The Spread and Transformation of the Concept of “Nihilism”

“Nihilism” has been an important concept influencing China in modern times, but as some scholars have pointed out, concepts such as “nihilist party,” “nihilism,” “populist party,” “anarchist party,” and “anarchism” were often conflated, “their meanings and connotations changing with the different positions and propositions of their users,” and the process of their introduction and evolution presents an extremely complex picture.

“虚无主义”是近代以来影响中国的重要概念，但正如有学者指出的，“虚无党”“虚无主义”与“民粹派”“无政府党”“无政府主义”等概念常常混用，“其词义和词性随着使用者立场和主张的不同而变化”，其传入与演变过程呈现出极为复杂的样态。

The Ancient Meaning of “Nihility” (虚无)

“虚无”的古义

The term “nihility” (虚无) was originally a Chinese indigenous word and appears frequently in Daoist classics. For example, the *Heshang Gong Commentary on the Laozi* annotates the opening line of the first chapter of the *Laozi*—“Non-being names the beginning of heaven and earth”—as follows: “What is named non-being is the Way. The Way is formless, therefore it cannot be named. ‘Beginning’ is the root of the Way. It emits breath and spreads transformation, emerging from nihility, and is the original beginning of heaven and earth.” (*Heshang Gong Commentary on the Laozi*, “Embracing the Way, Part One”) Wang Bi, annotating the sixteenth chapter of the *Laozi*, glosses “Heaven is then the Way” as “Uniting with heaven in virtue, embodying the Way and achieving great penetration, one then reaches the extreme of nihility”; and glosses “The Way then endures” as “Exhausting the extreme of nihility, attaining the constancy of the Way, one then reaches the point of inexhaustibility.” (*Wang Bi’s Commentary on the Laozi*) The *Zhuangzi* states: “Tranquility, indifference, silence, nihility, non-action—these are the level of heaven and earth and the substance of the Way and its virtue.” (*Zhuangzi*, “Carving Intentions”) The *Guanzi*, regarded as a representative work of the Jixia Academy of Daoism, says: “The upright person has no seeking, therefore he can be nihility”; “Nihility and formlessness are called the Way; transforming and nurturing the myriad things are called virtue.” Thus, as an inherent concept in the history of Chinese thought formed by combining “emptiness” (虚) and “non-being” (无), the term “nihility” is closely related to Daoist doctrine. As the Han dynasty historian Sima Tan summarized: “The Daoists are non-active, yet it is also said they are non-doing. Their practice is easy to carry out, but their words are difficult to understand. Their art takes nihility as its foundation and following along as its function.” (*On the Essential Points of the Six Schools*) For traditional scholar-officials well-versed in Chinese classics, the term “nihility” was tightly linked to the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi and their method of governing the people.

“虚无”一词本是中国固有的词汇，且频繁出现在道家典籍之中。比如，《老子河上公注》对《老子》开篇第一章中“无名天地之始”注解为：“无名者谓道，道无形，故不可名也。始者道本也，吐气布化，出于虚无，为天地本始也。”（《老子河上公注·体道第一》）王弼注《老子》第十六章中“天乃道”为“与天合德，体道大通，则乃至于极虚无也”；注“道乃久”为“穷极虚无，得道之常，则乃至于不穷极也”（《老子王弼注》）。《庄子》中讲到，“夫恬淡寂漠，虚无无为，此天地之平而道德之质也”（《庄子·刻意》）。被视为稷下道家代表作的《管子》中说：“夫正人无求之也，故能虚无”；“虚无无形谓之道，化育万物谓之德。”可见，作为合并了“虚”和“无”的中国思想史上的固有概念，“虚无”一词与道家学说关系密切。正如汉代司马谈所概括的，“道家无为，又曰无不为，其实易行，其辞难知。其术以虚无为本，以因循为用”（《论六家要旨》）。在熟读中国经典的传统士大夫看来，“虚无”一词与老庄哲学及其驭民之道紧密地联系在一起。

The “Nihilist Party” and “Nihilism” Derived from Nihilist and Nihilism

源自Nihilist、Nihilism的“虚无党”和“虚无主义”

With the eastward spread of Western learning in modern times, various Western concepts entered China, and the term “nihility” was also used to translate and introduce new Western concepts, giving rise to a series of new terms such as “nihilism” (虚无主义) and “nihilist party” (虚无党). However, the semantics of these concepts were ambiguous, and no consensus was formed on the definition of “nihilism” for a long time.

