understanding of socialism, but it definitely treats anarchism as part of the rise of Chinese socialism and then of Marxism.86 The works outlined above represent considerable achievement, but the implicit teleological assumption of most of them—that Chi- nese thought culminates in Marxism—forces anarchism into a mod- Anarchism and Chinese ernizing role it actually did not fit. Nor, certainly, should the an- Political Culture archists be dismissed as millenarian dreamers. All true, but an- archism must also be understood as one of those usually under- ground streams that flow through all cultures.87 Emerging in the first decades of the twentieth century, anarchism provided anew Peter Zarrow and powerful language which intellectuals could use to understand better such modern and perennial phenomena as imperialism, class struggle, the nation-state, and the individual’s role in a shrinking world. One center of Chinese understanding of these issues lay in Tokyo. 86 See especially Bernal, “The Triumph of Anarchism over Marxism, 1906– 1907.” But in Tokyo the contest between Marxism (or, better, state socialism) and anarchism among Chinese was by no means as sharp as Bernal suggests. 87 More inner-directed approaches to the anarchists include Charlotte Furth, “Intellectual Change: From the Reform Movement to the May Fourth Movement, 1990 1895–1920.” See also Chang Hao, Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis, on Liu Shipei. 60 plays a modernizing role in backward societies. Anarchism also served to extend the scope of natural science in China and thereby provide a weapon for opposing fixed values. As Wu Zhihui pro- moted science, so Liu Shipei concretized the people as workers and tenant farmers. The reactionary qualities of Liu and Zhang Binglin (their antimodemism) are thus balanced in a sense by their pop- ulism.82 Of scholars writing in English, whereas Michael Gasster tended to marginalize the anarchists, understanding them as “discordant elements in the revolutionary movement,”83 Arif Dirlik focuses on the anarchist formulation of the problem of social revolution as “the distinctive anarchist contribution” to Chinese political discourse.84 Dirlik emphasizes that the anarchist rejection of the state led to a focus on society and cultural change and, in contrast to the older scholarly view, believes that anarchist influence was both broad and deep.85 Martin Bernal’s useful research attempts to determine why certain Chinese turned to anarchism precisely in 1907, and what this implied for their contemporary and future 82 Other, somewhat more in-depth studies of Liu and He Zhen include Ono- gawa Hidemi, “Ryu Shibai to museifushugi” (Liu Shipei and anarchism), pp. 695–720; Mori Tokihiko, “Minzokushugi to museifushugi—kokugaku kyoshi Ryu Shibai no kakumei ron” (Nationalism and anarchism—The revolutionary theory of the great national learning scholar, Liu Shipei), pp. 135— 184; Suetsugu Reiko, in “Shingai kakumei no fujin kaiho undo to Purotesu- tanto joshi kyoiku” (The movement for women’s liberation during the Revolution of 1911 and Protestant women’s education); and Bernal, “Liu Shih-p’ei and National Essence.” 83 Gasster, Chinese Intellectuals, p. 153. 84 Arif Dirlik, “Vision and Revolution: Anarchism in Chinese Revolutionary Thought on the Eve of the 1911 Revolution,” p. 123. See also his “The NewCulture Movement Revisited: Anarchism and the Idea of Social Revolution in New Cul- ture Thinking” and Arif Dirlik and Edward S. Krebs, “Socialism and Anarchism in Early Republican China.” 85 Nonetheless, Dirlik’s denial that traditional Chinese thought played a role in the formation of modern Chinese anarchism is not convincing; see Arif Dirlik, “Vision and Revolution,” pp. 155–158. He discusses the importance of anarchism to May Fourth thought in Arif Dirlik, The Origins of Chinese Communism. 59 Binglin, and even Hu Shi, as well as Wu Zhihui, Li Shizeng, Liu Shipei, and Liu Shifu.78 Guo considers mutual aid to have been influential second only to Darwinian evolution itself among intel- lectual systems imported from abroad before the May Fourth Move- ment. Contents A Japanese author, Tamagawa Nobuaki, has written the only full- length treatment of the Chinese anarchists.79 Tamagawa posits that anarchism had a wide if vague influence on overseas PREFACE. Apologia and Acknowledgments 7 students, who in turn played an important role in the Revolution of 1911 and beyond. He believes that anarchism formed an important CHAPTER I. Antecedents and Auguries of Anarchism strand of Chinese Marxism, and of Maoism in particular. In claim- in Traditional Chinese Thought 11 ing anarchist sympathies for Sun Yat-sen, however, he overstates ANARCHISM IN CHINESE THOUGHT . 