本文試圖藉由「黃帝」神話在晚清知識界的廣泛流傳及其與傳統黃帝傳說的斷裂，探索近代中國「國族」建構的歷史過程及其所蘊涵的矛盾與衝突。「國族」作為一個「想像的社群」，無疑是近代的產物，不過，進行此一想像的行動者，卻往往將其眼光投注於渺遠的過去，企圖為國族的起源提供堅實的「歷史基礎」。黃帝，在晚清中國，便是在需求下，經由一套特定的「框架、聲音與敘事結構」所構成的論述策略，被奪佔、轉化成為「中華民族」的始祖，為二十世紀中國的國族認同提供了一個明確的文化符號。然而，以黃帝符號為中心所塑造出來的中國國族，卻囿於晚清反滿革命的政治現實，而只能是一個以血緣之根基性聯繫為本質，並具有高度排拒性的族群團體。對於這樣一套國族想像，當時也有一些不同的聲音。二十世紀最初數年間所發生的「黃帝紀年」與「孔子紀年」的爭論，便是彼時兩套不同國族論述的正面交鋒。另一方面，「黃帝」符號亦自有其內在的歧義與緊張。部分漢族知識分子便極力擴充「黃帝」的「種族」意涵，揭櫫「大民族主義」以別於漢族中心的「小民族主義」；一些居於邊陲位置的滿族人士也利用「黃帝後裔」的傳統策略，重塑本身的族群歷史記憶，另行提出一套抗制性的國族論述。因而，從近代中國國族建構的政治、文化條件分析，「黃帝」此一高度建構性的符號，也正是各項現實利益與勢力對抗、爭持的場域。

　　　　　This article traces how the moden Chinese "nation" was constructed as an "imagined community" around Huang-ti (the Yellow Emperor) in late Qing. Huang-ti was a legendary figure in ancient China and the imperial courts monopolized the worship of him. Many late Qing intellectuals appropriated this symbolic figure and, through a set of discursive strategies of "framing, voice and narrative structure," transformed him into a privileged symbol for modern Chinese national identity. What Huang-ti could offer was, however, no more than a "public face" for the imagined new national community, or in other words, a formal structure without substantial contents. No consensus appeared on whom the Chinese nation should include and where the Chinese nation should draw its boundaries. The anti-Manchu revolutionaries emphasized the primordial attachment of blood and considered modern China an exclusive community of Huang-ti's descent. The constitutional reformers sought to stretch the boundaries to include the ethnic groups other than the Han. Some minority intellectuals, particularly the Manchu ones, reconstructed the historic memory of their ethnic origin around Huang-ti. The quarrels among intellectuals of different political persuasion testify how Huang-ti as the most powerful cultural symbol became a site for contests and negotiations in the late Qing process of national construction.