Farewell to the continent complex: A hundred years of Japanese historiography on the 1911 Revolution

Abstract

The 1911 Revolution is not just an important topic in the study of modern Chinese history. It is also a historical event that was, in some ways, a product of close relationships with the Japanese; many Japanese participated in this revolution. As a result, writings on this topic have been published in a variety of genres including personal memoirs, opinions, and general research. These publications not only reflect varied understandings and evaluations of the 1911 Revolution by the Japanese scholars, they can also illustrate the popular Japanese mentality on this topic. This paper divides the past 100 years of scholarship on the 1911 Revolution into three periods: pre-war, post-war, and contemporary. It briefly introduces scholars and works that are the most representative of each period, in an attempt to explore their thinking and its intellectual foundations.

Keywords:

• 1911 Revolution
• Japanese historiography
• pan-Asianism

Notes

¹For the trends of the 1911 Revolution studies, please see Kubota Bunji, “Shingai Kakumei no rikai wo megutte” [On Understanding of the 1911 Revolution], in Chugoku kindai shi kenkyu nyumon [An Introduction to the Research on Modern Chinese History], ed. Shingai Kakumei Kenkyukai (Tokyo: Kyuko Shoin, 1992), 129–51. Also see his “Jinnianlai riben Xinhai geming yanjiu de xindongxiang” [The New Trends of the 1911 Revolution Studies in Japan in Recent Years], in Xinhai geming yu jindai zhongguo: ji'nian Xinhai geming bashi zhounian guoji xueshu taolunhui lunwenji [The 1911 Revolution and Modern China: The Collective Papers of the International Conference on the 1911 Revolution's 80th Anniversary], ed. Zhonghua shuju, vol. 2 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1994), 1569–579. Also see among others Tanaka Hiroshi, “Kinnen no Shingai Kakumei shi kenkyu no doko to kadai: Shingai 90 shunen kara 100 shunen he” [Trends and Issues of the Recent Historiography on the 1911 Revolution: From the 90th Anniversary to the 100th Anniversary of the 1911 Revolution], Chikaki ni arite [Being Nearby], no. 47 (2005), 15–23.

²Kita Ikki, Shina Kakumei gaishi [An Unofficial History of the Chinese Revolution] (Tokyo: Daitokaku, 1921), 11–12.

³Yokoyama Suguru, ed., Shingai Kaumei kenkyu josetsu [An Introduction to the Research on the 1911 Revolution] (Hiroshima: Shin Rekishi Kenkyukai, 1977), 1.

⁴Ibid., 16–18.

⁵Ibid., 19–25.

⁶Ibid., 27.

⁷Ibid., 30–37.

⁸Ibid., 116.

⁹Yoshino Sakuzo and Kato Shigeru, Shina kakumei shi [A History of Chinese Revolution] (Tokyo: Naigai Shuppan, 1922), 3.

¹⁰Ibid., 5–6.

¹¹Ibid., 449–51.

¹²Ibid.

¹³Ibid., 73.

¹⁴Wang Shuzhi (Suzue Gen'ichi), Son Bun den [A Biography of Sun Yat-sen] (Tokyo: Kaizosha, 1931), 13–14.

¹⁵Ibid.

¹⁶Ibid., 154.

¹⁷Ibid., 154.

¹⁸Ibid., 157–58.

¹⁹Nozawa Yutaka, Shingai Kakumei [The 1911 Revolution] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1972), 1–2.

²⁰Ibid.

²¹Ibid., 2–3.

²²Nozawa Yutaka, Son Bun to Chugoku Kakumei [Sun Yat-sen and the Chinese Revolution] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1966), 130. Also see his Shingai Kakumei, 187.

²³Nozawa Yutaka, Shingai Kakumei 4.

²⁴Yokoyama Suguru, ed., Shingai Kaumei kenkyu josetsu [An Introduction to the Research on the 1911 Revolution] (Hiroshima: Shin Rekishi Kenkyukai, 1977), 1.

²⁵Ibid., 2–3.

²⁶Ibid.

²⁷Ibid.

²⁸Ibid.

²⁹Ibid., 5, 39–83.

³⁰Ibid., 102.

³¹Ibid.

³²Ibid., 105.

³³Ichiko Chuzo, “Kyoshin to Shingai Kakumei” [The Gentry and the 1911 Revolution], in Kindai Chugoku no seiji to shakai [Modern Chinese Politics and Society] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1971), 332–38.

³⁴Ibid., 339.

³⁵Ibid., 351–53.

³⁶Ibid., 355–58.

³⁷Ibid., 359–60.

³⁸Tanaka Hiroshi, Kindai Chugoku no seiji togo to chi'iki shakai: Rikken, chiho jichi, chi'iki erito [Political Integration and Regional Societies in Modern China: Constitution, Local Autonomy, and the Regional Elite] (Tokyo: Kenbun Shuppan, 2010), 5–11.

³⁹Ibid.

⁴⁰Ibid., 311–14.

⁴¹Chiba Masashi, Kindai kotsu taikei to Shin teikoku no henbo: Denshin, tetsudo nettowaku no keisei to Chugoku kokka togo no hen'yo [Modern Communication Systems and the Transformation of the Qing Empire: The Making of the Telegraphic and Railway Systems and China's National Integration] (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Hyoronsha, 2006), 1–11.

⁴²Ibid.

⁴³Ibid., 381–84.

⁴⁴Ibid., 393–94.

⁴⁵Ibid., 394–97.

⁴⁶The author of this paper thinks that the 1911 Revolution was “the carving up of the dynastic state and the division of the spoils by the regional societies.” Please see Fukamachi Hideo, Jindai Guangdong de zhengdang, shehui, guojia: Zhongguo Guomindang ji qi dangguo tizhi de xingcheng guocheng [Party, Society and the State in Modern Guangdong: The Making of the Kuomintang and Its Party–State Regime] (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2003); Fukamachi Hideo, ed., Chuogoku seiji taisei 100 nen: Nani ga motomerarete kitanoka [A Hundred Years of the Chinese Political Regimes: What Has Been Pursued?] (Hachioji: Chuo University Press, 2009); and Fukamachi Hideo, ed. and trans., Son Bun kakumei bunshu [A Revolutionary Anthology of Sun Yat-sen] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2011).