19 his case. Tamagawa’s generalities tend to be excessively broad, THE BREAKDOWN OF IMPERIAL LEGITIMACY: and his exaggerated claims for anarchist influences (although an THE SETTING FOR ANARCHISM . 40 important corrective to earlier scholarship) give a teleological cast HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS . 54 to his discussion.80 CHAPTER 2. The Route to Anarchism Through Tokyo 61 In general, Japanese scholars see Chinese anarchism primarily THE EDUCATION OF LIU SHIPEI . 62 as a transitional stage to Marxism, but a stage crucial both to the ZHANG JI AND ZHANG BINGLIN . 84 antiimperialist struggle and to modernization.81 Early Chinese an- CHINESE AND JAPANESE RADICALS . 94 archism was superficially antibourgeois, but in effect it was funda- mentally tied to the bourgeois revolution in its support for individ- CHAPTER 3. The Route to Anarchism Through Paris 104 ual freedom and also its support for total equality: a notion that THE EDUCATION OF WU ZHIHUI . 105 78 Guo Zhanbo, Jindai Zhongguo sixiangshi (Intellectual history of modern THE GOLDEN BACKGROUNDS OF LI SHIZENG China), p. 3. AND ZHANG JINGJIANG: 79 Tamagawa Nobuaki, Chugoku no kuroi hata (The Chinese black flag) FOUNDING NEW CENTURY . 125 (Tokyo: Shobunsha, 1981). PARIS: CAPITAL FOR A NEW CENTURY . 132 80 In English, Robert A. Scalapino and George T. Yu coauthored a brief overview of the subject in 1961. At 81 pages, this is still the longest single English- language study of Chinese anarchism. It gives a good summary of the anarchists’ CHAPTER 4. Utopian Visions and Social Analysis 140 main arguments through about 1922, but neither author analyzes them nor ade- LIU SHIPEI AND THE UTOPIA OF EQUALITY . 141 quately traces their origins. The authors do not consider the tensions between WU ZHIHUI AND A FREE-AND-EASY UTOPIA . 161 differing impulses that permeated Chinese anarchism. 81 See inter alia Arita Kazuo, “Shinmatsu ni okeru anakizumu” (Anarchism CHAPTER 5. Revolution and Social Change 166 at the end of the Qing), Toho gaku no. 30 (July 1965), pp. 80–89; and Maruyama Matsuyuki, Chugoku kindai no kakumei shiso (Revolutionary thought in modern ANARCHISM AND THE CHINESE REVOLUTION . 167 China) (Tokyo: Kenben shuppan, Matsumoto shoten, 1982). CLASS STRUGGLE AND REVOLUTION . 177 58 3 ENLIGHTENMENT AND REVOLUTION . 188 influenced by anarchism. This indeed seems worth noting though it seldom is.75 CHAPTER 6. Women’s Liberation and Anarcho- Liu Shipei may be more easily classified as petty bourgeoisie, Feminism 212 though sympathetic to armed mass revolution:76 Wu Zhihui has WOMEN: DEPENDENCY AND LABOR . 213 received a good deal of attention, especially from scholars on Tai- CONFUCIANISM, FAMILY, AND SEXUALITY . 219 wan. However, this attention is remarkable for the extent to which LIBERATION AND ANARCHISM . 232 his anarchism is glossed over. A book dealing with his later career THE ANARCHIST CONTRIBUTION TO CHINESE might legitimately conclude (after consideration) that Wu’s anar- FEMINISM . 240 chism meant little after, say, 1920 (though this was not Wu’sown opinion). But discussion of his activities as a 1911 revolutionary CHAPTER 7. Culture and Nation 250 propagandist is bizarre without full treatment of his basic beliefs SCIENCE, HUMAN NATURE, AND MORALITY . 251 at that time—that is to say, anarchism.77 In considering this whole HISTORY AND NATION . 264 generation, the intellectual historian Guo Zhanbo has come to an WESTERN IMPERIALISM AND CHINESE NA- appreciation of the influence of anarchism on Cai Yuanpei, Zhang TIONALISM . 276 WU ZHIHUI VERSUS ZHANG BINGLIN . 290 75 From a more philosophical perspective, Tang Wenquan sees a shift in CHAPTER 8. Old Anarchists in a Brave New World 295 Zhang’s thought in 1907 toward a Daoist relativism and nihilism and a Bud- dhist subjective idealism—“Zhang Taiyan zai ‘Minbao’ shiqi de sixiang yanbian” SOCIAL ACTION IN A NEW CHINA . 298 (The changes in Zhang Binglin’s thought during his Minbao period), Huazhong MOVING TO THE RIGHT . 310 Shiyuan xuebao, Zhexue shehui kexue ban, no. 23 (1979 no. 4) pp. 67–76. See also Yang Zhijun, “Xinhai geming qianxi de Zhang Taiyan” (Zhang Taiyan on CHAPTER 9. The Second Generation of Chinese Anar- the eve of the Revolution of 1911), Xinhai gemingshi congkan (Beijing: Zhonghua chists 329 shuju, 1980), 2:37–47, who concludes that Zhang remained committed to the rev- olution but was a divisive force in the politically immature movement; and Kong LIU SHIFU AND THE CHINESE CONSCIENCE . 334 Fan, “Zhang Taiyan zai zhubian ‘Minbao’ shiqi de zhexue sixiang” (The philosoph- NEW CULTURE ANARCHISM . 343 ical thought of Zhang Binglin during his Minbao period), Zhexueyanjiu, 1978, no. MARXISM, CHINESE COMMUNISM, AND ANAR- 5, pp. 56–64. 76 CHISM . 351 See Wu Yannan, “Liu Shipei de wuzhangfu zhuyi” (The anarchism of Liu Shipei), Guizhou shehui kexue, no. 8 (1981 no. 5), pp. 5r—58.