本文探討晚清閱讀公眾形成的條件。通過回顧西方思想史中“public”的意義、以及作為社會事實的公眾之形成條件後指出,前現代中國的民眾在扮演公眾角色時,面臨著三重困難:缺乏獲知公共事務的管道、缺乏政治主體意識、缺乏干預權力的手段。不過在甲午至戊戌期間,報刊對政治的公開報導、以及形成的公眾輿論,使帝國原有傳播體系發生了結構性改變,為皇權專制體制中公眾的出現提供了可能性。 This article explores the conditions and limitations of the reading public in the Late Qing. After tracing the history of "public” and the conditions of public as social fact, the author found that once the Chinese people in pre-modernity had an attempt to act as public, they would suffer triple difficulties: lack of knowing the public affairs, awareness of political subjects and the way to form public opinion. Fortunately, the rising of newspaper after 1896 had gradually changed the existing communication system which made the public possible in the authoritarian regime.