The Anarchist Library (Mirror) Anti-Copyright Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s Gotelind Müller and Gregor Benton Gotelind Müller and Gregor Benton Esperanto and Chinese anarchism in the 1920s and 1930s 2006 Retrieved on 22nd April 2021 from archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de usa.anarchistlibraries.net 2006 Zhou Enlai Zhou Zuoren Ziyou shudian Contents Introduction ..................... 5 Xuehui and Erošenko ................ 7 Anarchism and Esperanto in the late 1920s . 16 Anarchism and Esperanto in China in the 1930s 17 Conclusions ...................... 21 Bibliography ..................... 23 Glossary ........................ 25 30 3 “Wang xiangcun qu” wanguo xinyu “Wanguo xinyu”“Wo de shehui geming de yi- jian” Wu Jingheng (= Wu Zhihui) Wu Zhihui Wuxu Wuzhengfu gongchan zhuyi she “Xiandai xiju yishu zai Zhongguo de jianzhi” Xianmin Xin qingnian Xin she Xin shiji “Xinyu wenti zhi zada” Xing Xiwangzhe Xuantian Xuehui Xu Anzhen “Xu ‘Haogu zhi chengjian’” Xu Lunbo “Xu Lunbo xiansheng” “Xu ‘Pi miu’” Xu Shanguang / Liu Jianping / Xu Shanshu “Xu wanguo xinyu zhi jinbu” “Xu xinyu wenti zhi zada” Yamaga Taiji Ye Laishi Yuan Shikai “Zenyang xuanchuan zhuyi” Zhang Binglin Zhang Jiang (= Zhang Binglin) Zhang Jingjiang Zhang Qicheng Zheng Bi’an Zheng Chaolin Zheng Peigang Zheng Taipu “Zhishi jieji de shiming” “Zhongguo gudai wuzhengfuzhuyi chao zhi yipie” Zhongguo puluo shijieyuzhe lianmeng Zhongguo wuzhengfuzhuyi he Zhongguo shehuidang 29 Min Esperanto in China and among the Chinese diaspora was for Minbao long periods closely linked with anarchism. This article looks Ming Minguo ribao at the history of the Chinese Esperanto movement after the Minsheng repatriation of anarchism to China in the 1910s. It examines Minshengshe jishilu Esperanto’s political connections in the Chinese setting and Miyamoto Masao the arguments used by its supporters to promote the language. Mo Jipeng Mukai Kō In exploring the role played by Esperanto in interwar Chinese Ōshima Yoshio / Miyamoto Masao / culture and politics, it helps to throw light on the complex re- Ōsugi Sakae lationship between language and politics in China in the first Ou Shengbai half of the twentieth century. “Pi miu” Keywords: Esperanto, anarchism, communism, China, lan- pingmin guage politics, language reform Pingmin zhi sheng Qian Xuantong Qianxing Introduction Ran Ranliao Socialists and anarchists saw at around the turn of the twen- Rendao zhoubao Sakai Hirobumi tieth century saw the international language Esperanto as a Sanbo Shanghai Mujun perfect vehicle for the world revolution to which they aspired. Shehuizhuyi jiangxihui It also won strong support among internationally minded Chi- Sheng Guocheng nese. Leading Chinese radicals outside China – primarily an- Shifu archists in France and Japan – embraced the Esperanto cause Shijie and strove to establish the language in China. In later years, Shijieyu Esperanto also won a following among Chinese communists “Shijieyu de guoji diweiguan” and other radicals. “Shijieyu wenti”“Shijieyu zhuyi de yuanli” Esperanto is a planned universalist language developed in Shimada Kyōko the late nineteenth century by L. L. Zamenhof for use as a “Shu ‘Bo Zhongguo yong wanguo xinyu shuo hou’” global second language. It was intended by its author as a Shuowen jiezi remedy for problems of miscommunication and social conflict. Sugelanjun Sun Guozhang In the structure of Esperanto, Zamenhof strove towards max- Taiyan (= Zhang Binglin) imum simplicity. In the late nineteenth century, Esperanto Tao Menghe started to take off as a cultural and political movement. To- “Taosidaojun zhi jingjiaoshi shu” day, it has supporters throughout the world, more than 100,000 Tasogare nikki speakers, and more than one hundred periodicals. Tianyi Tone Kōichi 28 5 As we explained in an earlier article (Müller & Benton “Guoyu gaizao de yijian” 2006), iIn early twentieth century, the history of Esperanto Hanyu Pinyin was strongly linked with Chinese anarchism in Tokyo and “Hanzi tongyihui zhi huanglou” Paris. Throughout the early period, the Chinese Esperanto hao movement retained a robust connection with anarchism, Hasegawa Teru both in Chinese political communities overseas and in China Hatsushiba Takemi itself. This relationship was less developed in the West, where Hazama Naoki few anarchists were as interested in language issues as their He Zhen East Asian counterparts. This contrast points up important Heimin shinbun differences in cultural sensibilities. It must also be seenin Hengbao Hou Zhiping the context of the historical setting in which anarchism was Hu Shi introduced to China — who developed an interest in it and Hu Yuzhi why. Hua Nangui Chinese anarchists