UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Peace under Heaven: The (Re)Making of an Ideal World Order in Chinese Utopianism (1902-1911) Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hg4v470 Author Li, Guangyi Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Peace under Heaven: The (Re)Making of an Ideal World Order in Chinese Utopianism (1902-1911) A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures by Guangyi Li 2013 © Copyright by Guangyi Li 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Peace under Heaven: The (Re)Making of an Ideal World Order in Chinese Utopianism (1902-1911) by Guangyi Li Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Shu-Mei Shih, Chair This dissertation explores the visions of an ideal world order in Chinese utopianism at the turn of the twentieth century. Utopian works produced at this time are addressed both as literary texts and as thought experiments. Reflections about an ideal world order first arose in pre-Qin times in the concept of tianxia (All-under-Heaven). Over time, a whole set of institutions evolved around tianxia, which became the kernel of state ideology. Only in the late Qing period, when China encountered unprecedented crisis occasioned by its introduction to the modern world by Western and Japanese imperialism, did intellectuals significantly revive the utopian implications of tianxia. Among the concerns of late Qing utopians, prospects for the Chinese/yellow race, the potential of science and technology, and the critical role of morality are the most prominent in their consideration of an ideal world order. Driven by “obsession with ii China,” they were inclined to envision a new China that restored its power through moral, social, and political reforms as well as technological progress, then to go on to establish the Chinese/yellow race’s global hegemony. Interestingly and importantly, the imagined Sinocentric world order in these works features a tension between the desire to seek vengeance on the West and the hope to realize universal peace and prosperity. In some cases, the aim for universal peace, in the form of Pax Sinica, was actually complicit with Chinese global hegemony. However, there were also thoughtful proposals for a genuine universalism, such as Kang Youwei’s Book of Great Unity. As discursive attempts to transcend Western modernity characterized by nationalism, colonialism, and industrial capitalism, these utopian works provide important perspectives not only for understanding Chinese history since the late Qing but also for imagining the future of a rising China where the discourse of tianxia has regained its prominence. iii The dissertation of Guangyi Li is approved. David C. Schaberg Richard Strassberg Andrea S. Goldman Shu-Mei Shih, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES AND SCHEMES ......................................................................... vi VITA ............................................................................................................................ vii INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I TIANXIA: ORIGIN, TRANSFORMATION, AND REVIVAL ........... 30 CHAPTER II BLESSING IN PERIL: THE UTOPIAN IMAGINATIONS OF THE YELLOW RACE .................................................................. 75 CHAPTER III THE LORD OF ELECTRICITY FROM CHINA: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE VISIONS OF WORLD ORDER ............. 115 CHAPTER IV SALVATION AND BEYOND: THE PURSUIT OF NEW MORALITY ............................................ 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 178 v LIST OF FIGURES AND SCHEMES The wufu System in “Yu gong” ................................................................................... 36 Yellow Peril .................................................................................................................. 79 Feizhou qiongbei ........................................................................................................ 118 Electrical Bus ............................................................................................................. 127 Flight to Infinity ......................................................................................................... 131 The Political Matrix in New Stone ............................................................................. 170 vi VITA Born, Chongqing, China 2007-2013 Ph. D. student Department of Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles 2007 M.A. Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature Tsinghua University Beijing, China 2004 B.A. Chinese Literature Beijing University Beijing, China SELECTED PUBLICATIONS Li, Guangyi. “‘New Year’s Dream’: A Chinese Anarcho-cosmopolitan Utopia.” Utopian Studies 24.1 (2013): 89-104. ———. “Imagining China’s Revival: A Study of Lu Xun’s Science Fiction Translation When Studying in Japan” 幻興中華：魯迅留日時期科幻小說翻 譯研究. The Study of Chinese Language and Literature 漢語言文學研究 1.4 (2010): 88-93. ———. “Strangeness and Uncertainty: On Han Song’s Science Fiction” 詭異與不確 定性：韓松科幻小說評析. Contemporary Writers Review 當代作家評論 24.1 (2007): 102-106. vii SELECTED PRESENTATIONS Li, Guangyi. “Blessing in Peril: The Utopian Imaginations of the Yellow Race in Late Qing China.” Presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, San Diego, United States, March 2013. ———. “Kang Youwei and the Genesis of Modern Chinese Utopianism.” Presented at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies, State College, Pennsylvania, United States, October 2011. ———. “Through an Alloy Prism: Diverse Modernities in Chinese Science Fiction.” Presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, Honolulu, United States, March 2011. ———. “The Utopian Theme in Chinese Science Fiction.” Presented at the 2011 Eaton Science Fiction Conference, Riverside, United States, February 2011. ———. “‘New Year’s Dream’: A Chinese Cosmopolitan Utopia.” Presented at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Utopian Studies, Milwaukee, United States, October 2010. ———. “The Fading of Third-World Socialism and Sino-African Relationship.” Presented at the 6th International Conference of Asia Scholars, Daejeon, South Korea, August 2009. viii INTRODUCTION Envisioning an Ideal World in Transitional China Peace under Heaven explores the (re)construction of an ideal world order in Chinese utopianism over the last decade of the Qing dynasty in relation to three major issues of modernity—ethno/race-nation, science and technology, and morality—their utopian presentation, combination, and contradiction.1 Late Qing utopianism not only provided inspiring designs for domestic reform, but also raised daring challenges to the ruling hierarchy of the world system at the time. Its importance, while ignored for a long time, has now become evident as China restores its regional and global influence. Hereinafter I will first state the historical and practical significance of the ideal world order in late Qing thought, bringing forth major issues, main texts, and my analytical framework. The second section comments on how this project contributes to and is informed by the existing research in studies of the political theories and institutions of “All-under-Heaven” (tianxia studies), late Qing intellectual history, and utopian studies. Section three offers an overview of the four chapters of my 1 Here I try to clarify a few crucial notions pertinent to my research. Contemporary utopian studies has defined utopia as broadly as “the expression of the desire for a better way of being” and utopia as “social dreaming”. Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, London: Philip Allan, 1990, 8; Lyman Tower Sargent, “In Defense of Utopia,” Diogenes 53.1 (2006): 15. To be specific in my work, I am employing a rather traditional definition of utopia: “A narrative describing an ideal society with detailed account of its political institutions and social organization.” “Utopianism” includes both narrative and non-narrative materials relevant to an ideal society, thus allowing the latter to serve my analysis. In addition, “world order” means the political arrangement of the whole world. The basic unit of the world may be race, nation, state, commune, or even individual person, depending on the context. A cosmopolitan utopia is a utopia that depicts an ideal world order. Terms such as “cosmopolitan utopia,” “world utopia,” and “world ideal” are to be used interchangeably. For a full review of the evolution of the concept of utopia and derivative concepts, see Fátima Vieira, “The Concept of Utopia,” The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature, ed. Gregory Claeys, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010: 3-27. 1 dissertation. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that the significance of China’s economic, political, and military might in the 21st century has aroused world-wide curiosity about China’s ideas on the world order. Some acute observers have sensed that “a new worldview is emerging.”2 What is this new worldview? The Chinese authorities have been promoting the concept of a “peaceful rise,” while giving little clue as to how the future