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Abstract
After 1895 as the Manchu monarchy failed to deal with the national crisis created by China's loss in the first Sino–Japanese War, the ideology of revolution won a foothold. A paradigm shift in Chinese revolutionary discourse, radicalized by way of Japanese translations and symbolized by Sun Yat-sen's self-proclaimed “revolutionary party,” embraced the view of the rising masses as masters of history. It was during the age of world revolution that Kang Youwei shaped his worldview. While juxtaposing the French Revolution with the anti-Manchu revolution, he betrayed his background in the New Text Confucian canon by lending legitimacy to the rebels. In analyzing Kang's memorials of 1898, this paper reveals how his reform theory and practice were framed by his vision of world revolution, and how the words bianfa, weixin and bianzheng were interwoven with the unseen geming, rhetorically mixing the history of world revolution with the Tang–Wu tradition. This paper asserts that the geming discourse in Kang's use inscribed with a radical blueprint for China was actually an imposition of modernity onto the Qing court rather than empowering its legitimation in a traditional Confucian way. In scrutinizing these keywords in transnational contexts, the analysis crosses not only the fields of language, politics, Classical study and intellectual culture, but also the subtle layers of intertextual verification, psychological complexity and political and cultural intensities, and attempts to open new dimensions for the study of Kang Youwei and the 1898 reform movement.
Notes
1Ming Yi (Kang Youwei), “Faguo geming shi lun” [On the History of French Revolution], Xinmin congbao 85 (August 1906), 87 (September 1906).
2See Sato Shinichi, Kindai Chūgoku no chishikijin to bumei (Tokyo: The University of Tokyo Press, 1996), 249–52. However, as seen from Sato Shinichi's assertion that Kang Youwei's book entitled Faguo geming shi [The History of the French Revolution] was written in 1898, scholarship on the problem of authenticity in Kang's memorials have not had much impact on the study of Kang Youwei and the 1898 reform. See the section “Problems in the title of revolution” in this paper.
3Some representative research includes: Tang Zhijun, Kang Youwei yu wuxu bianfa [Kang Youwei and the 1898 Reform] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984); Tang Zhijun, Gailiang yu geming de zhongguo qinghuai—Kang Youwei yu Zhang Taiyan [Passion for China in Reformation and Revolution: Kang Youwei and Zhang Taiyan] (Hong Kong: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1990); Kung-chuan Hsiao, A Modern China and a New World: K'ang Yu-wei, Reformer and Utopian, 1858–1927 (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1975); Luke S.K. Kwong, A Mosaic of the Hundred Days: Personalities, Politics, and Ideas of 1898 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984); Paul Cohen and John E. Schrecker, eds., Reform in Nineteenth-Century China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976); Rebecca E. Karl and Peter Zarrow, eds., Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period: Political and Cultural Change in Late Qing China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002); and Zheng Dahua, Huang Xingtao, and Zou Xiaozhan, eds., Wuxu bianfa yu wan Qing sixiang wenhua zhuanxing [The Reform Movement of 1898 and the Transformation of Thought and Culture in the Late Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2010).
4As a breakthrough work for verifying the authentic memorials of Kang Youwei, see Huang Zhangjian, Kang Youwei wuxu zhen zouyi [The Authentic Memorials by Kang Youwei in 1898] (Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1974). Based on Huang's work, Kong Xiangji continued the textual research in his Jiuwang tucun de lantu—Kang Youwei bianfa zouyi jizheng [A Blueprint for China's Salvation and Survival: A Textual Study of Kang Youwei's Memorials in 1898] (Taipei: Linking, 1998). For a recent account of the 1898 reform with detailed assessment of scholarship in the research field and more newly discovered historical materials, see Mao Haijian, Wuxu bianfa shishi kao [A Textual Study of Historical Facts on the 1898 Reform] (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2005) and Mao Haijian, Cong jiawu dao wuxu—Kang Youwei “Wo shi” jianzhu [From 1895 to 1898: Annotations to Kang Youwei's My History] (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2009).
5Chen Shaobai, Xingzhonghui geming shiyao [A Brief History of the Rejuvenating China Association's Revolutionary Deeds] (Taipei: Zhongyang wenwu gongying she, 1956), 3–4.
