中国国家现代化历程与中华民族的觉醒

民族的觉醒也就是近现代民族意识的形成 ,它是一个民族从自在走向自为的关键 ,是在一定的经济和历史条件下 ,与国家体制的现代化、近现代国民的形成紧密相关的历史进程。其核心内容为对建立主权独立完整和主权在民的近现代国家 (单一民族国家或多民族国家 )这一历史使命的认识。现代民族意识觉醒具有大众性和实践性两个特征。 2 0 0 0多年统一的多民族的封建国家的历史造就了中华民族这一族际共同体 ,然而在“天下国家”专制君主体制下 ,中华民族只能以自在的方式存在。近代西方列强的入侵摧毁了中国的“天下国家”体系和观念 ,同时中国各族在团结御侮、救国救民的斗争中加强了对中华民族的认同。 2 0世纪初 ,中华民族开始其觉醒的历史进程 ,经历了三个阶段 ,至194 9年中华人民共和国的成立 ,最终完成了从自在到自为的转变。

China's Drive for Modernization and the Awakening of the Chinese Nation

The awakening of a nation means the development of national consciousness in a modern sense. It is a critical point at which a nation goes from one in itself to one for itself, and under certain economic and historical conditions, it is also a process that is closely related with the modernization of a country's political institutions and the transformation of its people. At the core of this is the recognition of the necessity for establishing a country (the country can be uni-national or multi national) with independent and integral sovereignty that is shared among people. Such a definition determines the fact that the awakening process involves the participation of the masses and the taking of actions. The awakening of the Chinese nation was accomplished in ways that were conditioned by China's history and reality. For more than 2000 years China remained a unified multi national feudal country, which gave the Chinese people a common ethnic identity, but under the totalitarian rule of emperors who regarded themselves as patriarchs of a big family, the Chinese nation could exist only as a nation in itself. The idea of a country as a big family was totally destroyed by the invasion of European powers, and in the struggles against them, the various nationalities of China became more identified with the notion of the Chinese nation. In the early 20th century, the Chinese nation started its awakening process, and after many twists and turns, the process was finally accomplished in 1949 with the founding of the People's Republic of China. From then on the Chinese nation turned from one in itself to one for itself.