記憶未來：黑格爾式的拼音偏見，以及漢字改革的演化意圖

Abstract

對很多十九世紀末、二十世紀初的中國知識分子來說，一套新而歐化的文字系統乃是中國民族自我轉化的載體－不僅用以協商一些可能的（可延續的）過去，也為了藉此去記憶（出）一個「現代的」未來。中文改革的目的不外乎「歐化」、「現代化」、「科學化」，乃至於晚近的「全球化」和「與世界接軌」。本文嘗試從一個特定的視角去重探漢字批判在中國文化現代性建構中的定位，其用意不在於提出某種替代性的全觀式看法，而在於從中去探討「書寫」的後殖民問題意識－在這樣的問題性中，書寫的人為或科技性被凸顯出來。換言之，在漢字批判的改革提案中，我們看到了一種對於文化內在他性的反思。總體來說，我將指出的是，在此一意欲透過設計並推動一個新的語文以便把一個「新中國」引領到／出世界的努力中（所謂「推向世界的舞台」，或進入黑格爾意義的「世界歷史」），人類歷史被呈現為一種透過廣義「書寫」來推動的人工演化。而這種有意識的人工演化特別會在「危機」時刻中展露。

For many Chinese intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a new and Europeanized written language was considered a vehicle of Chinese national self-transformation-not only to negotiate a possible past but also to memorize a ”modern” future. In this paper, I will examine the discursive formation of Chinese Language Reform which aimed to ”Europeanize”, ”modernize”, ”scientificize”, and more recently, ”globalize” the Chinese written language, and thereby to connect Chinese (and/or Taiwanese) culture to the ”world” (Yu-Shi-jie Jie Gui). I will argue that artificiality and technicity of writing is revealed in a postcolonial problematic. In other words, there is an implicit reflection of cultural alterity in any effort of literary reform. Intertwined with the discursive analysis, I shall also briefly discuss the related issues of phonocentrism and what I will call ”alphabetic fallacy” in Western philosophy and modern linguistics. In sum, I will suggest that the effort of ”worlding” a new ”China” by carrying out a new linguist vehicle can be understood as a presentation of human history as a peculiar form of artificial evolution through ”writing” in the broad sense. This sense of ”artificial” evolution often emerges in a moment of cultural crisis and is based on certain belief on the ”natural” evolution of western culture.