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Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture Anarchism and Chinese Political Culture Peter Zarrow 1990 Contents PREFACE. Apologia and Acknowledgments 4 CHAPTER I. Antecedents and Auguries of Anarchism in Traditional Chinese Thought 6 ANARCHISM IN CHINESE THOUGHT ........................ 10 THE BREAKDOWN OF IMPERIAL LEGITIMACY: THE SETTING FOR ANAR- CHISM ......................................... 21 HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ..................... 28 CHAPTER 2. The Route to Anarchism Through Tokyo 33 THE EDUCATION OF LIU SHIPEI ........................... 34 ZHANG JI AND ZHANG BINGLIN ........................... 45 CHINESE AND JAPANESE RADICALS ........................ 50 CHAPTER 3. The Route to Anarchism Through Paris 56 THE EDUCATION OF WU ZHIHUI .......................... 56 THE GOLDEN BACKGROUNDS OF LI SHIZENG AND ZHANG JINGJIANG: FOUNDING NEW CENTURY ............................ 67 PARIS: CAPITAL FOR A NEW CENTURY ...................... 71 CHAPTER 4. Utopian Visions and Social Analysis 75 LIU SHIPEI AND THE UTOPIA OF EQUALITY ................... 76 WU ZHIHUI AND A FREE-AND-EASY UTOPIA ................... 86 CHAPTER 5. Revolution and Social Change 89 ANARCHISM AND THE CHINESE REVOLUTION . 90 CLASS STRUGGLE AND REVOLUTION ........................ 95 ENLIGHTENMENT AND REVOLUTION . 100 CHAPTER 6. Women’s Liberation and Anarcho-Feminism 113 WOMEN: DEPENDENCY AND LABOR . 113 CONFUCIANISM, FAMILY, AND SEXUALITY . 117 LIBERATION AND ANARCHISM ............................ 123 THE ANARCHIST CONTRIBUTION TO CHINESE FEMINISM . 128 CHAPTER 7. Culture and Nation 133 SCIENCE, HUMAN NATURE, AND MORALITY . 133 HISTORY AND NATION ................................. 140 WESTERN IMPERIALISM AND CHINESE NATIONALISM . 146 2 WU ZHIHUI VERSUS ZHANG BINGLIN . 154 CHAPTER 8. Old Anarchists in a Brave New World 157 SOCIAL ACTION IN A NEW CHINA . 158 MOVING TO THE RIGHT ................................ 165 CHAPTER 9. The Second Generation of Chinese Anarchists 175 LIU SHIFU AND THE CHINESE CONSCIENCE . 177 NEW CULTURE ANARCHISM ............................. 182 MARXISM, CHINESE COMMUNISM, AND ANARCHISM . 187 ANARCHISM AND MAOISM .............................. 194 CHAPTER 10. The Sources and Significance of Chinese Anarchism 199 THE SPECIAL NATURE OF CHINESE ANARCHISM . 200 THE SOURCES AND TENSIONS OF CHINESE ANARCHISM . 202 TOKYO VERSUS PARIS .................................. 209 THE PLACE OF ANARCHISM IN CHINESE POLITICAL DISCOURSE . 210 Selected Bibliography 214 ABBREVIATIONS ..................................... 214 3 PREFACE. Apologia and Acknowledgments This monograph, like most first scholarly productions, is essentially a revised doctoral disserta- tion. Throughout the long years of graduate study and while I was putting this work intoitsfinal form, I was asked, a surprising number of times, whether I was myself an anarchist. So far as I know, few students of Maoism, or for that matter fascism, are asked whether they are adherents of the political philosophy they are studying. It could, of course, be something about my personal- ity that provoked the question, or it could have resulted from the belief among some sinologists and historians that anarchism was irrelevant to China and that therefore its students must be motivated by peculiar personal reasons. It is true that questions about the role of anarchism in modern Chinese history did not particularly suggest themselves from the standard sources; anar- chism does not appear high on the agenda of unsolved problems that graduate students commit to memory. On the other hand, it is my impression that many scholars understand anarchism to have had a notable if limited effect on the Chinese intelligentsia but believe that the subject hasbeen “done.” This view perhaps stems from an older notion of sinology: since the problems areso vast and scholarly resources so scarce, these resources must be carefully husbanded and multiple analyses of most problems are a wasteful duplication of effort. In fact, Chinese anarchism has not been “done”; to the extent that it has, I hope immodestly that this study can prove the once-over approach to sinology wrong. More to the point, sinology within the various standard disciplines— history, political science, sociology, anthropology—has reached such a level of sophistication that a genuine historiography has formed. Therefore secondary and tertiary analyses are not only desirable but necessary to the momentum of the discipline. Moreover, as there are countless (and valuable) studies of, say, Maoism, so the events since Mao’s death should have made obvious the importance of studying other strains of Chinese thought, radical as well as conservative. Indeed, if it sometimes appears that Chinese Marxism is itself unraveling, perhaps a study of anarchism can