林覺民的〈與妻訣別書〉可說是近現代中國的革命正典，它既是黃花岡精神的標準教材，也是中文世界最著名的情書，其特殊之處乃在於作者的革命先烈身分，以及書信內容對私人情愛與家國情感之推擴論述。本文透過對近現代報刊文獻與中學國文教科書的分析，將林覺民的先烈形象和〈與妻訣別書〉加以「歷史化」，梳理清末民初時期的社會歷史與言情話語脈絡，考察這封深具「感傷的力量」的書信如何由「私」到「公」，從個人的情書轉變為革命正典的複雜歷程，及其所映射出的社會文化意義與影響。

Lin Juemin’s (1887-1911) “Farewell Letter to My Wife” (Yu qi juebie shu) can be seen as a canon of Nationalist revolutions, which represents the orthodoxy of the “Huanghua Gang” spirit. Interestingly, it is also the most famous love letter in modern Chinese-speaking world. While Lin Juemin has been recognized as the major martyr of the Huanghua Gang Uprising in 1911, this love letter expresses the author’s personal feelings towards his wife and country in a romantic tone. By analyzing various documents from the late Qing and early Republican periods, as well as different editions of “national literature” (guowen) textbooks, this paper aims to historicize the canonization of Lin’s image as a revolutionary martyr and the journey of his love letter, which embodies the “sentimental power” and traveled from the private to the public sphere. Furthermore, it examines the contemporary sentimental literarature in order to reveal the socio-cultural significances and influences of this special letter.