The 1911 Revolution: a reassessment
MIZOGUCHI Yūzō (Translated by Joshua A. FOGEL)
ABSTRACT Why is the period from the Opium War through the Republican era in recent Chinese history treated by so many scholars of different stripes as a decline of China itself, rather than as a decline simply of the dynastic order? What is the nature of the Republican period? What role has the centralization and decentralization of power played through these years–and is it limited to the Republican period, or is it part of a much longer trend in Chinese history? Why have so many scholars fixated on the Opium War at the beginning of Chinese modernity? Mizoguchi asks these penetrating questions and makes telling comparisons with Japan over roughly the same period of time.
Keywords: 1911 Revolution, China, Japan, nationalism, centralization/decentralization of power
Note on the contributor
Mizoguchi Yūzō (1932–2010). Born in Nagoya, he studied in the literature department in Tokyo University and then went to graduate school in Nagoya University. He was a student of Iriya Yoshitaka, and hadlater taught at Saitama University, Hitotsubashi University and Tokyo University. He was also a Distinguished Professor at Tokyo University. He authored many books, including: 方法としての中国 [China as method. 1989], 中国の衝撃 [China’s impact. 2004], 中国思想史 [Intellectual history of China. 2007], among others.
Note on the translator
Joshua Fogel received his B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago (1972) and his Ph.D. from Columbia University (1980). He has taught at Harvard University and university of California, Santa Barbara. He spent 2001-2003 as the Visiting Mellon Professor in East Asian History at the Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton). He is now Canada Research Chair and Professor of history at York University in Toronto. His most recent book was: Maiden Voyage: The Senzaimaru and the Creation of Modern Sino-Japanese Relations (Univ. of California Press).