朝聖與求道：葉盛吉戰中期日記（1938-1945）初探

Pilgrimage and Truth-seeking: A Preliminary Study of Yeh Sheng-ji’s Wartime Diaries (1938-1945)

本文試圖經由對葉盛吉中學後期至終戰前日記（1938-1945.3）的總體性深度解讀，對他在日本統治後期的認同形成與變化之路，提出一個初步的宏觀理解架構。本文主張，葉盛吉在這段期間行經了兩個層次的日本人認同形成路徑──「朝聖」，也就是經由教育的向上流動被整合到戰前日本菁英階層的社會學過程，以及「求道」，也就是學習、思辨、接納，乃至信仰日本國家意識形態，成為忠誠日本國民或臣民的思想過程；他的「朝聖」之旅極為順遂，但在「求道」之路上卻遭遇重大挫折，與戰中期日本國家意識形態發生了激烈衝突，最終導致他日本人認同的崩解。在某個意義上，葉盛吉「朝聖」的成功導致了他「求道」的挫敗。本文所提出的「朝聖與求道之辨證關係」的論證，不僅試圖對葉盛吉青年期認同過程做出宏觀詮釋，同時也希望成為今後相關系列研究的基礎。

This paper proposes a preliminary macro-level interpretive framework for understanding Yeh Sheng-ji’s path of identity formation and transformation during the late colonial period through a comprehensive and in-depth reading of his diaries written between his middle school years and the end of World War II (1939-1945.3). The author argues that during this period, Yeh underwent two distinct but interconnected paths toward identifying himself as Japanese. The first path,“pilgrimage,”refers to the sociological process of being recruited and integrated into the elite strata of imperial Japan through educational upward mobility. The second path,“truth-seeking,”denotes an intellectual journey of learning, reflection, and assimilation of Japan’s wartime state ideology through which he would become a loyal Japanese citizen or subject. While Yeh’s pilgrimage proceeded exceptionally smoothly, his truth-seeking encountered a profound ideological conflict, leading to the eventual collapse of his identification with the Japanese state. Paradoxically, it was the very success of Yeh’s pilgrimage that brought about the failure of his truth-seeking. The dialectics between Yeh’s pilgrimage and truth-seeking as the central analytic framework not only illuminates his complex identity formation during his youthful years, but also provides a conceptual foundation for further research on his diaries and intellectual legacy.