The chaotic late Qing and early Republican periods
MIZOGUCHI Yūzō (Translated by Erik SCHICKETANZ)
ABSTRACTThis article excavates some of the core intellectual elements underlying the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and their historical genealogies. Rather than focusing on the modern nature of the revolution, Mizoguchi locates the revolution within the context of traditional Chinese culture and thought.A central focus of the article is the notion of “self-governance” (zizhi), which played a central role in determining the shape the revolution was to ultimately take. It analyzes the social thought of key figures of the Qing period, showing how in modified guise,core Confucian ethical concepts such as the dichotomy between the private (si) and public (gong) as well as utopian concepts such as datong (great harmony)determined the deep structure of revolutionary thought at the end of the Qing and into the Republican and Communist periods.
Keywords: Xinhai Revolution, provincial independence, self-governance, public (gong), private (si), mutual aid, the public good, well-field system, datong (great harmony), Confucian ethics (lijiao), feudalism (fengjian)
Note on the author
Mizoguchi Yūzō (1932–2010). Born in Nagoya.After studying Chinese literature in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo, Mizguchi went on to attend graduate school at Nagoya University, where he became a student of Iriya Yoshitaka. He specialized in Chinese intellectual history and taught at Saitama University, Hitotsubashi University, and The Univerity of Tokyo. He is the author of many books and articles. His representative works include 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 [Chinese intellectual history. 2007].
Note on the translator
Erik Schicketanz. Born in Aachen, Germany. After studying Japanese and Chinese studies at Cologne University and the University of London (SOAS), he received his doctoral degree in religious studies from The University of Tokyo in 2012. He specializes in modern Chinese and Japanese religious history and his monograph on the history of modern Sino-Japanese Buddhist contacts was recently published in Japan. Erik Schicketanz,堕落と復興の近代中国仏教—日本仏教との邂逅とその歴史像の構築[Between decline and revival–Historical Discourse and modern Chinese Buddhism’s encounter with Japan] (Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 2016).