중국의 자기 정체성으로서의 ‘문명형 국가’론과 그 인식론적 맹점(盲點)에 관하여 — 장웨이웨이(張維爲)의 『중국은 문명형 국가다』의 사유구조에 대한 비판적 분석

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the thought structure of Zhang Weiwei’s book China is civilizational state and its cultural-political implications. In the last 20th century, China was transformed from an ‘empire’ to a ‘state’ by the West. The ‘state’, or more precisely, the ‘nation-state’, which originated in the West at that time, was a political system based on ‘people’s sovereignty’ and ‘secularization’ as two major axes, conquered imperial China. China, too, fascinated by the overwhelming power of the modern nation-state, struggled throughout the 20th century to establish a modern nation-state system. However, entering the 21st century, China is trying to create a Chinese political civilization while witnessing the many difficulties that the modern nation-state system is creating. The “civilized state” that Zhang Weiwei is claiming can be said to be a part of such an attempt. However, even if the attempt of the ‘civilized state’ is touching the core problem of the modern nation-state system of secularization, it is true that the ‘civilized state’ itself has considerable problems. More specifically, Zhang Weiwei’s theoretical construction of the ‘civilized state’ asserts China’s national culture or civilization, but it does not have has a sharp perspective on how it relates to the existing power system. Also, the ‘civilizational state’ theory assumes that the ‘people’ will be naturally integrated within the ‘Chinese civilization’, which should be called an overly optimistic view that has lost its realistic sense. By interpreting the ‘civilizational state’ from a critical point of view, this paper intends to lay the foundation for a discussion that can critically look at the flow of Chinese discourse that envisions a political civilization with Chinese characteristics.