6Feng Ziyou, “Geming erzi zhi youlai” [The Source of the Term Geming], in Geming yishi [An Unofficial History of Revolution], vol. 1 (Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1939), 1–2.
7Jianhua Chen, “Sun Zhongshan heshi zicheng ‘geming dang’?—Zaoqi sixiang ditu ‘geming’ zhishe de kantan” [When Did Sun Yat-sen Claim Himself the “Revolutionary Party”?: An Exploration of the Meaning of Geming on the Map of Sun Yat-sen's Thought], in An Essay Collection of Seventh Conference on Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Modern China (Taipei: Guoli guofu jinianguan, 2004), 13–32.
8See Jianhua Chen, “Chinese ‘Revolution’ in the Syntax of World Revolution,” in Tokens of Exchange: The Problem of Translation in Global Circulation, ed. Lydia H. Liu (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 355–74.
9Sun Yat-sen, “Fu Zhai lisi han” [A Reply Letter to H.A. Giles], in Sun Zhongshan quanji [Complete Works of Sun Yat-sen], vol. 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981), 46–48.
10Sun Yat-sen, “Zhongguo geming shi” [A History of Chinese Revolution], in Zhonghua minguo kaiguo wushi nian wenxian [Selected Documents for the 50th Anniversary of Republic of China], series 1, vol. 9 (Taipei: Zhonghua minguo kaiguo wushi nian wenxian bianzuan weiyuanhui, 1963), 191.
11Huang Zhonghuang, Da geming jia Sun Yixian [Sun Yat-sen: A Great Revolutionary], in Zhongguo xiandai shiliao congshu [The Series of Historical Materials of Modern China], ed. Wu Xiangxiang (Taipei: Wenxing shudian, 1962). The title of this book differs from the original, Huang Zhonghuan's 1903 edition, whose title was Sun Yat-sen.
12The term “translated modernity” refers to numerous new concepts that flooded into China in the late Qing period through translations, mostly from Japanese sources. See Lydia H. Liu, Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity China, 1900–1937 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995), 1–42.
13Zhu Xi, Sishu zhangju jizhu [Collected Exegeses of the Four Books] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1983), 5. See also D.C. Lau, trans. Mencius (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), 99.
14Lau, Mencius, 119.
15Ibid., 68.
16Sima Qian, “Rulin liezhuan” [Biographies of Confucian Scholars], in Shiji [Historical Records], vol. 121 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959), 3123.
17For a general account of Dong Zhongshu and the theory of “grand unification,” see Qian Mu, Jingxue dayao [An Outline of Classical Studies] (Taipei: Lantai chubanshe, 1990), 103, 106. See also Wu Yannan, Qin Xueqi, and Li Yujie, eds., Zhongguo jingxue shi [A History of Chinese Classical Studies] (Taipei: Wunan tushu chuban gongsi, 2005), 47–55. For a more detailed account, see Yang Quan, Xin wude lilun yu liang Han zhengzhi [New Theory of the Five Agents and Politics in the Han Dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2006).
18See Zongli Lu, Power of the Words: Chen Prophecy in Chinese Politics: AD 265–618 (Oxford and Wien: Peter Lang, 2003), 13–158; 266–302. For more detailed research, see Lu Zongli, “Chen wei yu liang Jin, Nanchao de zhengzhi yu shehui” [Chen Prophecy and Apocrypha in Early Medieval Politics and Society of the South China], Zhonghua guoxue yanjiu [Research in the Tradition of Chinese Culture] 1 (2008): 67–77.
19Zhu, Sishu zhangju jizhu, 221–22.
20Zhang Tingyu et al., Ming shi [Ming History] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984), 20.
21On the despotic horror under Zhu Yuanzhang's reign, see Wu Han, Zhu Yuanzhang zhuan [A Biography of Zhu Yuanzhang] (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 2010), 183–234.
22Wm. Theodore de Bary, Wing-tsit Chan, and Burton Watson, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), 586–88.
23On Kang Youwei's theory of the “Three Ages,” see Hsiao, A Modern China and a New World, 41–96. For a succinct account on Kang's theory of the “Three Ages” related to the New Text School in the Qing period, see Ma Tianxiang, Zhongguo jindai xueshu shi [A History of Modern Chinese Scholarship] (Wuhan: Wuhan daxue chubanshe, 2007), 130–35.
