward, the knowledge of women's history became a tool to reform society, educate women, and reconstruct civilization. Despite women's history not being a specific branch of academia at the time, one can note the role played by historiography and social sciences in the development of the compilation of women's history, which became both a tool to reshape society and an important foundation for later knowledge concerning women's history.