本文以晚清出现的新词汇“女界”为切入点,探讨近代中国女性在国家民族话语、男女性别关系和中国传统精英文化等脉络互动中形成的身份建构和认同。“女界”可由两条线索进行展开:一方面,对女界的界定可视为自晚清出现的新女性运用自己的文字、出版和言论资源优势,主动地以否定“男界”(此时期另一新名词)之形式,建构起一个以单一生理性别为基础、具有普遍姊妹情谊的理想世界,试图在传统中国女性以家庭角色为身份认同方式之外另立选择。另一方面,“女界”的形成亦受到晚清以来自西方引介入中国的“群治”思想影响。在这一框架中,国家民族被想象为由不同“群”或者“界”——如政界、军界、商界、绅界或者学界等——组成的政治共同体。女界试图以“界”的身份,与上述各界平权并立,共同参与到对国家民族的建构中来。但是,这一美愿却又遭到诸如妓界之挑战。女界不顾前之所言的那种普遍姊妹情谊,坚决与妓界划清界限,强调二界在历史和现实中的本质之别。正是在这样的不断扞格之中,女界之大同理想终成幻想。 This article starts with the new word “女子” appearing in the late Qing Dynasty, and probes into the identity construction and identity of modern Chinese women in the context of the interaction between national language, gender relations and traditional Chinese elite culture. On the one hand, the definition of women can be seen as the emergence of new women from the late Qing to use their own advantages in writing, publishing and speech resources, to proactively deny the “male community ”(Another new term in this period), establishing an ideal world based on a single physiological gender with universal sisterhood and trying to establish a different alternative to traditional Chinese women as family identities. On the other hand, the formation of “women’s world” was also influenced by the “mass governance” thought introduced into China from the West in the late Qing Dynasty. In this framework, the national race is conceived as a political community composed of different “groups” or “circles” - such as political circles, military circles, business circles, gentry or academics. The female community tries to stand in the right of the “world” with its right to equality in all walks of life and take part in the construction of the nationality. However, this beauty is again challenged by criminals. Regardless of the prevailing sisterhood as it has been said before, the women firmly resolve the boundaries with the prostitutes and emphasize the difference between the two circles in history and reality. It is in this ongoing defense that the dreams of women in the world have finally become illusions.