in Tokyo and Paris frequently published Huang Lingshuang material in Esperanto as part of their campaign for world citi- Huang Zunsheng zenship. Around 1915, reform-minded scholars in China itself Huaxing started to assert a new role for themselves as critics of Con- Huiming lu fucianism and champions of new-style values, including sci- “Ji wanguo xinyu hui” ence and democracy. They attacked the Chinese writing sys- Jiang Kanghu Jing Meijiu tem and the use of classical Chinese and called for a literary Jingzhe revolution and the promotion of the vernacular, known as bai- Juewu hua. The educational debate and experiments in new styles of Katayama Sen learning and living associated with this movement, known as Laodong the New Culture Movement, made anarchism more acceptable Latinxua Sin Wenz (Ladinghua xin wenzi) in China, and helped it spread and diversify. As a result of the Li Shizeng sudden popularity of anarchism in China itself, the anarchist Liang Bingxian interest in Esperanto was quickly imported into the New Cul- Lingshuang s. Huang Lingshuang ture Movement and became a topic of intense debate in Xin Liu Shenshu xiansheng yishu Liu Shipei qingnian (New youth), the movement’s most influential forum. Lu Jianbo However, the Esperanto debate in Xin qingnian ended in Febru- Lu Shikai ary 1919, when Chinese disappointment at the detrimental out- Lu Xun come of the Versailles peace treaty for China’s national interest Lu Xun yiwenji led to a cooling of internationalist sentiment and a rising tide Lüguang of political revolution. Now, the discussion about language re- “Lun Esperanto” Esperanto form gave way to broader social, political, and philosophical “Lun Zhongtu wenzi you yi yu shijie” 6 27 1932 shijieyu niankan issues. Even so, interest in the language revived in the early Ailuoxianke 1920s, when anarchist organisations began to form in several Aishiyu of the main Chinese cities. “Aishiyu shiming” aisibunandu Xuehui and Erošenko Akita Ujaku Ba Jin Numerous anarchist groups developed in China after 1919. Ba Jin nianpu The most important centres of anarchist activity were Beijing, Banyue Shanghai, and Guangzhou.1 Central to these developments Beijing daxue rikan “Bianzao Zhongguo xinyu was the journalist Jing Meijiu, who had earlier been affiliated fanli” to the Tianyi group formed by Liu Shipei in Tokyo, and named after Liu’s journal Tianyi (Natural justice). Jing Meijiu was Bingxian (= Liang Bingxian) the sole personal link between the early and later anarchist “Bo Zhongguo yong wanguo xinyu shuo” organisations. In Beijing, starting in the autumn of 1922, “Bujiu Zhongguo wenzi zhi fangfa ruo he?” Jing created a broader audience for anarchist thought by Cai Yuanpei publishing Xuehui (Collected learning), a supplement to the Chenbao fujuan daily newspaper Guofeng ribao (National customs). Xuehui Chen Duxiu was not purely anarchist, but it carried numerous translations Chu Minyi and articles by anarchist authors.2 Many were taken from Daji other publications, so Xuehui was more a transmitter than datong an innovator. Its non-Chinese authors included Kropotkin, Dongfang zazhi Ōsugi, and Tolstoy, and it also published Eltzbacher’s outline “Esperanto cili tongshi zongxu” Esperanto of anarchism. But though many of the translations were not “Esperanto shiming” ESPERANTO new, they now reached a far wider circle. The supplement “Feichu hanwen yi” tended to look to China’s own anarchist traditions, a concept Feng Shengsan elastic enough to include Laozi and Zhuangzi.3 Several authors Fujii Shōzō argued that China was cut out for anarchism, and writers Fukang like Zheng Taipu and Jing Meijiu specifically recommended Ge Maochun / Jiang Jun / Li Xingzhi // sinicising it. Some suggested a New Village strategy, an idea Geming zhoubao “Gongzuo de taidu” 1 Lu Zhe 1990 reviews anarchism studies (pp. 250–261). See also Xu Shanguang and Liu Jianping 1989:142–153. Gu Weijun 2 “Gui Xin shij” It appeared more than 500 times. See Li-Pei-Kan 1926:26. 3 Wuxu, “Zhongguo gudai wuzhengfuzhuyi chao zhi yipie” (A brief Guocui xuebao Guofeng ribao look at anarchist currents in old China), Xuehui 138–139 (March 14 and 15, “Guojiyu de lixiang yu xianshi” 1923). 26 7 borrowed from Japan, where anarchists and others started Riedlinger, S. H. 1989. Likbez. Alphabetisierung bei den sow- experimenting in the late 1910s with communal forms of rural jetischen Dunganen seit 1927 und ihr Zusammenhang mit den living. Mixing with the rural population like the Narodniks Latinisierungsbestrebungen in China. Bochum. and building organisations from the bottom up was thought to Sakai Hirobumi and Saga Takashi, eds. 1994. Genten chūgoku embody an essentially Chinese style.4 Indeed, such ideas were anakizumu shiryō