shed light on important possibilities that have been suppressed. It is my contention that the effects of anarchism on China have not been properly understood. Anarchists stood in the forefront of the radical intelligentsia at the beginning of this century, a century during which the impact of the radical intelligentsia has been unprecedented. The history of the Chinese revolution is not coterminous with the history of Chinese Marxism. I do not entirely understand what impelled me to devote nearly a decade of study to the Chi- nese anarchists. My worldview was strongly influenced by the peace movement during thewar in Vietnam. This introduced me to Marxism and also to a more generic kind of radical analysis. Although not an anarchist, I find anarchism attractive and some of its arguments compelling. Anarchism is not “dead”: certain members of each generation will grapple with the anarchist classics and so find their opinions on freedom better informed. Anarchism remains analter- native radical ideology, even in China. My interest in Chinese anarchism was provoked by its problematic relation to Marxism and also by its complex relation to Confucian political discourse. In terms of disciplinary problems, the study of Chinese anarchism provides an opportunity to 4 explore the historical continuity of traditional thought (that is, even in radical and iconoclastic vessels) and contemporary issues of the contexts of Chinese political culture. In more general terms, it would appear undeniable that civilized people want, on the one hand, to be dominated and lied to (and to dominate and lie in turn). But, on the other hand, they seek and indeed yearn for freedom (and for a life among free people). Like the rest of the world, so is China. In the breakdown of the old order in China, anarchism came to represent this yearning for political, economic, social, and cultural freedom. For their careful readings of various versions of this manuscript, helpful suggestions, and en- couragement, I owe great thanks to many people. First, to my dissertation adviser, Professor William Theodore de Bary, and also to Professors Andrew J. Nathan and Madeleine Zelin, allof Columbia University and all remarkably patient, interested, critical, helpful, and wise. For critical and helpful comments I would like to thank my fellow graduate students there, Richard Lufrano and Anne Osborne, and also David Shillieto. For hours of patient help and illuminating guidance with often difficult texts, Professor Pei-yi Wu has my gratitude. Arif Dirlik, Paul Avrich, Diane Scherer and Marilyn Levine have all given advice, aid, and encouragement. Marianne Bastid sent me some of her work on Li Shizeng. Joshua A. Fogel gave the manuscript a meticulous read- ing and was especially helpful on Japanese sources. My friend Armando de Sousa reminded me from time to time that in the real world fences need mending and goats milking, and I am grateful. In graduate school I received support from the Herbert H. Lehman fellowship program of New York State, from the Whiting Foundation, and from Columbia University, and I am obliged to the respective authorities. Faults of commission and omission remain my responsibility, Chapter 1 discusses a number of background issues, including anarchist antecedents in tradi- tional Chinese thought and the political and intellectual confusion of the late Qing, I begin my examination of Chinese anarchism with a discussion of the background of the two early anarchist schools (chapters 2 and 3), centered in Tokyo and Paris. Chapters 4 through 7 explore the main themes of Chinese anarchism: utopianism, revolutionary theory, feminism, and culture and na- tion. These four chapters provide, I hope, a sense of what the anarchists stood for in the context of revolutionary change in China and how anarchism worked as political philosophy. This is followed by an attempt to understand the role that the anarchists played in the Revolution of 1911 and an account of the later careers of the early anarchists in the republic, as they edged away from anarchism (chapter 8). Finally, I briefly examine anarchism in the 1910s and 1920s, when its direct influence was most noticeable, and glance at the relation between anarchism and Maoism (chapter 9). Chapter 10 reviews the question of the sources of Chinese anarchism and provides a short summary of my conclusions. 5 CHAPTER I. Antecedents and Auguries of Anarchism in Traditional Chinese Thought Anarchists have been spoken of so much lately that part of the public has at last taken to reading and discussing our doctrines. Sometimes men have even given themselves the trouble to reflect, and at the present time we have at least gained the admission that anarchists have an ideal. Their ideal is even found too beautiful, too lofty for a society not composed
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