随着近代以来西学东渐，各类西方概念传入中国，“虚无”一词也被用来译介西方新概念，出现了“虚无主义”“虚无党”等一系列新名词。然而，这些概念的语义却是模糊不清的，对“虚无主义”的定义长期没有形成共识。

According to research by scholar Jiang Lu, Nihilism was originally an ancient term from Western Europe, used in 1829 by the Russian writer Nikolai Nadezhdin to criticize Pushkin and others. After the archetypal image of the nihilist, Bazarov, burst onto the scene in Turgenev’s *Fathers and Sons*, “nihilist” was used as a pejorative in the Russian context by conservatives to refer to democrats who rebelled against the old aristocracy and the old order.

据学者蒋路考证，Nihilism本是来自西欧的古老词汇，1829年被俄国作家尼·纳杰日津用来批评普希金等人。在屠格涅夫《父与子》中巴扎罗夫这一虚无主义者的典型形象横空出世后，作为一种蔑称，“虚无主义者”在俄国语境下被保守派用以指代反抗旧贵族、旧秩序者的民主主义者。

From the 1870s to the 1880s, the Russian populists were very active, and among them the People’s Will, which used assassination as an important revolutionary method, was particularly eye-catching. Reports about them were common in Chinese newspapers focusing on Western news, such as *A Compilation of Recent Events in Western Countries* and *The Review of the Times*, as well as in the diaries and reports of Qing dynasty envoys on inspection tours abroad. According to scholarly research, as early as 1878, in *A Compilation of Recent Events in Western Countries* (volumes 1 and 3), the transliterations “Naliesi Party” (那阿离斯党) and “Nahefu” (纳赫垺) for Nihilist had already appeared in reports on the deeds of the Russian People’s Will. Contemporaries believed that Nihilist meant “that which destroys everything.” *The Review of the Times* on July 27, 1878, vaguely referred to the Russian People’s Will as the “Russian Assembly” (俄国赛会), but on March 19, 1880, in “The Nihilist Letter” (尼党逆书), it translated it as the “Nihelisite Party” (尼赫力斯特党). In articles over the following years, it was sometimes translated as the “Nixili Party” (尼希利党) or “Nixili Party” (尼希里党). Li Fengbao, in his 1879 diary, transliterated it as “Nihelishi” (尼赫力士). Li Shuchang, in his *Miscellaneous Notes on Western Countries*, transliterated the Russian People’s Will members who assassinated the tsar as “Suoxiali’situoni xilisi mu” (索息阿利司脱尼喜利司木) and translated it as the “Equality Society” (平会), where “Suoxiali’situo” (索息阿利司脱) referred to Socialist and “Nixilisimu” (尼喜利司木) was Nihilism. In addition, although Guo Songtao, Zhang Deyi, and others did not directly translate the terms Nihilist or Nihilism, they also recorded some deeds of the Russian People’s Will assassinating tsarist officials.

19世纪70年代至80年代，俄国民粹派非常活跃，其中以暗杀作为重要革命手段的民意党人甚为夺人眼球，相关报道在当时中国的《西国近事汇编》《万国公报》等关注西方新闻的报刊和清廷出洋考察使节的日记、报告中屡见不鲜。据学者考证，早在1878年的《西国近事汇编》（卷一、卷三）中，“那阿离斯党”和“纳赫垺”作为Nihilist的音译词，就已经出现在关于俄国民意党事迹的报道中。时人认为Nihilist“即毁废一切之谓”。《万国公报》1878年7月27日在报道俄国民意党时，模糊地将其称为“俄国赛会”，但在1880年3月19日《尼党逆书》中则将之翻译为“尼赫力斯特党”，在此后几年的文章中有时也翻译成“尼希利党”“尼希里党”。李凤苞在1979年的日记中则将之音译为“尼赫力士”。黎庶昌则在《西洋杂志》中将刺杀沙皇的俄国民意党人音译为“索息阿利司脱尼喜利司木”，意译为“平会”，其中“索息阿利司脱”是指Socialist，而“尼喜利司木”即为Nihilism。此外，郭松涛、张德懿等人虽然未直接翻译Nihilist、Nihilism等词，但也记录了俄国民意党人刺杀沙俄官员的一些事迹。