24Kang Youwei, Wuxu zougao [Draft Memorials of 1898] (1911; repr., Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1985).
25As Kong Xiangji pointed out, in the early 1950s Jian Bozan and Duan Changtong compiled and published a source book entitled Wuxu bianfa [The Reform Movement in 1898], in which all of Kang Youwei's memorials in Draft Memorials of 1898 were included. Since then all research on Kang Youwei's political thought and activities in the reform movement were based on Draft Memorials. Consequently such research more or less ignored the dating problem in Kang's memorials. See Kong Xiangji, “Preface,” in Jiuwang tucun de lantu, ii.
26Kang, Draft Memorials, 163–179.
27Kang Youwei, “Riben bianzheng kao xu” [A Preface to the Book A Study of Meiji Reformation], in Kang Youwei wuxu zhen zouyi, by Huang Zhangjian, 99–100. See also Kong, Jiuwang tucun de lantu, 60.
28Kong, Jiuwang tucun de lantu, 59.
29Mao Haijian rightly commented that some horrible description in the “Preface” to the book on French revolution was not appropriate for the emperor to read. See Mao, Cong jiawu dao wuxu, 512.
30Kang Youwei, “Jincheng Riben Mingzhi bianzheng kao xu” [A Preface to the Book A Study of Japanese Meiji Reformation for Submission], in Draft Memorials of 1898, 163.
31Zhang Binglin, “Lun xuehui you dayi yu huangren, ji yi baohu” [The Study Societies Are Greatly Beneficial to Chinese People and They Should Be Protected], Shiwu bao 19 (February 1897): 3b–6b.
32Wang Tao, Chongding faguo zhilue [A Revision of the Outline of French History] (Shanghai: Songyinlu, 1890), vol. 5–7. For a detailed analysis, see Jianhua Chen, Geming de xiandai xing—Zhongguo geming huayu kaolun [A Study of Chinese Revolution Discourse and Modernity] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2000), 30–33.
33Kang Youwei, “Nanhai xiansheng bian geming shu” [A Letter from Mentor Nanhai Arguing over the Issue of Revolution], Xinmin congbao 16 (September 1902): 59–69.
34Ming, Faguo geming shi lun.
35 Riben shumu zhi [A Catalogue of Japanese Books] (Shanghai: Datong yishuju, 1898). See Jiang Yihua and Zhang Ronghua, eds., Kang Youwei quanji [Complete Works of Kang Youwei], vol. 3 (Beijing: Zhongguo renmin daxue chubanshe, 2007), 261.
36 Kang Youwei quanji, 311, 294.
37As for the huge amount of titles in the catalogue, how many books did Kang Youwei collect? How many books did he read? To what extent did he understand the new terms associated with different disciplines of social science and humanities? There have been discussions among scholars on such questions. Suggested by Shen Guowei's study, it would have been impossible for Kang Youwei to have read all the books, nor could he have correctly understood all the new terms in the Japanese sense. In fact, the many titles were from Japanese publishers’ book catalogues. Shen asserted that by Kang's catalogue a large number of new terms produced in Meiji Japan started to enter China, and yet their influence on intellectual life of the time was limited. See Shen Guowei, “Kang Youwei jiqi Riben shumu zhi” [Kang Youwei and His Catalogue of Japanese Books], Wakumon 5 (2003): 51–68. Huang Xingtao argued that Shen might have underestimated the influence of the new Japanese terms introduced by Kang. There were nearly 400 such terms in the Riben shumu zhi, and many new terms in Kang's memorials were spread among late Qing intellectuals. In the 1898 reform period, marked by indiscriminate uses of the new terms, a kind of new intellectual style emerged and aroused harsh critiques from the Confucian conservatives. See Zheng, Huang, and Zou, eds., “Kang Youwei wuxu shiqi shiyong he chuanbo riben xin mingci zhi yanjiu” [A Study of Kang Youwei's Uses of New Japanese Terms and Their Spread], in Wuxu bianfa yu wan Qing sixiang wenhua zhuanxing, 190–217. Suggested by these studies, there is no doubt that Kang paid special attention to Meiji culture and Riben shumu zhi importantly articulated his reform theory and practice. In terms of the word geming, especially the title Zongjiao geming lun in the catalogue, Kang should by no means neglect its implication as different from Chinese usage.
