A FEW NOTES ON THE BIRTH OF NATIONALISM IN CHINA

Author(s): J. Fass
Source: Cina, No. 8, ATTI DEL XV CONGRESSO INTERNAZIONALE DI SINOLOGIA (1964), pp.
28-31
Published by: Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente (IsIAO)
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40855348
Accessed: 06-10-2016 18:54 UTC

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 A FEW NOTES ON THE BIRTH
OF NATIONALISM IN CHINA

One of the important questions in the study

Chinese history is that of when did the Chinese b
of themselves as a nation, i.e. when did they f
theoretically and in practice with the status of th
in China itself and on the world forum of nation
begin to seek ways of elevating this status. The s
of the Chinese historical development caused thi
into existence at a relatively late moment and tha
opinion actually only in connection with the begin
gress of the bourgeois-democratic revolutionary
turning point from the 19th to the 20th century
of national self-awareness were then inseparable
directly brought to life hy the effort to achieve na
for the country ruled by two foreign reigns whic
was represented by the Manchu dynasty and on t
the imperialist powers influencing China's economic
with increasing intensity from the middle of the 19
The main credit for the formation of Chinese nationalism and
the gradual formulation of its principles belongs to the leader of the
Chinese revolutionary camp of that time, Sun Yat-sen, although a
significant role, in this respect, was played by other prominent par-
ticipants of the revolutionary movement as, for example, Chang
Ping-lin, Tsou Jung, Ch'en T'ien-hua etc., whose opinions substan-
tially influenced Sun Yat-sen's programme of the national revolution.
The formulation of this programme naturally has been a pro-
cess which lasted for several years. The first documents of the Hsing-
chung-hui (The Society for the Revival of China) contain mere
general statements on the long-lasting weakness of China caused by
the inability of her rulers and the thus resulting danger existing as

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 ATTI DEL XV CONGRESSO INTERNAZIONALE DI SINOLOGIA 29

a threat from foreign countries. The aim of the Society is proclaimed

as the « Revival of China and the maintenance of her prestige »
(see the Manifesto of the Hawaii branch of 1894) or as « Uniting
the Chinese at home and abroad and the study of the doctrine of
the enrichening and strengthening the state so that China is revived
and her prestige is maintained » (see the Manifesto of the Hongkong
branch of 1895).
The first wave of nationalism of a mass nature came along with
the flow of Chinese students abroad, especially to Japan, and along
with the opening of modern schools in China. The factors that
formed nationalistic feeling among these students were according to
my opinion the general and constantly increasing dissatisfaction of
the broad layers of Chinese citizens with the Manchu rule after 1900,
the confrontation of progressive Japan and the backwardness of
China, modern Western ideas with which the students became ac-
quainted mostly through Japan, the actual example of Japanese na-
tionalism and last, but not least, national discrimination which they
met in Japan. It is worth noting that the revolutionary ideas starting
among the young Chinese intelligentsia at that time were predomi-
nantly limited precisely to the national, i.e. anti-Manchu aspect which
also most effortlessly united so socially differentiated a group like
the students sent abroad.

The patriotic scholar Chang Ping-lin became the prominent ideo-

logical leader of this revolutionary minded intelligentsia. After his
break with the reform ideas in 1900 his main arguments concentrated
on the demand for the overthrowing of Manchu suppression by force
and the revival of the national sovereignty of the Chinese people.
He developed these ideas of this especially in the sharp polemic with
K'ang Yu-wei and his followers who were striving for the establish-
ment of a constitutional monarchy regime in China while maintain-
ing the rule of the Manchu dynasty.
Contrary to K'ang Yu-wei, Chang Ping-lin denied any blood
relations between the ancestors of the present-day Chinese and the
Manchus and he emphasized the national difference that had existed
between the Chinese and the Manchus at all times. Chang's signifi-
cant argument for the necessity of overthrowing the Manchu domi-
nation was also the aspect of the cultural superiority of the Chinese.
He simultaneously rejected K'ang's idea of « great unity » (ta-t'ung)
and « great peace » (t'ai-p'ing) at a time which according to him

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30 ATTI DEL XV CONGRESSO INTERNAZIONALE DI SINOLOGIA

was an era of nationalism, i.e. an era of the struggle of the oppressed

Chinese against the ruling Manchu nation. Proof of Chang's radical,
almost chauvinistic concept of nationalism, is his appeal to the Chi-
nese nation to hate not only the Manchu rulers but the entire Manchu
nation as well. From a theoretical point of view Chang Ping-lin
considered nationalism an inborn natural quality of every nation,
existing in latent form since the earliest times of mankind and cons-
tantly developing.
Sun Yat-sen's undeniable merit is that he formulated the ideas
and demands of early Chinese nationalism into a clear programme
of overthrowing the rule of the Manchu nation and of the revival
of the Chinese national state and - what is of even greater signi-
ficance - he inserted these ideas as an organic component into his
entire system of national, political and social-economic changes, which
in the form of the Three Principles became the aim of the revolu-
tionary movement after 1905. The principle of nationalism which
is based on the common belonging to one nation means - as Sun
then stated - not the discrimination of the members of other nations
but it means not to permit them to seize political power hat belongs
to the nation itself. Therefore, the aim of the national revolution
is the liquidation of the Manchu power and the revival of the na-
tional state of the Chinese, and not the wiping out of the Manchu
nation.

Sun Yat-sen's principle of nationalism did not at all presume,

in its first draft, the necessity of the struggle with imperialism for
the liberation of the country from the bonds of semi-colonial de-
pendence. Sun as well as a great majority of the other Chinese revo-
lutionaries of that time firmly believed that national liberation would
be totally achieved by the mere liquidation of the Manchu dynasty,
whose backwardness was considered the main or even the only reason
for the contemporary unequal international status of China. They
had not yet been aware of the true nature of imperialism and the
real basis of the relations between the powers and the Manchu dy-
nasty. Therefore, they strived for the sympathy and support of the
powers hoping that they would greet the future Chinese Republic
as an equal partner in the world family of nations. On the other
hand, it is however necessary to consider the strategic aspects which
did not permit the revolutionaries in their situation to antagonize

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 ATTI DEL XV CONGRESSO INTERNAZIONALE DI SINOLOGIA 31

the powers in any way, at least not at this stage of the national-
liberation movement.

Early Chinese nationalism, in spite of certain limitations, pri-

mitiveness and at times, in spite of its chauvinistic features, was
an explicitly progressive phenomenon in the conditions of the his-
torical development of China at that time because 1) its main con-
tent was not a policy of expansion but on the contrary the struggle
of an oppressed nation for national independence, 2) it was not
understood as a goal in itself but as a means which was to eliminate
obstacles standing in the way of political, economic and social pro-
gress of the country.

J. Fass
(Praha)

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