Thus, although the concepts of Nihilist and Nihilism entered the Chinese world relatively early, they appeared mainly in the form of transliteration rather than semantic translation. The use of terms such as “nihilist party” (虚无党) and “nihilism” (虚无主义) as their equivalents should be examined through the Japanese channel. According to research by scholar Yang Zhe, around the same time that Chinese people were using various transliterations for Nihilist and Nihilism—that is, the 1880s—some Japanese began to use “nihilist party” (虚无党) to translate Nihilist. For example, in 1886, Futabatei Shimei translated *Fathers and Sons* under the title *The Popular Temper of the Nihilist Party* (通俗虚无党气质). Around 1882, Nishikawa Tōsuke translated and introduced the situation of the People’s Will under the title *Matters of the Russian Nihilist Party* (露国虚无党事情). The Japanese use of “nihilist party” to translate Nihilist profoundly influenced the relevant perceptions of modern Chinese people.

可见，Nihilist、Nihilism的概念虽然较早就进入了中文世界，但却主要以音译而非意译的面目出现的。以“虚无党”“虚无主义”等词汇作为其对译，应从日本渠道加以考察。据学者杨哲研究，差不多在中国人以种种音译翻译Nihilist、Nihilism的同一时期，即19世纪80年代，一些日本人开始以“虚无党”翻译Nihilist。如1886年二叶亭四迷以《通俗虚无党气质》为题翻译了《父与子》。1882年前后，西川通彻以《露国虚无党事情》为题译介民意党人情况。日本人以“虚无党”对译Nihilist，深刻影响了近代中国人的相关认知。

“Nihilism” as “Anarchism”

作为“无政府主义”的“虚无主义”

More complex still, when the discourse of “nihilist party” and “nihilism” entered China via the Japanese channel, it became entangled with anarchism. In 1903, Liang Qichao published “On the Russian Nihilist Party,” stating, “The ultimate aim of that party is to take anarchy as its final goal.” After 1903, Enyama Sentarō’s book *Modern Anarchism* was introduced to China multiple times in the forms of abridged translation, excerpted translation, compiled translation, and free translation, often under the name “nihilist party,” such as translations titled *Biographies of Three Nihilist Heroes*, *An Investigation of the Origins of the Russian Nihilist Party*, and *A Short History of the Nihilist Party*. This led to a chaotic scene after the term “nihilist party” entered China, where nihilism, populism, anarchism, and others “shared a single hat.” For example, the novel *A Flower in a Sinful Sea*, when mentioning anarchism, said, “Its factions are also divided into many; the most radical is called the nihilist party, also called the anarchist party.” This directly equated the nihilist party with the anarchist party, effectively equating nihilism with anarchism. In fact, with the spread of the discourse of the nihilist party, it once became a synonym for the revolutionary party.

更为复杂的是，“虚无党”“虚无主义”话语经由日本渠道进入中国时，又与无政府主义发生了纠葛。1903年，梁启超发表《论俄罗斯虚无党》，称“彼党之宗旨，以无政府为究竟”。1903年之后，烟山专太郎的《近世无政府主义》一书被以节译、摘译、编译、意译的方式多次介绍到中国，又多以“虚无党”为名，如翻译为《虚无党三杰传》《俄国虚无党源流考》《虚无党小史》等。这就使得“虚无党”一词进入中国以后，呈现虚无主义、民粹主义、无政府主义等“共戴一顶帽子”的混乱场景。例如，《孽海花》在提到无政府主义时便说，“它的会派，也分着许多，最激烈的叫做虚无党，又叫做无政府党”。这就直接将虚无党等同于无政府党，实际上也就是将虚无主义等同于无政府主义。事实上，随着虚无党话语的传播，虚无党一度成为革命党的代言词。