38See Liang Qichao, Wuxu zhengbian ji [An Account of the Coup in 1898] (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1964), 20–21.
39Chen Zhu, Gongyang jia zhexue [The Philosophy of Gongyang School] (Taipei: Zhonghua shuju, 1980). The first chapter of the book opens with the remark: “In interpreting the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Gongyang Classic is full of revolutionary thoughts.”
40Kong, Jiuwang tucun de lantu, 218.
41Luke S.K. Kwong pointed out that Liang Qichao used the term tong, which was interestingly translated as “dynamism,” meaning “images of movement and energy.” See Kwong, Mosaic of the Hundred Days, 126.
42Kong Xiangji noticed that Kang Youwei used tongcai almost as a special term in his memorials. See Kong, Jiuwang tucun de lantu, 243.
43See Kung-chuan Hsiao, A Modern China and a New World, 200–207. For detailed comments on Kang's proposal of parliament, see Kong Xiangji, Jiuwang tucun de lantu, vii–xiii.
44Kang, “Riben shumu zhi” [A Catalogue of Japanese Books], in Kang Youwei quanji, vol. 3, 311.
46Kang Youwei, “Jincheng E Bide bianzheng ji xu” [A Preface to the Book An Account of Peter I and Reformation in Russia for Submission], in Jiuwang tucun de lantu, 269.
45Kang Youwei, “Qing dashi cenggong, kai zhidu xin zhengju zhe” [The Memorial Appealing to Your Majesty to Take an Oath with All Courtiers and Reform the Polity], in Jiuwang tucun de lantu, 6, 8.
47See John E. Schrecker, “The Reform Movement of 1898 and the Meiji Restoration as Ch'ing-i Movement,” in The Chinese and the Japanese: Essays in Political and Cultural Interactions, ed. Akira Iriye (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 96–123. This paper discusses the 1898 reform movement as a continuity of the Chinese qingyi tradition, charged with intellectual critical consciousness. Indeed, Kang Youwei and his fellows were facing a situation similar to the royalists in Meiji Japan, yet Chinese reformists were more directly influenced by the Meiji culture, especially by the spirit of Japanese royalists.
48Yang Tianshi, “Kang Youwei mouwei Yiheyuan busha Xi taihou quezheng” [The Evidences about How Kang Youwei Plotted to Arrest and Kill Empress Dowager Cixi in the Summer Palace], in Cong dizhi zouxiang gonghe [From the Monarchy to the Republic] (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2002), 3–10. For a detailed account of the coup d’état, see Mao Haijian, Wuxu bianfa shishi kao, 10–136.
49Sang Bing, Gengzi qinwang yu wan Qing zhengju [The 1910 Movement of Restoring the Kingship and Late Qing Political Situation] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2004), 390–95.
50In the end of 1899, Liang Qichao advocated a “revolution in the poetic realm” (shijie geming), with his call for “shijie geming jun” (a revolutionary army in the poetic realm) elusively related to the on-going scheme to restore Emperor Guangxu by force. At the time he aspired to the Japanese use of geming indicating change by peaceful means.
51See Chen, Geming de xiandai xing, 16.
52Liang Qichao, “Zhongguo lishi shang geming zhi yanjiu” [A Study of Revolution in Chinese History], Xinmin congbao 46–48 (February, 1904): 1–17.
53See Young-tsu Wong, Cong chuantong zhong qiubian—Wan Qing sixiang shi yanjiu [In Search of Change from Tradition: Studies of Late Qing Thought] (Nanchang: Baihuazhou wenyi chubanshe, 2002), 162–85.
54Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (New York: A Viking Book, 1957), 13–52.
55See Peter Zarrow, China in War and Revolution, 1895–1949 (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), 27–29. Zarrow used “Confucian radicalism” to characterize the reformists’ spirit in the 1898 reform movement, which he explicated in political and cultural contexts. Also by fully evaluating the radical essentials in Kang Youwei's thought, he proposed an “ideological revolution” referring to Kang's influence in late Qing. This assertion might be more eloquent if taking Kang's idea of world revolution into account.