This understanding also entered dictionaries of the late Qing and early Republican periods. The *English and Chinese Standard Dictionary*, compiled by Yan Huiqing and published in 1908, was the first English-Chinese dictionary independently compiled by Chinese students studying abroad in modern China. It included the entry for Nihilism, using terms such as “nihilism” (虚无主义), “theory of nihility” (虚无论), and “nihilist party member” (虚无党人) as its equivalents. The entry pointed out that Nihilism as a general noun meant “Nothingness, nihility; complete non-existence, emptiness, all non-existence.” And as an ism, Nihilism meant the theory of nihility (虚无论) (the doctrine of extreme skepticism, holding that all things belong to nihility, even existence itself is non-existent); nihilism (虚无主义), those who hold nihilism, nihilist party members. It is noteworthy that in the *English and Chinese Standard Dictionary*, the Chinese explanation pointed out the revolutionary implications of Nihilism, while the English explanation emphasized its communist coloring. The *English and Chinese New Dictionary*, published by the Commercial Press in 1913, simply translated Nihilism as “nihility” (虚无) and Nihilist as “person of nihility” (虚无之人).

这一认识也进入清末民初时期的字典。1908年出版的颜惠庆所编的《英华大辞典》是近代中国第一部由中国留学生独立编纂完成的英汉辞典，它就收录了Nihilism一词，同时用“虚无主义”“虚无论”“虚无党人”等词作为其对译。该词条指出，Nihilism作为一般意义上的名词指“Nothingness，虚无；nihility，全无，空无，皆无”。而作为一种主义的Nihilism，意思为虚无论（怀疑至极点之派之说，谓万物皆属虚无，即生存亦属无有）；虚无主义，持虚无主义者，虚无党人。值得注意的是，在《英华大辞典》中，中文解释指出了Nihilism中的革命意蕴，而英文解释中更强调了其共产主义色彩。1913年商务印书馆出版的《英华新字典》则简单地将Nihilism翻译为“虚无”，而将Nihilist翻译为“虚无之人”。

In 1916, the English-Chinese dictionary *Guanhua* [Mandarin], compiled by Karl Hemeling, also included the relevant terms. In *Guanhua*, Nihilism “as a philosophy” was translated as *xuwu zhuyi* (虚无主义) and marked as “new”; while Nihilism “as a political consciousness” was translated as *wuzhengfu zhuyi* (无政府主义, anarchism), also marked as “new.” Similarly, Nihilist was given separate Chinese translations from the philosophical and political senses — as a “new” term, the philosophical “one who holds to nihilism” (持虚无主义的) and the political “nihilist party member” (虚无党人), and this explanation was marked as “ministry-approved” (部定). [14]14 “Ministry-approved” (部定) refers to the official approval of the Qing government’s Ministry of Education for the translation of certain terms, as endorsed by the influential translator Yan Fu. Thus it can be seen that the political sense of Nihilist, translated as “nihilist party member,” received the approval of Yan Fu, who represented the official position of the Qing government, while Nihilism translated as *xuwu zhuyi* or *wuzhengfu zhuyi* was also a new term widely recognized in society.

1916年赫美玲所编的英汉辞典《官话》也收录了相关词汇。《官话》中将“作为一种哲学”的Nihilism翻译为虚无主义，并标注为“新”；而将“作为一种政治意识”的Nihilism翻译为无政府主义，同样标注为“新”。同样的，Nihilist也被从哲学意义上和政治意义上分别给出了中文翻译——作为“新”名词的、哲学意义上的“持虚无主义的”和政治上的“虚无党人”，而这一解释被标注为“部定”。可见，作为政治意义上的Nihilist被译为“虚无党人”，得到了代表清政府官方的严复的认可，而Nihilism被翻译为虚无主义或无政府主义也是社会上广泛认可的新名词。

Efforts to Clarify the Concept of “Nihilism”

廓清“虚无主义”概念的努力

Faced with this state of confusion, some attempted to clarify the concept of “nihilism.” As early as 1906, Liao Zhongkai compiled and translated the article “Anarchism and Socialism” in *Minbao* [The People’s Journal], pointing out that “there are three major isms among the revolutionaries of the present world: Socialism, Anarchism, and Nihilism,” placing these three isms side by side. However, in 1917, *Minbao* published in two installments Liao Zhongkai’s translation of *A Short History of the Nihilist Party* (i.e., Sen’yama Sentarō’s *Modern Anarchism*), stating that the original title did not match the content, hence the change of name. In other words, Liao Zhongkai himself used the Chinese term “nihilist party” (虚无党) to render the Japanese scholar’s concept of “anarchism.”

面对这种混乱状况，有人试图对“虚无主义”的概念加以廓清。早在1906年，廖仲恺就在《民报》上编译《无政府主义与社会主义》一文，指出“现世界之革命者有三大主义：社会主义Socialism、无政府主义Anarchist、虚无主义Nihilism”，将这三种主义并列。然而1917年《民报》又分两期刊登了廖仲恺翻译的《虚无党小史》（即烟山专太郎的《近世无政府主义》）一书，并称原书名实不符，故易其名。换言之，廖仲恺本人又以中文的“虚无党”对译日本学者的“无政府主义”概念。

In 1907, Zhou Zuoren published an article in the anarchist journal *Tianyi* [Natural Justice] titled “On the Difference between the Russian Revolution and Nihilism,” pointing out: “The term Nihilist should be properly translated as ‘nihilist theorist’ (虚无论者); it first appeared in Turgenev’s famous work *Fathers and Sons* and later became widespread.” The article noted that the proliferation of the concept of Nihilist began when the Tsarist Russian government used this term “to refer indiscriminately to troublemakers,” and therefore “scholars of Europe and Asia, hearing false rumors, also came to believe that the disturbances in Russia were all the work of the Nihilist Party, thus confusing Nihilism with terrorism — this is a great error.” Zhou Zuoren stated that this confused usage was like conflating Stoicism with Republicanism, “which is no different from mixing a philosophical question into politics.” In other words, he pointed out that the assassinations carried out by the Nihilist Party were merely a means, a temporary phenomenon reacting to political realities, while nihilism was “purely a doctrine of seeking truth, rooted in materialism, a branch of philosophy,” which not only had a solid theoretical foundation but would also have a long-term influence, “the trend of which will reach far into the coming century.”

1907年，周作人在无政府主义刊物《天义》上刊文《论俄国革命与虚无主义之别》指出：“虚无党人Nihilist一语，正译当作‘虚无论者’，始见于都介涅夫（即屠格涅夫）名著《父与子》中，后遂通行。”文章指出，Nihilist概念的泛滥始于沙俄政府以此名“统指衅人”，因此“欧亚之士，习闻讹言，亦遂信俄国扰乱，悉虚无党所为，致混虚无主义于恐怖手段Terrorism，此大误也”。周作人表示，这种混乱用法正如将斯多噶学派（Stoicism）和共和主义（Republicanism）混同一样，“是无异以哲学问题混入政治”。换言之，他指出虚无党的暗杀行为只是手段，是迫于政治现实而作出反应的一时现象，而虚无主义则是“纯为求诚之学，根于唯物论宗，为哲学之一支”，不仅有着坚实的学理基础，更将影响长远，“趋势所及，远被来纪也”。

Although Liao Zhongkai, Zhou Zuoren, and others attempted to clarify the differences between “nihilism” and concepts such as “socialism” and “anarchism,” the results were minimal. This can be seen from the translations in the several influential English-Chinese dictionaries mentioned above. In the early 20th century, when various new currents of thought were pouring into the Chinese-speaking world, many intellectuals, though lacking a systematic understanding of these fresh concepts, nonetheless made extensive use of all kinds of “new terms” in their writings and debates — this was the fashion of the era.

尽管廖仲恺、周作人等人试图厘清“虚无主义”与“社会主义”“无政府主义”等概念的差异，但收效甚微。这从前述当时影响力较大的几部英汉字典的翻译可见一斑。在20世纪初各种新思潮纷纷涌入中文世界的情况下，很多知识分子虽然对这些新鲜概念未做系统了解，却已在行文论战中大量使用各类“新名词”，这是那个时代的风气。

In summary, in the Chinese-language context of the early 20th century, “nihilism” referred both to Nihilism and to Anarchism, and was also closely associated with the Daoist concepts of “nothingness and non-action” (虚无、无为), presenting a complex picture of semantic ambiguity.

总而言之，在20世纪初的中文语境中，“虚无主义”既指Nihilism，又指Anarchist（无政府主义），还与道家的“虚无、无为”密切相关，呈现出语义不明的复杂图景。

(The author is an Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary China Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)

（作者系中国社会科学院当代中国研究所副研究员）

Online Editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